Entrevista a Tim Berners-Lee: Web 2.0, Web 3.0, Web Semántica

The future of the Web as seen by its creator
IDG Now 07/09/2007

Peter Moon, IDG Now

According to Webster’s Online Dictionary semantic means «the relationships between symbols and what they represent.» Tim Berners-Lee, the man who invented the World Wide Web in 1989 at CERN, the European Particle Physics Laboratory in Geneva, has used the term to christen the Internet of the future

The Semantic Web is a set of technologies he’s developing right now as director of the World Wide Web Consortium, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Born in London in 1955, Berners-Lee was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 2004. In this exclusive interview, he explains his vision of the future Semantic Web, which he says will be much more powerful than anything we have seen before.

IDG: My first question is the most obvious one: Can you explain in simple terms what the Semantic Web is?

Berners-Lee: I have often been asked about that. And the simple thing to point out is: in your computer you have your files, your documents that you can read, and there are data files which are used in applications, data files like calendars, bank systems, spreadsheets. These contain data which is used in documents that are out of the Web. They can’t be put on the Web.

So, for example, if you are looking at a Web page, you find a talk that you want to take, an event that you want to go to. The event has a place and has a time and it has some people associated with it. But you have to read the Web page and separately open your calendar to put the information on it. And if you want to find the page on the Web you have to type the address again until the page turns back. If you want the corporate details about people, you have to cut and paste the information from a Web page into your address book, because your address book file and your original data files are not integrated together. And they are not integrated with the data on the Web. So the Semantic Web is about data integration.(leer más…)

Fuente: [it-world]

Bambino, payaso y web colectiva: Lanzamiento e-book web 2.0

Bueno aquí traemos el anuncio por parte de e-rgonomic,

Nombre: Cristóbal Cobo Lugar: DF, Mexico:Profesor. Director de Comunicación y Nuevas Tecnologías, FLACSO-México. Doctor en Ciencias de la Comunicación (U.Autónoma de Barcelona)

y de Hugo Pardo Kuklinsky de Digitalismo de un nuevo libro sobre la famosa web 2.0. Estamos esperando ansiosamente…pero digo yo…lo de esperar al 10 de Septiembre es campaña publicitaria…o algo así?. En fin, la crítica vendrá después de la lectura, lógicamente… y aunque ya en este blog hemos abandonado el concepto de web 2.0 por gratuito, lineal, progresivo, y antihistórico (la historia no ha muerrrrrto mal que le pese a Fukuyama), está claro que su creador tiene cientos de miles de readers…y yo, hasta ahora, entre unos 300-288 en feedburner… En fin… a lo que vamos ya lo decía uno de los grandes de la canción española…. Bambino en su canción «Payaso» (aunque ahora estoy escuchando una versión de Falete, buena, … por cierto):

Ay cofre de vulgar hipocresía
ante la gente yo oculto mi derrota
payaso con careta de alegria
pero tengo por dentro el alma rota
y en la dicha fatal de mi destino
y hubo un ser , que cruzo por el camino
soy tan fuerte que puedo con mi vida
pero siento que mi alma esta perdida.

Bambino Utrera

Su nombre auténtico era Miguel Vargas Jiménez, pero siempre será recordado como Bambino, un apodo artístico que le fue impuesto por el público el mismo día de su presentación. Era el año 1961 cuando el joven cantante abandonó la peluquería en la que trabajaba y comenzó a actuar en la Venta Real de Antequera. Allí cantaba una versión gitana y flamenca del Bambino que había popularizado el inefable Renato Carosone, y el éxito de aquella interpretación, que cada noche tenía que repetir varias veces, marcó para siempre su trayectoria artística. En aquel mismo instante, Miguel pasaría a ser una persona anónima, y Bambino comenzaría a conocer las mieles del éxito. Pero no tuvo una carrera fácil, nunca fue un artista de multitudes, entre otras cosas porque él se crecía como artista en los pequeños tablaos, lugares con duende y s9lera en los que podía sentir el calor de un público entregado a su original arte. Bambino se adelantó a su tiempo.

Saldrá el 10 de Septiembre y aplaudimos no sólo su salida sino su forma gratuita y con licencia creative commons, como dice e-rgonomic:

A pesar del riesgo que implica detenerse por un momento a pensar con más calma y perspectiva con respecto a los cambios tecnológicos (bajo el peligro de terminar hablando de algo que pasa de moda) Hugo Pardo y yo (su servilleta como dicen aquí en Mex.) decidimos no dejar pasar la era de la Web 2.0 como un objeto de estudio, ya que por su características merecía sentarse a analizar este fenómeno tecno-social-comercial de impacto global.

Bueno, tras meses de trabajo puedo decir con alegría que hemos terminado!!!!!. El próximo 10 de septiembre se edita en línea, en forma gratuita y bajo licencia Creative Commons el libro «Planeta Web 2.0. Inteligencia colectiva o medios fast food«. El libro está editado conjuntamente por el Grupo de Investigación en Interacciones Digitales (GRID) de la Universitat de Vic y por la Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales (Flacso) México (Edición Documentos de Trabajo).
(leer más…)

Fuente: [e-rgonomic, digitalismo y deflamenco]

A course for knowledge and innovation workers. Programa de Formación de Gestores del Conocimiento

Aquí tenéis una noticia por una doble vía: e-rgonomic

Nombre: Cristóbal Cobo

Lugar: DF, MX

Profesor. Director de Comunicación y Nuevas Tecnologías, FLACSO-México. Doctor en Ciencias de la Comunicación (U.Autónoma de Barcelona)

y education futures About Education Futures

This blog is focused on the futures of education in a globalized world, focused on innovative knowledge production and driven by exponential accelerating change.

Contact: click here

• Certificado expedido por la Universidad de Minnesota y la Flacso- México.
• 8 semanas de duración (video conferencias internacionales en tiempo real, grupos de discusión en innovación).
• Modalidad Semi-presencial.
• Tutorías personalizadas.
• Desarrollo de habilidades para diseñar soluciones en entornos complejos y formar trabajadores del conocimiento.

Wiki del seminario.
Interesados:

openseminar@flacso.edu.mx

Fuente: [e-rgonomic y education futures]

tags: e-learning, aprendizaje, web2.0, social software, web 2.0, inteligencia colectiva, inteligencia colectiva, web semántica, FLACSO, Universidad de Minnesota

FAQ: ¿Qué es la web semántica? What is the Semantic Web?

«Sólo comprendemos aquellas preguntas que podemos responder.»
Nietzsche

The map is not the territory … The word is not the thing.
Alfred Korzybski

Vía barrapunto (noticia editada por Yonderboy on Miércoles, 09-05-2007 – 19:09h) nos enteramos que

la World Wide Web Consortium ha puesto a disposición de todo er mundo mundiá un FAQ(Preguntas frecuentas) sobre Qué es la web semántica, (eso que todavía nadie se ha enterado de lo que era la Web 2.0, ese concepto un poco….basta con las citas de arriba). Os copio-pego el punto 1 .

1. What is the Semantic Web?

1.1. How would you define the main goals of the Semantic Web? permalink

The vision of the Semantic Web is to extend principles of the Web from documents to data. This extension will allow to fulfill more of the Web’s potential, in that it will allow data to be shared effectively by wider communities, and to be processed automatically by tools as well as manually.

The Semantic Web allows two things.

1. It allows data to be surfaced in the form of real data, so that a program doesn’t have to strip the formatting and pictures and ads off a Web page and guess where the data on it is.

2. it allows people to write (or generate) files which explain—to a machine—the relationship between different sets of data. For example, one is able to make a “semantic link” between a database with a “zip-code” column and a form with a “zip” field that they actually mean the same – they are the same abstract concept. This allows machines to follow links and hence automatically integrate data from many different sources.

Semantic Web technologies can be used in a variety of application areas; for example: in data integration, whereby data in various locations and various formats can be integrated in one, seamless application; in resource discovery and classification to provide better, domain specific search engine capabilities; in cataloging for describing the content and content relationships available at a particular Web site, page, or digital library; by intelligent software agents to facilitate knowledge sharing and exchange; in content rating; in describing collections of pages that represent a single logical “document”; for describing intellectual property rights of Web pages (see, eg, the Creative Commons), and in many others.

1.2. What are the major building blocks of the Semantic Web? permalink

In order to achieve the goals described above, the most important is to be able to define and describe the relations among data (i.e., resources) on the Web. This is not unlike the usage of hyperlinks on the current Web that connect the current page with another one: the hyperlinks defines a relationship between the current page and the target. One major difference is that, on the Semantic Web, such relationships can be established between any two resources, there is no notion of “current” page. Another major difference is that the relationship (i.e, the link) itself is named, whereas the link used by a human on the (traditional) Web is not and their role is deduced by the human reader. The definition of those relations allow for a better and automatic interchange of data. RDF, which is one of the fundamental building blocks of the Semantic Web, gives a formal definition for that interchange.

On that basis, additional building blocks are built around this central notion. Some examples are:

• Tools to query information described through such relationships (eg, SPARQL)

• Tools to have a finer and more detailed classification and characterization of those relationships. This ensures interoperability and more complex automatic behaviors. For example, a community can agree what name to use for a relationship connecting a page to one’s calendar; this name can then be used by a large number of users and applications without the necessity to redefine such names every time. (E.g., RDF Schemas, OWL, SKOS)

• For more complex cases, tools are available to define logical relationships among resources and the relationships (for example, if a relationships binds a person to his/her email address, it is feasible to declare that the email address is unique, ie, the address is not shared by several persons). (E.g., OWL, Rules)

• Tools to extract from, and to bind to traditional data sources to ensure their interchange with data from other sources. (E.g., GRDDL, RDFa)

1.3. What is the “killer application” for the Semantic Web? permalink

It is difficult to predict what a “killer application” is for a specific technology, and the prediction is often erroneous. That said, the integration of currently unbound and independent “silos” of data in a coherent application is certainly a good candidate. Specific examples are currently explored in areas like Health Care and Life Sciences, Public Administration, Engineering, etc.

1.4. Will I “see” the Semantic Web in my everyday browser? permalink

Not necessarily, at least not directly. The Semantic Web technologies may act behind the scenes, resulting in a better user experience, rather than directly influencing the “look” on the browser. This is already happening: there are Web Sites (e.g., Sun’s white paper collection site, or Nokia’s support portal for their S60 series device, Oracle’s virtual press room, Harper’s online magazine) that use Semantic Web technologies in the background.

1.5. Is the Semantic Web just research, or does it have industrial applications? permalink

As all innovative technologies, the Semantic Web underwent an evolution starting at research labs, being then picked up by the Open Source community, then by small and specialized startups and finally by business in general. Remember: the Web was originally developed in a High Energy Physics center!

At present, the Semantic Web is increasingly used by small and large business. Oracle, IBM, Adobe, Software AG, or Northrop Grumman are only some of the large corporations that have picked up this technology already and are selling tools as well as complete business solutions. Large application areas, like the Health Care and Life Sciences, look at the data integration possibilities of the Semantic Web as one of the technologies that might offer significant help in solving their R&D problems.

1.6. Does one have to understand the theory of formal ontologies and logic to use the Semantic Web? permalink

First of all, as pointed out elsewhere in this document, one can develop Semantic Web applications without using ontologies. Very useful applications can be built without those, relying on the most fundamental, and simple concept of the Semantic Web. However, even if ontologies, rules, reasoners, etc, are used, the average user should not care about the complexities of, say, the details of reasoning. All this is done “under the hood”. What the developer needs to operate with are usually simple logical patterns of the sort “Given that (Flipper isA Dolphin) and (Dolphin isAlso Mammal), one can conclude that (Flipper isA Mammal)«.

Compare it to SQL. The official SQL standards, the formal semantics of SQL, and indeed its implementations are extremely complex and understood by a few specialists only. Nevertheless, a large number of users use SQL in practice, without caring about the underlying complexities.

1.7. How is the Semantic Web related to the existing Web? permalink

The Semantic Web is an extension of the current Web and not its replacement. Islands of RDF and possibly related ontologies can be developed incrementally. Major application areas (like Health Care and Life Sciences) may choose to “locally” adopt Semantic Web technologies, and this can then spread over the Web in general. In other words, one should not think in terms of “rebuilding” the Web.

1.8. Aren’t there major copyright questions if the data in an integration process are cached? permalink

There are and there aren’t. There is just the way the Web raises this issue already; after all, documents browsed by a traditional browser are usually cashed on the client side. And there aren’t, because this does not seem to have created major problems on the Web so far, and the Semantic Web is not fundamentally different in this respect.

1.9. What is the Semantic Web activity at W3C? permalink

(leer más…)

Fuente: [w3org, vía Barrapunto]

tags: e-learning, aprendizaje, web2.0, social software, web 2.0, web semántica