[randomwalker]

In the academic world, the semantic web is pretty much taken for granted. Curiously, it appears that people in the real world have been saying for so long that the semantic web will never happen that they have failed to notice that has already happened!

Look at this diagram: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Linking-Open-Data-diagram_... All these datasets have already been interlinked and are available for you to use. This is the linked open data approach (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linked_Data) The opposite approach is to use data from a single already-interlinked source through an unified API, exemplified by Freebase (http://freebase.com), which is more straightforward but perhaps offers less control. I've found these resources invaluable in more than one project that I'm working on, and every hacker should at least keep abreast of what is available so that you can use it if you need to.

[aristus]

You've linked to a PNG file and said "see! semantic web!"

I tried to dig into it, looking for some data and to see what you are talking about, and I finally find a piece of RDF, real semantic web stuff: http://dbtune.org:3030/sparql/?query=describe%20%3Chttp://db...

Um, ok. Now what? This is short XML file containing links, half of which are dead. The biggest problems with SW is that no one agreed on the labels, inputs and outputs, and that there are no mechanisms for data preservation or trust.

How have those been solved now?

(edit) I'm not hating on the idea, btw. It just doesn't seem to be a technological problem. It's a social one. The second you find a way to get people to structure their data for fun & profit, the SW will blossom. And then it will be spammed. And then someone will find a way to index it and filter out the spam, and by then it will be something good, but quite different from what was intended.

I am genuinely curious to know what has changed in the last few years that academics now take SW for granted.

[MaysonL]

Fluidinfo seems to have an interesting handle on the problem.

[aristus]

Can you elaborate? All I see is that I have to listen to Robert Scoble talk for an hour about it, and a blog post explaining that it takes an hour to explain it.

[neilc]

In the academic world, the semantic web is pretty much taken for granted.

This is absolutely not the case. Among the Semantic Web community, the SW might be taken for granted (to some extent), but among the wider CS community, there is a lot of scepticism about whether the SW is feasible. Most of the people I know in the academic database research community dismiss the Semantic Web, for example.

[russell]

I'm a skeptic. I don't believe in the idea that everyone will do their little piece and sometime this magical thing will emerge. Deriving benefit depends on the use of logic, but the web is an illogical mess. The semantic web doesn't scratch any itch that I have. Sure I would like something better than Google to bring my info to me. Right now I am finding the collective smartness to be more relevant than the semantic web. It will have some local success like Linda or Corba, but in the end something else will be the next great answer.