More Cities Set Up Wireless Networks. Long Beach, Calif., is one of a growing number of cities and community groups that are considering free wireless Internet access. By John Markoff. [New York Times: Technology]
Month: January 2003
Which gets me to the subject of the Semantic Web. The Semantic Web is about people, and specifically about making people's voices clearly audible and indelible:
- Audible – There are six billion of us on the planet. Some people would have you believe that you should never ask any of us for advice, because we lie. But today I can't even hear your lies. The Internet has made it immensely easier to connect with expertise from other humans who want to share it, but we are still largely shackled by cultural, geographic, social, and technological constraints limiting who we can consult for advice. Today I get most of my lies from whichever barbarians have clawed their way to the top of the local and national media outlets. But sometimes when I see an advertisement for an interesting new product, I want to be able to pick up my remote control and click on “connect me to five people who hate the product and ask them why”. I am sure that there are at least five people who want to give me a perspective different from the one being broadcast, so why can I not hear their voices?
- Indelible – Few people think about the noble role that librarians play. Our ability to collect, organize, and preserve the voices and observations of those who came before us is critical to our continued survival as a species. The story of Babel is a metaphor for what later happened at Alexandria; a reminder that we all suffer when we lose our ability to pass lessons to future generations. It is possible for a single person to memorize the Quran and pass it on to others, but word-of-mouth is not enough to perpetuate the bulk of knowledge that enables the planet to support six billion people today. Without written language and our knowledge stewards, we would have to eliminate many billions of people, because we wouldn't be able to maintain the capabilities that support them all. Again, the Internet has had a profound impact on our ability to preserve our collective memory, but we are still very fragile. A true librarian has vivid memories of Babel and Alexandria (when we also considered ourselves invincible), and lives the motto “never again!”. The first lesson of history (that we must learn and never repeat) is that history lost is humanity lost.
The key point here is that the web, and especially the semantic web is about capturing and communicating human knowledge. For people who have trouble understanding that “knowledge” is a truth-neutral word, it is fine to say that the semantic web is about capturing and communicating human voices. The web v1.0 was great, but still has many problems. (For example, you would think that the web would do a good job of documenting the history of the web, but the feedback loop created by copy/paste historians virtually erased Eric Bina from the history of the web initially, while elevating Marc Andresson to status of a god.) Most of the web's ability to filter voices is still based on information extraction from raw, unstructured text. Innovations like weblogs have made it easier for normal people to communicate their voices to the world, and people continue to simultaneously evolve the web's ability to filter voices, as demonstrated by Mark Pilgrim's cool use of cite with trackback. So it is obvious to me that the current web is evolving to become more semantic anyway. In fact, I would argue that people like Dave Winer (who overtly disparages certain semantic web technologies while producing code that gives people voice) have done more to advance the semantic web (the web of renmin voice) than many of the semantic web advocates.
RDF is often a whipping-boy, but a red-herring in this discussion. To know why, you need to understand that RDF is simply a syntax for exchanging knowledge representations, and not even a particularly ambitious or cutting-edge syntax. When you want to represent the quantity “five”, you can use Roman numerals, Arabic numerals, or some other symbolism. When you want to represent the statement “the author of http://www.netcrucible.com/blog/
Which gets me to the subject of the Semantic Web. The Semantic Web is about people, and specifically about making people's voices clearly audible and indelible: Audible – There are six billion of us on the planet. Some people would have you believe that you should never ask any of us for advice, because we… Continue reading
Which gets me to the subject of the Semantic Web. The Semantic Web is about people, and specifically about making people's voices clearly audible and indelible:
- Audible – There are six billion of us on the planet. Some people would have you believe that you should never ask any of us for advice, because we lie. But today I can't even hear your lies. The Internet has made it immensely easier to connect with expertise from other humans who want to share it, but we are still largely shackled by cultural, geographic, social, and technological constraints limiting who we can consult for advice. Today I get most of my lies from whichever barbarians have clawed their way to the top of the local and national media outlets. But sometimes when I see an advertisement for an interesting new product, I want to be able to pick up my remote control and click on “connect me to five people who hate the product and ask them why”. I am sure that there are at least five people who want to give me a perspective different from the one being broadcast, so why can I not hear their voices?
- Indelible – Few people think about the noble role that librarians play. Our ability to collect, organize, and preserve the voices and observations of those who came before us is critical to our continued survival as a species. The story of Babel is a metaphor for what later happened at Alexandria; a reminder that we all suffer when we lose our ability to pass lessons to future generations. It is possible for a single person to memorize the Quran and pass it on to others, but word-of-mouth is not enough to perpetuate the bulk of knowledge that enables the planet to support six billion people today. Without written language and our knowledge stewards, we would have to eliminate many billions of people, because we wouldn't be able to maintain the capabilities that support them all. Again, the Internet has had a profound impact on our ability to preserve our collective memory, but we are still very fragile. A true librarian has vivid memories of Babel and Alexandria (when we also considered ourselves invincible), and lives the motto “never again!”. The first lesson of history (that we must learn and never repeat) is that history lost is humanity lost.
The key point here is that the web, and especially the semantic web is about capturing and communicating human knowledge. For people who have trouble understanding that “knowledge” is a truth-neutral word, it is fine to say that the semantic web is about capturing and communicating human voices. The web v1.0 was great, but still has many problems. (For example, you would think that the web would do a good job of documenting the history of the web, but the feedback loop created by copy/paste historians virtually erased Eric Bina from the history of the web initially, while elevating Marc Andresson to status of a god.) Most of the web's ability to filter voices is still based on information extraction from raw, unstructured text. Innovations like weblogs have made it easier for normal people to communicate their voices to the world, and people continue to simultaneously evolve the web's ability to filter voices, as demonstrated by Mark Pilgrim's cool use of cite with trackback. So it is obvious to me that the current web is evolving to become more semantic anyway. In fact, I would argue that people like Dave Winer (who overtly disparages certain semantic web technologies while producing code that gives people voice) have done more to advance the semantic web (the web of renmin voice) than many of the semantic web advocates.
RDF is often a whipping-boy, but a red-herring in this discussion. To know why, you need to understand that RDF is simply a syntax for exchanging knowledge representations, and not even a particularly ambitious or cutting-edge syntax. When you want to represent the quantity “five”, you can use Roman numerals, Arabic numerals, or some other symbolism. When you want to represent the statement “the author of http://www.netcrucible.com/blog/
Urban (Wireless) Renewal
Urban (Wireless) Renewal. The city of Long Beach, Calif., plans to announce on Friday that it will make free wireless Internet access available in its downtown area as part of an effort to attract visitors and companies to the business district. The city will use the increasingly popular standard known as Wi-Fi, which lets personal… Continue reading Urban (Wireless) Renewal
Cooperation, Reputation, and Web Services: The Disruptive Web
Cooperation, Reputation, and Web Services: The Disruptive Web. I knew that manually copying the ISBN from one browser to another wouldn't satisfy most people. But I blogged that solution anyway because it was an interesting partial result that would provoke the blog hive mind to suggest how to take the next step. And it promptly… Continue reading Cooperation, Reputation, and Web Services: The Disruptive Web
The Free Issue of PHP Architect is out
The Free Issue of PHP Architect is out. The PDF magazine php|architect is a monthly magazine dedicated to PHP Professionals. You need to register to download a copy. I just downloaded my copy and after skimming through the pages I must say it's definitely going to be a good read. PS: One of the articles… Continue reading The Free Issue of PHP Architect is out
Mac announcements:
Mac announcements: ColdFusion MX Developers Edition is also available for Mac OS X machines. This includes the core ColdFusion functionality, suitable for single-machine testing of work. It does not include testing and proofing for high-performance deployment — can't use it to serve a website — but if JRun sells well into this platform then that's… Continue reading Mac announcements:
Peter Drayton
Courtesy of Peter Drayton, I found out about this: Remote Desktop Connection Client for Mac allows you to connect to a Windows-based computer and work with programs and files on that computer from your Macintosh computer. This should improve things greatly once I get it config'ed on the XP boxen.] * [Archipelago]
Round-Up
Round-Up. As you can probably tell, I'm busy with home, holidays, and family, but here are a couple of interesting links from the current Lost Remote. THE GROWING OUCH IN YOUR CABLE BILLYes cable penetration is up –but only slightly– but the bill for that service is up and not just slightly. The latest from the… Continue reading Round-Up
Disney Pulls Products, Claims Losses Are Due to Piracy
Disney Pulls Products, Claims Losses Are Due to Piracy. What is the point of this? Why would any company deliberately take their popular products OFF the market? Who was the genius that thought this up? And who is the genius that thinks it's still a good idea? Does anybody really think they won't be available… Continue reading Disney Pulls Products, Claims Losses Are Due to Piracy
Get Paid to Write about Zope!
Get Paid to Write about Zope!. ZopeMag, the only Magazine devoted exclusively to Zope, is looking for freelance writers. Get Paid to Write about Zope! [Zope.org]