Daniel’s Blog

The Tribes of the Semantic Web

There are actually tribes within the Semantic Web:

These include:

• The Linked Data Purist
• The Semantic Annotator
• The Semantics Purist
• The Semantic Insider

Generally this is because they prefer a certain architecture over another, but I am not saying that each is exclusive. There are people in the community which straddle two or more of the tribes.

The Linked Data Purist

The Linked Data Purist will have links out to various open data objects, and will provide content negotiation in a Human-Friendly format (e.g. HTML) and in a Linked Data format (e.g. RDF). Languages like SPARQL and SPARUL would be provided to query and update the Internal Data Graph Model.

The Linked Data Purists Architecture

The Document Web Developer and the Linked Data Developer

Its possible to add a layer on top of the SQL based Relational Database, to create “RDF Views”. This allows the developer to play with the data in either SQL or SPARQL formats:

Linked Data WITH Document Web Architecture

The Semantic Annotator

The Semantic Annotator will use an annotation language to embed semantics into the document they are providing (whether thats XML, XHTML or HTML). Frameworks such as RDFa, Microformats, eRDF and AB Meta are used in this case:

The Semantic Annotator Architecture

The Semantic Insider

A Semantic Insider will have closed data due to privacy or licensing, they only provide an interface on the data with little or no links out, and certainly no links coming in directly to objects. The only real reason for hiding data like this is because of privacy or licensing, if privacy or licensing are not an issue then opening up the data is promoted by the Linked Data tribe.

The Semantic Inside Architecture

The Semantics Purist

The Semantics Purist enjoys getting the real semantics working for each and every object. They will use OWL extensively, and will understand Descriptions Logic. The Semantics Purist does this in order to use the many semantic inferencing tools available.

(No diagram for this one, because it varies… some aren’t web based, some are…. most use some kind of deep inferencing)

Tribes are bad, Linking is key

Tribes are bad, they split communities up when they could really do with being together and more universal… we would probably get a lot more done if we did what we were promoting not just for data but for intercommunication. Linking Data is important, yes, but Linking together between the existing tribes is even better. This is a call to those in the Semantic Web / semantic web community.

Bishop John Shelby Spong (a well known Liberal Episcopalian Christian Bishop) often talks about the Tribal Identity/Mentality of Christians through the ages. This can happen within the Web Development/Design world too, it happens to/from the Semantic Web community (e.g. some people see the Semantic Web as “too academic”, which is rubbish because most of it isn’t) and also within it (e.g. Microformats versus RDF or RDFa).

“It is a magnificent feeling to recognize the unity of complex phenomena which appear to be things quite apart from the direct visible truth” - Albert Einstein

“Where there is unity there is always victory” - Publilius Syrus

So I leave you with a picture of “Minerva of Peace” by Elihu Vedder:

Minerva of Peace by Elihu Vedder. (From Wikipedia “Minerva of Peace“)