linked_data_its_is_not_like_th.html
15.8 KB
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
<style type="text/css" media="all">
@import "/QA/2006/01/blogstyle.css";
</style>
<meta name="keywords" content='' />
<meta name="description" content="We've been trying to explain partial understanding since at least as far back as the 1998 Extensible Languages note, but the The Fate of the Semantic Web report from Pew still reflects the perception that the Semantic Web will never..." />
<meta name="revision" content="$Id: linked_data_its_is_not_like_th.html,v 1.26 2011/12/15 22:21:27 mirror Exp $" />
<link rel="alternate" type="application/atom+xml" title="Atom" href="http://www.w3.org/QA/atom.xml" />
<link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="RSS 1.0" href="http://www.w3.org/QA/news.rss" />
<title>Linked data: it's is not like that; it's like a bag of potato chips - W3C Blog</title>
<link rel="start" href="http://www.w3.org/QA/" title="Home" />
<link rel="prev" href="http://www.w3.org/QA/2010/05/asia_and_w3c.html" title="Asia and W3C" />
<link rel="next" href="http://www.w3.org/QA/2010/06/the_mission_of_w3c.html" title="The Mission of W3C" />
<!--
<rdf:RDF xmlns:rdf="http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns#"
xmlns:trackback="http://madskills.com/public/xml/rss/module/trackback/"
xmlns:dc="http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/">
<rdf:Description
rdf:about="http://www.w3.org/QA/2010/05/linked_data_its_is_not_like_th.html"
trackback:ping="http://www.w3.org/QA/sununga/mt-tb.cgi/327"
dc:title="Linked data: it's is not like that; it's like a bag of potato chips"
dc:identifier="http://www.w3.org/QA/2010/05/linked_data_its_is_not_like_th.html"
dc:subject="eGov"
dc:description="We've been trying to explain partial understanding since at least as far back as the 1998 Extensible Languages note, but the The Fate of the Semantic Web report from Pew still reflects the perception that the Semantic Web will never..."
dc:creator="Dan Connolly"
dc:date="2010-05-28T19:53:33+00:00" />
</rdf:RDF>
-->
<!-- <script type="text/javascript" src="http://www.w3.org/QA/mt.js"></script>-->
</head>
<body class="layout-one-column">
<div id="banner">
<h1 id="title">
<a href="http://www.w3.org/"><img height="48" alt="W3C" id="logo" src="http://www.w3.org/Icons/WWW/w3c_home_nb" /></a>
W3C Blog
</h1>
</div>
<ul class="navbar" id="menu">
<li><strong><a href="/QA/" title="W3C Blog Home">[ W3C Blog ]</a></strong></li>
<li><a href="/QA/Library/" title="Documents and Publications on Web and Quality">Documents</a></li>
<li><a href="/QA/Tools/" accesskey="3" title="Validators and other Tools">Tools</a></li>
<li><a href="/2007/12/qa-blog-help/index#feedback">Feedback</a></li>
</ul>
<div id="searchbox">
<form method="get" action="http://www.google.com/custom" enctype="application/x-www-form-urlencoded">
<p id="formbox"><input type="text" size="15" class="textfield" name="q" accesskey="E" maxlength="255" /> <input type="submit" class="submitfield" value="Search" id="goButton" name="sa" accesskey="G" /> <input type="hidden" name="cof" value="T:black;LW:72;ALC:#ff3300;L:http://www.w3.org/Icons/w3c_home;LC:#000099;LH:48;BGC:white;AH:left;VLC:#660066;GL:0;AWFID:0b9847e42caf283e;" /><input type="hidden" id="searchW3C" name="sitesearch" checked="checked" value="www.w3.org/QA" /><input type="hidden" name="domains" value="www.w3.org/QA" /></p>
</form>
</div>
<div id="main"><!-- This DIV encapsulates everything in this page - necessary for the positioning -->
<p class="content-nav">
<a href="http://www.w3.org/QA/2010/05/asia_and_w3c.html">« Asia and W3C</a> |
<a href="http://www.w3.org/QA/">Main</a>
| <a href="http://www.w3.org/QA/2010/06/the_mission_of_w3c.html">The Mission of W3C »</a>
</p>
<h2 class="entry-header">Linked data: it's is not like that; it's like a bag of potato chips</h2>
<div class="entry-body">
<p>We've been trying to explain partial understanding since at least as far back as the 1998 <a href="http://www.w3.org/TR/1998/NOTE-webarch-extlang-19980210">Extensible Languages</a> note, but the <a href="http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2010/Semantic-Web.aspx">The Fate of the Semantic Web</a> report from Pew still reflects the perception that the Semantic Web will never work because it requires global agreement on one big ontology.</p>
<p>In <a href="http://www.gov2expo.com/gov2expo2010/public/schedule/detail/14247">Tim Berners-Lee's talk at the gov 2.0 Expo</a>, he gives a wonderful illustration using a bag of potato chips.</p>
<object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ga1aSJXCFe0&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ga1aSJXCFe0&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object>
<p>On the bag of potato chips, he shows various vocabularies in use:</p>
<ul>
<li>the plain English "potato chips" on the front -- note that's U.S. English; in the U.K., it would be "potato crisps".</li>
<li>the nutrition information on the back, standardized by the U.S. food and drug administration.</li>
<li>some allergy information that many people don't pay any attention to, but those with allergies read <em>very</em> carefully.</li>
<li>the UPC code that can be read by any retail checkout machine in the world</li>
<li>some numbers on the bottom edge of the package that make no sense to him whatsoever.</li>
</ul>
<p>He points out that people don't go "Eek! I won't eat that! I can't make sense of those numbers at the bottom." But object-oriented systems and XML Schema checkers typically do just that. Most people just look at "potato chips" on the front and maybe take a quick look at the number of calories and munch away. He goes on to explain how linked data is not waiting for the whole world to agree on vocabularies for everything; it's not like that... it's like a bag of potato chips.</p>
<p><small>p.s. The bag of chips came from a lunch discussion, but I think the illustration of multiple vocabularies used in product packaging goes back to a paper he wrote in 2008 with Lalana Kagal, <cite><a href="http://dig.csail.mit.edu/2007/Papers/AIMagazine/fractal-paper.pdf">The Fractal Nature of the Semantic Web</a></cite>.</small></p>
</div>
<div id="more" class="entry-more">
</div>
<p class="postinfo">Filed by <a href="http://www.w3.org/People/Connolly/">Dan Connolly</a> on May 28, 2010 7:53 PM in <a href="http://www.w3.org/QA/archive/technology/semantic_web/">Semantic Web</a>, <a href="http://www.w3.org/QA/archive/technology/egov/">eGov</a><br />
<span class="separator">|</span> <a class="permalink" href="http://www.w3.org/QA/2010/05/linked_data_its_is_not_like_th.html">Permalink</a>
| <a href="http://www.w3.org/QA/2010/05/linked_data_its_is_not_like_th.html#comments">Comments (8)</a>
| <a href="http://www.w3.org/QA/2010/05/linked_data_its_is_not_like_th.html#trackback">TrackBacks (0)</a>
</p>
<h3 class="comments-header" id="comments">Comments</h3>
<div class="comment" id="comment-192718">
<p class="comment-meta" id="c192718">
<span class="comment-meta-author"><strong>Dan Brickley </strong></span>
<span class="comment-meta-date"><a href="#c192718">#</a> 2010-05-29</span>
</p>
<div class="comment-bulk">
<p>Random aside, but in my Web history diggings I found an earlier TimBL crisps reference a little while back. I don't have the citation handy but here's an excerpt:</p>
<p>"Physics World article for end March 1992
Will editors of journals such as this in a few years' time be out looking for new jobs? Will a world, overrun with forests, only use paper for packing the potato crisps eaten by hungry hackers? Should you save this issue of Physics World as a possible collector's item?"</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="comment" id="comment-192732">
<p class="comment-meta" id="c192732">
<span class="comment-meta-author"><strong>Simon </strong></span>
<span class="comment-meta-date"><a href="#c192732">#</a> 2010-05-29</span>
</p>
<div class="comment-bulk">
<p>What about adding captions to the video for better accessibility?</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="comment" id="comment-192849">
<p class="comment-meta" id="c192849">
<span class="comment-meta-author"><strong>Luigi </strong></span>
<span class="comment-meta-date"><a href="#c192849">#</a> 2010-05-31</span>
</p>
<div class="comment-bulk">
<p>When you need to go to and convince everyone about a technology all around the globe there's something wrong in it. Seriously.</p>
<p>Yes, Tim Berners-Lee invented HTML, but HTML spread by itself. He didn't need to call everybody stupid and use the bag-of-chips analogy like a showman performing in a late night ad.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="comment" id="comment-192869">
<p class="comment-meta" id="c192869">
<span class="comment-meta-author"><strong>Dan Connolly </strong></span>
<span class="comment-meta-date"><a href="#c192869">#</a> 2010-05-31</span>
</p>
<div class="comment-bulk">
<p>@Simon yes, I hope we can (along with O'Reilly, who organized the event and posted the video to youtube) provide captions.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="comment" id="comment-192873">
<p class="comment-meta" id="c192873">
<span class="comment-meta-author"><strong>Dan Connolly </strong></span>
<span class="comment-meta-date"><a href="#c192873">#</a> 2010-05-31</span>
</p>
<div class="comment-bulk">
<p>@Luigi, HTML spread somewhat by itself, but in fact Tim did travel around giving <a href="http://www.w3.org/Talks/Overview-archive.html" rel="nofollow">talks about the Web as far back as 1991</a>. More of the story is available in <a href="http://www.w3.org/People/Berners-Lee/Weaving/Overview.html" rel="nofollow">his book</a>.</p>
<p>Advocacy is an important part of technology deployment in lots of cases.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="comment" id="comment-192898">
<p class="comment-meta" id="c192898">
<span class="comment-meta-author"><strong>Krzysztof Maczyński </strong></span>
<span class="comment-meta-date"><a href="#c192898">#</a> 2010-05-31</span>
</p>
<div class="comment-bulk">
<p>TBL makes good points in this video, although he seems to feel a bit nervous there. I'd like Semantic Web to unfold more swiftly, but I'm afraid the strain on architectural consistency of Web technologies from WhatWG and big players behind it isn't going away soon, so except for a momentary progress in catchy but superficial features (along the lines of MARQUEE in 1990s, incidentally being reinstated now) available in browsers (mostly borrowed from old orthogonal technologies anyway, like SMIL or XForms, and baked into HTML5 with seemingly purposeful idiosyncrasy) innovation is still going to be held back.</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="comment" id="comment-192981">
<p class="comment-meta" id="c192981">
<span class="comment-meta-author"><strong>Renato Iannella </strong></span>
<span class="comment-meta-date"><a href="#c192981">#</a> 2010-06-01</span>
</p>
<div class="comment-bulk">
<p>I still don't get the Bag of Chips analogy.</p>
<p>I looked at my "Smiths Crisps" here (in Australia) and found no linked data.</p>
<p>I found "standardised data"....all there for <em>business</em> reasons and <em>legal</em> regulations....</p>
<p>Perhaps a better analogy is needed....</p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="comment" id="comment-554938">
<p class="comment-meta" id="c554938">
<span class="comment-meta-author"><strong>CatesLaw </strong></span>
<span class="comment-meta-date"><a href="#c554938">#</a> 2011-10-11</span>
</p>
<div class="comment-bulk">
<p>I thought the analogy was decent but Luigi makes a point
"When you need to go to and convince everyone about a technology all around the globe there's something wrong in it."
<a href="http://www.cateslaw.com" rel="nofollow">~ CatesLaw</a></p>
</div>
</div>
<div class="comments-open" id="comments-open">
<h3 class="comments-open-header">Leave a comment</h3>
<div class="comments-open-moderated">
<p>
Note: this blog is intended to foster <strong>polite
on-topic discussions</strong>. Comments failing these
requirements and spam will not get published. Please,
enter your real name and email address. Every
individual comment is reviewed by the W3C staff.
This may take some time, thank you for your patience.
</p>
<p>
You can use the following HTML markup (a href, b, i,
br/, p, strong, em, ul, ol, li, blockquote, pre)
and/or <a href="http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/syntax">Markdown syntax</a>.</p>
</div>
<div id="comments-open-data">
<form method="post" action="http://www.w3.org/QA/sununga/beach.pl" id="comments-form">
<h4>Your comment</h4>
<div id="comments-open-text">
<textarea id="comment-text" name="text" rows="20" cols="100"></textarea><br />
<label for="comment-text">Write your comment text here. Remember, keep the discussion on topic and courteous.</label>
</div>
<h4>About you</h4>
<div id="comment-form-name">
<input type="hidden" name="static" value="1" />
<input type="hidden" name="entry_id" value="8805" />
<input type="hidden" name="__lang" value="en" />
<label for="comment-author">Your Name</label>
<input id="comment-author" name="author" size="30" value="" />
</div>
<div id="comment-form-email">
<label for="comment-email">Your Email Address</label>
<input id="comment-email" name="email" size="30" value="" />
</div>
<div id="comments-open-footer">
<input type="submit" accesskey="s" name="post" id="comment-submit" value="Submit" />
</div>
</form>
</div>
</div>
<p id="gentime">This page was last generated on $Date: 2011/12/15 22:21:27 $</p>
</div><!-- End of "main" DIV. -->
<address>
This blog is written by W3C staff and working group participants,<br />
and maintained by <a href="/People/CMercier/">Coralie Mercier</a>.<br />
Authorized parties may <a href="/QA/new">log in</a> to create a new entry.<br/>
<span id="poweredby">Powered by Movable Type, magpierss and a lot of Web Technology</span>
</address>
<p class="copyright">
<a rel="Copyright" href="http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/ipr-notice#Copyright">Copyright</a> © 1994-2011
<a href="http://www.w3.org/"><acronym title="World Wide Web Consortium">W3C</acronym></a>®
(<a href="http://www.csail.mit.edu/"><acronym title="Massachusetts Institute of Technology">MIT</acronym></a>,
<a href="http://www.ercim.eu/"><acronym title="European Research Consortium for Informatics and Mathematics">ERCIM</acronym></a>,
<a href="http://www.keio.ac.jp/">Keio</a>),
All Rights Reserved.
W3C <a href="http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/ipr-notice#Legal_Disclaimer">liability</a>,
<a href="http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/ipr-notice#W3C_Trademarks">trademark</a>,
<a rel="Copyright" href="http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/copyright-documents">document use</a>
and <a rel="Copyright" href="http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/copyright-software">software licensing</a>
rules apply. Your interactions with this site are in accordance
with our <a href="http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/privacy-statement#Public">public</a> and
<a href="http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Legal/privacy-statement#Members">Member</a> privacy
statements.
</p>
</body>
</html>