RE: David Siegel: Semantic Web -- What Is It? How Does It Work?
This is my follow up that I promised 2 hours ago when I made my first comment...
Much has transpired and I will summarize with some bullet points to be terse.
The video above is a good introduction to the semantic web for beginners. Siegel makes a very difficult subject rather simple. He is a great writer and communicator.
The Pillar "Gray" Paper is very well written, well organized and easy to understand, probably because Siegel is such a great writer and has done his homework. I highly recommend reading it to those interested in exploring what the Pillar project is all about.
After you investigate the Pillar website there is also The Story of the Pillar Project which makes for interesting reading and includes some brief educational videos.
There is much more, but more than I could cover in 2 hours. One point worth noting is that the Pillar coin (PLR) cannot be sold to U.S. citizens because of SEC concerns, though the website admits that it is difficult to block them 100%.
My personal summary is that this is a very ambitious project, so time will tell how it develops.
I have known about the semantic web for over a decade now and had hoped it would catch on with the science community, but unfortunately it has not. To me, semantic web is a no-brainer for scientists because science is about data and the semantic web takes data and integrates it all together to the point that even machines can read it, analyze it and create scientific hypotheses and perform experiments to advance science without human assistance.
If you are interested in the semantic web and want the simplest explanation of the semantic web possible, read the 2001 Scientific American Article written by By Tim Berners-Lee, James Hendler and OraLassila:
I have been a programmer for 31 years and even though this presentation was given in 2010 this is the first time I have heard of the term "semantic web". While we have employed some of the concepts discussed in this video, we do not use the term "semantic web".
I agree that David explains the "semantic web" very well in this presentation.
The time you took to listen to the video and write your comment is greatly appreciated.
Have a great weekend!
Steem on,
Mike
Your comment piqued my curiosity...
While my experience in computers doesn't hold a candle to yours, I have seen videos, websites and many references to the "semantic web" over the years. It would seen we live on different continents of planet "Computer Science". My guess is the difference being that you have been immersed in practical computer knowledge for the employment market, while I have explored computers based on my own whims. But, that is just a wild guess.
I saw a similar situation in a comment I ran across that was made by Andreas Antonopolous (the Bitcoin guru) who said that he had met a number of computer people developing blockchains for major companies that had never heard of Bitcoin!
Another thought is that there is so much technology out there that it is impossible to know everything about a subject, there is always much more to learn these days.
You are correct in your assessment. Many of my co-workers think I am crazy for venturing into the world of crypto-currencies and learning about the block-chain, let alone interacting with it like I am doing right now on SteemIt.
When I retire in a few months, I will write another introductory post telling more about myself and my experience.
It still amazing me how many people in the IT community are ignoring what is going on in the world of crypto-currencies and what some of the ICO's are trying to do.
And yes, when one specializes in one area of technology their entire career, it is possible to be blind to or ignore an entire universe of technology. Only because I had a foot-hold in both finance and IT, crypto-currencies piqued my interest almost two years ago.
Have a great weekend!
Steem on,
Mike
Thanks for the explanation. I like to look for the back story.
My friends and acquaintances don't think I'm crazy, they just give me a funny look when I tell them I'm into crypto. They just can't relate to it.
We are both in the middle of something really big. Something on the scale of or bigger than the computer revolution of the 80s and 90s. Will the blockchain "killer app' be EOS? IOTA? Ethereum? Hyperledger? Something not revealed yet?
To me it feels like the late 70s and early 80s. I knew that computers were going to be big, but I couldn't figure out what the big thing would be. Hind sight says that it was Gates with Microsoft and Jobs with Apple; operating systems for the masses leading to the Internet.
The semantic web could have been the killer app for science, but no one wanted to do it; too much extra work and no quick bucks to be made. The ICO crowd has the right idea. Dream up a crypto/blockchain scheme over bottles of beer, launch it unregulated in the wild and woolly crypto world and collect umpteen million dollars in like 28 minutes. Then, figure out what to do with it all!