Intro to the Semantic Web

[ThePuddleme]

Very helpful - cheers :)

[stowsta]

The beginning of Cybernet......

[mynamesfake2]

"Quick"

[keif347]

thanks man this was really helpful



[sheepblitzer]

the ultimate conundrum which blows all semantics out of the water is: how do you type/write the sound that the Fonz makes? "YOOOOOOOH" .....nope, that aint it

[Coavantia]

Thanks for this explanation , this is the best way to understand the semantic web,then we can start with understand the meaning of web ontology and the reasoning

[knuckleskin]

Great video, explained it pretty well. But what's bugging me is what did you use to create it? It looked like you drew on the slides with a real pen.

[IrregularMango]

It seems like a good move towards making the web more meaningful, but ultimately it will be the need to use semantics for SEO that drives adoption rather than the semantics utility being needed. Adding semantics to web content seems like we're having to cater for machines, rather than having machines understand content.

[salmansafi2011]

very important

:)

[Aintaer]

The semantic web assumes that the participants in it will mark up the proper content without inaccuracies or worse, lies. You would still have to filter out the chaff, but this time through your semantic technologies. Since the production and consumption of the "semantic web' content is still by humans, it provides no additional value in the end.

[msporny]

@Aintaer The semantic web does not assume proper content. It assumes inaccuracies, lies, vagueness and all of the other things that humans deal with every day. When we talk about "statements" on the semantic web - we talk in terms of "claims", not "facts". One website can claim things about you, another can claim a different set of things (possibly contradictory). The important thing is that we have a way of dealing with these contradictions... that's the job of software called "Reasoners"

[Aintaer]

@msporny Then haven't you simply pushed the problem one level up? Reasoners can only resolve semantic conflicts through policies set by the users. At every junction, user interaction is still necessary in order to extract relevant meaning from the corpus. I see 2 problems: first that the system does not introduce enough additional value to justify the extra effort necessary from the content producers; second that there is no universal semantic given how semantics themselves change with contexts.

[msporny]

@Aintaer re: 1) No, see one of the biggest problems was being able to generate this type of data that could be reasoned over. Before RDFa - there was no standard, scalable way of doing so in Web pages. re: 2) Content producers are embracing the semantic web /today/ because it is in their best interest - look up Drupal 7/Google Rich Snippets/RDFa/etc. and how it's affecting SEO. re: 3) Exactly right - context matters and is why Reasoners have the concept of a context in which they are reasoning.

[Aintaer]

@msporny It is not technical feasibility I was pointing out, but rather the difficulty of having to still markup elements in a document for consumption carries an overhead in content generation. Embracing a standard for semantics is in the interest of those in the content discovery business, but for almost nobody else. That Reasoners have a concept of context solves nothing. How are contexts determined? How do they arise? Who specifies contexts? There is no standard metadata for Thought.

[ReaperAHHH]

that would help find good porn

[mindprism]

If the fruit of trees could be eaten without rewarding the tree by spreading the seeds within the fruit, trees will no longer produce fruit.

Semantic web wants the data, and wants it as pure data. The content creators offer their content in a CONTEXT that rewards the creator. Remove that context and you remove the motivation to provide content.

[pneumatictrousers]

more like semantic infiltration. This is rudimentary programming stuff marketed as profound. Computers will NEVER understand meaning besides squiggle squiggle.

[Paalfaal]

The example at the beginning is somewhat of a contradiction because 'love' is a word that is semantically problematic.

[TheLittleBlackBear]

Woo thank God Comic Sans will be a part of the Brave New World Semantic Web! :D

[TheNeurall]

Computer can understand meaning, but it still dont know the purpose of meaning.

It is just searching for similarities in symbols, images or text, which is (of course) programmed by someone.

I would call this technology web 2.1

[Ankebut89]

thank you very much sir...very informative video!

[903harman]

Keep Your SKYNET! i dont want to be tracked!

[warkarma]

So basically, computer is going to search and download everything with same tag and display it. However it is not going to check if it's a virus or ads. Do you imagine how many Viruses and Trojans are going to be copied and pasted to PC’s? It’s going to be a doomsday :D. Thanks, but no, I will do my homework of searching what I like by myself.

[msporny]

@warkarma All of the current semantic web technologies protect against viruses, trojans or other nasty security vulnerabilities. They don't download anything to your computer without your authorization. Check out Google RichSnippets to see what the semantic web looks like right in practice.

[yanwei7087]

Pretty nice did not really know the whole idea about semantic web. So the semantic is just like narrowing what we want to know. Like google and kind of more advanced than it. So if that is so then am sure that is what facebook uses since it always asks you about things you want to do like books and games.

[Rompf94]

Soon computers will now what we want and try to kill us all like in the matrix! :O I can see it all now!!

[JackInTheBeanStalk]

Thanks for this! My Honors Project is on 3.0 and the future and this video really has helped put me get a clearer pic! cheers

[denverjeffrey]

I think this video confuses semantics and formal semantics. K. Coyle said, " It [the semantic web] isn't semantic at all in the human language sense, it is mainly about structure and syntax. It's a shame that its developers used the confusing term "semantic" in its name."

[UglyResearch]

Thanks for this useful presentation. Good stuff. Would you mind saying how you created the presentation? I'm looking for a video-creation tool. Thanks @UglyResearch (on Twitter)

[websitedesignmumbai]

This video is really good .. thanks for posting this video ....

[JohndotMcGuire]

I don't completey agree that the Semantic Web is "right now". What we really have are early concepts that show the value of the Semantic Web. However, It's not complete. The Semantic Web will fix the biggest issue that isn't even called out here. "how do you integrate all this data" The Sematic web will also expand beyond "websites". However, I like your simple video and think that it wil help tons of people to grasp some of the more simple concepts of what semantic web will enable.

[IprototypeI]

Skynet? a self-fulfilling prophecy

[chrissmash]

thanks for the video very helpful!

[jay15183]

I am doing a project on Semantic Web at the moment ! Very useful definition of Semantic Web.. Thank you very much !

[Vengfullcarot]

Yes, lets teach the internet to learn.

[hopejustice]

Really nice overview and intro. Pleasant to listen to and the graphics are amusing. Nice job.

[thomasshepa]

manu gives an excellent primer and does so in an pleasing manner. thank you manu.

[prioritymaybury]

A great 6 minute intro into what is already happening on the web. Anyone with a web presence needs to know about the semantic web now!

[AliAlhazmi]

fantastic thanx man :)

[genifromdablock]

Very very very helpful!!! thanks

[TheDamlay]

Nice Presentation, thanx a lot...

[besie0]

Thank you for the easy explaination, i got interested and ended up at huge explainations. I do think that the web is getting to personal.

[Malster3]

But the benefits are little .

But effective to some people and the computer itself but this technology is one more step to giving the computer more of a brain sense . Adaptive control via a person is nessary .

But lettme research this more as basic you made it im just not truely conviced . And im not one to just accept information too quickly without questioning it .

[Malster3]

seems a bit scary as this is another step to giving a computer control .

What would happen if a error occured .

And this for hackers as well it could make there lifes soo much easier .

I just do not trust this technology as it is another way of saying the future is now but it is sooo advanced for normal people to worry about but not so advanced to cover up .

My ideas are vague and broken but i have made some points im concerned about while researching this for a homework essay .

[barryjogorman]

Good and to the point

[neel762]

thx ..nice vid :)

[dps27a]

consortium is pronounced consortee-um, not consorshum

[reasonablefaqsimile]

Very helpful. Thanks.

Do you Twitter about Semantic Web?

[msporny]

I do, my twitter handle is: manusporny

If you have TweetDeck, you can also do a continuous search on "RDFa" to track one of the more recent semantic web technologies.

[miketkong]

DUDE! BLOW YOUR NOSE!!! ;P

Just kidding. Thanks for the video! :D

[oliver21berlin]

sounds like a technology which could be abused in a dangerous way (your boss, your ex-wife, a dictator...)

[toastbaby3020]

you people need to get lives

[hennachin]

Thanks. I tried explaining web 3.0 to my bro but could not get through to him. This will help.

[sillylilibear]

so clear and concise. thank you very much.

[ezysoft]

Thanks msporny, love the way you explained it, you did a fantastic job in conveying the message accross. Great to actually watch a video post that is educative with out being a pain to watch.

[ttk1opc]

So the semantic web will still include Comic Sans?

[msporny]

Comic Sans is a fundamental corner stone of the semantic web :)

[inversechi]

Great video, thank you .

[legendman]

barthday party!! WOOO!!!

[msporny]

ha ha. I was wondering when someone was going to point that out. I totally flubbed the line when I was speaking (because I was drawing and controlling the video setup at the same time).

[jakeycboyo]

very very cool tutorial many thanks, clear and concise and fun!

[pokemon068]

wow you made thsi entire video with open source software.

[NotNotOminous]

Good video!

[lonelymeme]

what tool did you use to make this video? (sorry for the out-of-the-semantics question)

[msporny]

It was made on Linux using GIMP + RecordMyDesktop + Wacom Tablet for the raw "drawing" video. Audacity was used for the audio recording. All of it was edited together using Blender. Not a very easy workflow... took an entire weekend to record/shoot the video. The RDFa basics video was made in the same way.

[Fattaman]

Is this your own voice? It's a delicious voice to listen to...

[lucent1090]

Thanks! this video helps me understand semantic web more precise

[bubblesort]

Scary stuff... I hate it when my computer perceives that it is time to reboot in the middle of when I'm writing a term paper. I don't want a computer that "understands" things. I mean, if it understands what I'm doing online it probably won't like me very much.

Bit of a stretch? I don't think so.  If a machine understands semantics doesn't that make it conscious?

Then again, I might be equivocating here.

[lamerbob]

No, it does not make it conscious. Machines rely on logic theory. The way computers "understand" semantics is simply recognizing and utilizing information.

[geniusumistian]

Yep, the semantic metadata associated to these resources is there just to allow software to process the semantic data, not necessarily 'understand' it

[marigerm]

Thank you. it really helped me.

[shreyaslokkur]

nice video..helped me a lot..thanks

[scareface999]

great video!

[srinivasan2081]

Nice presentation Keep up the good work

[howhowb]

Isn't the addition of RDA a lot like adding contextual values instead of only keywords. One example is Yelp and the several attributes and values that I can select instead of only adding keywords in an open text field. In this case, I have added context without adding RDF. Granted, there would be different attributes and values sets for "n" number of websites and services. BUT, wouldn't a semantic web be smart enough to sort it all out?

[daiatrein]

great video!

[intindse]

if you have firefox check out the stumble plug in, it searches websites that you like,but its not 100% accurate.

[dreig9]

This video has been transcribed and translated to several languages in Dotsub. You can find it in the home page.

It´s fantastic. Many thanks

[Sklogico]

Wish there was a way to give it a higher rating!

[fjpuente]

This is the real purpose of youtube .. great work .. regards from Colombia

[DookeyDakey]

wow seems realy interesting!

i wonder if one day when this semantics science gets much deeper and mroe advanced, that out computers would get bored of doing stuff for us ^^

[tcpip9999]

The semantics of 'I love technology!' depends on the context in which it is being used. And replacing love with a heart symbol changes the range of potential meanings of the phrase.

[Rayoumi]

I'm a PhD researcher and I found this video very useful not only for introducing Semantic Web to the general public but also to think about it in a more simple way! Thanks you are an excellent teacher!

[FAnchax]

Ahhhh i seeee! nice vid!

[madhavArvind]

Very good exposition. Semantic web is the next logical step in evolution. It is the context of existence. Once you know of a thing, it naturally becomes important to its context. That is the first step to semantic web - putting things in contex.

[theRealCheeseCake]

awesome video

[angel2901]

Excellent Video. But I dont think semantic web will be a big thing/have a breaktrough. Correct me if I'm wrong but you only add new information to webpages etc. and the semantic technology behind that can connect the information together. But it still doesnt understand it, right? It like the chinese room. And I think an AI approach like Google is a better way and you dont have to add new information.

[DJLorenzen]

The function on youtube, that at the right, there will be listed videos that is similar to the video you watch now, is that a form of early semantic web?

[marcello09]

Excellent! Informative! And funny! :-)

[spikegrobstein]

I'm not trying to keep content creation in the hands of the experts, but, like with any system for doing anything, you need to learn how it works before you can really do anything effective in it.

Sure, Adobe can add symantics support to Dreamweaver, but that will still require extra work for content creators to implement into their sites.

It's a very difficult process to balance power with ease of use, and those who delve deeply into it will have that much more of an edge over everyone else.

[Biltoes]

geek

[faiko]

The problem is that semantic markup is a tedious task especially for non-expert users. We can foresee that Web 2.0 would accelerate the process of semantic markup. However, this won't be realized without a user-friendly framework for non-expert users.

Moreover, ontological vocab is still an issue for semantic sharing/markup. I mean, who is responsible for hosting such ontology docs in the web? It would be a chaos if everyone uses their own 'semantics' for the markup.

[dj1z4]

let me direct you to one of the attempts to comprehend one of the problem you've mentioned, i.e. ontological vocab 'chaos':

one possible solution is fuzzy ontology.

[gabyu]

The only issue about semantic web is that their development is still reserved for geeks and people who learn the language. It's not in iWeb, nor in Frontpage or in Outlook... So how people could create such content?

Maybe those technologies would need some support from software developers or online applications... and one standard.

[hokiecsgrad]

Another place semantic markup comes in handy is accessibility. With the advent of "web 2.0", accessibility has taken a large step backwards. Semantic markup should help bring the web to more people and more devices that have a really hard time with it today.

[MobileDJ1961]

Great, thanks!

[mikehedge]

genius

[ross350tube]

I don't know ,,

give me an example of

I can find anything i want to find now..

if i want to find a place,,

I just type the name of the place in.

person, same deal ..

I want to know who came up with this.

and why they need to change the way people do things because they think its easier .

I want to ask them

that person or community.

[msporny]

The key thing to know about the semantic web and search technology is this:

Right now, Google has to guess as to what the contents of the page are based on keywords in the page.

With the semantic web, Google wouldn't have to guess about the contents of a page because the contents - the "things" - would be explicitly marked up. Google would know it is sending you to the right web page.

In other words - search isn't very exact right now... the semantic web is making it MUCH more exact.

[msporny]

As for talking to the community that is working on RDFa, I'm currently an invited expert to the W3C, working on RDFa, and heavily involved in the Microformats community as well. So, ask away :)

We're not trying to force you to change the way you have to use the web. We're adding semantic information to web pages so that computers will be able to better understand them. If they understand what is on a web page, they will be able to better help you interact with that web page.