Posts tagged “semantic web”

I propose Cascading Semantic Descriptions (CSD), a new approach to microformats that keeps semantic metadata separate from content, like CSS does for presentation. Current microformats are unweblike, unscalable, and hard to index. CSD aims to fix that while building on microformats' existing work.

I was wrong to dismiss semantic markup along with microformats. Microformats have real problems: poor tooling, awkward HTML class name hijacking, and limited extensibility. But adding meaning to web data is genuinely valuable. In my next post, I'll propose fixes.

The semantic web isn't coming. Web APIs are the future, and when they hit critical mass and start feeding each other, the value created will be explosive and unpredictable. I'm calling it the emergent web, and the people who build meta-APIs will make a fortune.

The semantic web is a beautiful idea but it's not what's next. APIs are already the center of the web experience, and as they multiply and cross-pollinate, emergent behavior will produce explosive, unpredictable value. Build APIs, build meta-APIs, and for the love of all that is good, don't call it Web 3.0.

I should post interesting links here more often. Tim Berners-Lee's piece on the Semantic Web is brilliant, and The Economist's software survey covers similar ground: content that not only knows what it is but declares what it can do, enabling other software to exploit it.