Tim Berners-Lee Explains the Semantic Web
World Wide Web Consortium director and hypertext pioneer Tim Berners-Lee offers his own take on where the web is headed in an interview with IDG’s Peter Moon.
The two discuss a wide range of topics in the interview, but when asked to define "the semantic web," Berners-Lee offers this explanation:
The Semantic Web is about putting data files on the Web. It’s not just a Web of documents but also of data. The Semantic Web of data would have many applications to connect together. For the first time there is a common data format for all applications, for databases and Web pages.
That’s a nice, tidy explanation that hits the mark, but I’m also curious about what specific role Berners-Lee sees microformats playing in the future of the semantic web. We already know he’s "very excited" about them, so what are the ways we can get more people using them?
The first big step in data standardization that Berners-Lee is proposing has already been taken with the creation of microformats. These nuggets of information embedded in web pages can be passed to other applications, both desktop and web-based, both public and private.
A good place to being using microformats is Michael Kaply’s Operator extension for Firefox. Download it and use the toolbar to add people’s contact info to your address book, add dates to calendars, and so on. You’ll be amazed at how much is already out there — Ben West of Alexa has counted hundreds of millions of pieces of microformatted data on the web already.
You can also follow the development of these tiny tags at microformats.org.
