Real code is important

Real code is important.

Dave Winer says that the Semantic Web is overhyped. I'd say it's worse than that. The whole metadata movement is overhyped. Folks are always trying to get me to type in some metadata. Look at Microsoft Office from a few years ago. It tried to get me to enter in more information so that it'd be easier to search for documents.

Problem is, I've never used those features. Past behavior is a good predictor of future behavior, so I doubt I'll ever enter metadata for anything.

So, the semantic web is dead on delivery for me. Hell, I had a tough enough time trying to convince past employers to use meta tags. Ain't gonna happen.

Now, can someone release a pre-processor that'll add good meta data before you post? That's a more interesting idea. Imagine if Google put something on your machine that made it even easier to become part of Google's index (and made Google's index even better).

I'd love to be convinced why I'm wrong.  [The Scobleizer Weblog]

LiveTopics is a simple “pre-processor” which works for me.  The thing about all this “hype” is that CERTAIN PEOPLE just don't understand that OTHER PEOPLE wanna do things THEIR way.  Whether you call it the semantic web, agents, topics or smart software – this train is leaving the station.

Over the next 2 years – some real-world examples will appear which will put to rest – forever – any complaints over the 'semantic web'.  I've been trolling the lists, trying to listen and understand the ideas and efforts going on.  Many brilliant people say lots of things, but it takes real code – like k-collector – to get over the hype.

The W3C is on a road show, standards efforts are needed and despite lots of negative energy being thrown at them – I think these RDF folks are in it for the long haul.  [Marc's Voice]

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