[Sigia-l] FW: Understanding Business Impacts of Web Systems Prototypes

[Listera]

"Eric Scheid" wrote:

> So, could you give that paper a butcher's and supply a precis to the list.
> You'll probably (with your experience) see something a casual reader might
> miss.

I spare my butcher's knife for a select few :-) so just a few notes on that
article:

Re: Semantic Web
I'm not enamored of the term. As you might be able to tell :-) I view
self-described data with suspicion. The history of regulated industries
remains a continuing lesson: economic interests usually lead to corruption.

Re: GeoURL
The Internet's DNS brought us a degree of abstraction from geography behind
a simple numbering scheme. Newer infrastructures like Instant Messaging
further abstract that to a truly portable handle. GeoURL is a step in the
opposite direction. Latitude and longitude are static, web info/data seem to
be always in flux, defying time and space. So for general use I don't know
what applications are feasible for GeoURL, which is very much open to
gaming, BTW.

Re: SMBmeta.org
(I have never seen a License/Terms & Conditions statement that was in an
*editable* text field before! Is that an invitation to alter it to your own
satisfaction? :-) Their forms don't work with Safari, so I'll pass.

Re: SMBmeta
SMBs are notoriously uninterested in and clumsy with technology, filling in
online forms accurately is not something they excel at. Maybe better future
on wireless gadgets?

Re: Dublin Core
So why do you think it still lives in perfect obscurity?

Re: RDF
Reality Distortion Field? :-)

Look, I have nothing against "self-describing" metadata schemes. I'm an
advocate of machine-to-machine communication. I love XML and I have written
XML-like data exchange systems long before it was invented. The critical
thing about such schemes is not how clever the specs are but *adoption* on a
mass scale, without which their utility is severely limited.

The obscene proliferation of XML related specs/variants, and the current
miasma over RSS/echo are but two examples of spec wars, however
clever/interesting/capable they may each be. In the end, it all comes down
to adoption and those are often controlled by a few toll-takers.

Ziya
Nullius in Verba