The Semantic Web: A 20-years-old Idea?

Laziness, self interests, plagiarism, lack of ideals

[picophd]

I've searched for topics about the "Semantic Web" on WW, and found that most of the results were 1-3 years old. I've also found that many others acknowledge the obscurity of the technologies--for developers--"recommended" by the W3C and their impracticality--for publishers--to implement, at the current time.

A week or so back, I've bumped into a website of an ex-MIT professor and computer scientist, who has really changed my past paradigm of thinking about the W3C and similar organizations, and of approaching those "new" web technologies recommended and published every now and then. I'm not saying that I wouldn't embrace something good when I recognize and find one, but I just wouldn't be too quick about it in the future, and I'd think twice, and try to analyze before jumping in.

The paper or page which sparked most of my interest, was a paper published by the scientist I mentiond, Philip Greenspun. He presented it 10 years ago to the W3C. I like to title it: Shame and War [philip.greenspun.com], for short. Read it, then you wouldn't be wasting time if you read a lot of the other articles and writings of Greenspun. Almost all of it is very controversial, and full of eye-openers.

It also makes me feel sorry about the current state of mankind generally, and how we impede our own progress sometimes by our intolerance, impatience, hatred, selfishness, utilitarianism, and lack of beliefs and ideals about a better web/world, for which to stand.