Semantic Web

Tim and Dave, in a nutshell the semantic web is about meaning.

All that XML, RSS, OPML, SOAP and XML-RPC stuff you are doing is fine and dandy; a step in the right direction. But they are still machine-readable, human-understandable formats. The goal for the semantic web is to allow machines to understand the content that you post and the web services you invoke. I’m not talking about serious mahcine intelligence or natural language processing. What I mean is that when Dave mentions a person (and includes the appropriate markup) on his weblog, my agent can figure out that since this is a person they will have an address, parents, friends, and probably an employer. This obviously allows a vast array of applications and will create new ways of linking, navigating, and using the web (particularly, when using autonomous software entites).

See Jim Hendler’s oft quoted article “Is there an intelligent agent in your future?” (nature) or “Agents and the Semantic Web” (IEEE Intelligent Systems)