Tuesday, October 31, 2006
The Semantic Web - Wow!
Well, I discovered the Semantic Web this past weekend. I was amazed to see how well it dovetailed into my thought patterns as of late. While the information I found was specifically geared to the Web and globe-spanning networks, I can see huge potential for it to be implemented inside the average corporate network.
Considering user-created spreadsheets, the data they contain, and the separation between them and corporate databases: what if you used RDF (wikipedia link) to link them? A spreadsheet naturally provides very definite delineations (ie. cells) and contains very definite, processable information (sales figures, measurement readings, part numbers, etc). If there was some way to map spreadsheet cells to database fields, they could update each other. As I understand it, this is what RDF was designed to do.
Of course, this could be extended far beyond simple spreadsheets. RDF is billed as a method of "saying anything about anything", so it should be able to cover the whole gamut of places information can hide in your average organization. The Semantic Web seems to be the ultimate in middleware - perfect for the world of disparate systems. I guess if Tim Berners-Lee is working on the same problems that I am thinking about, I shall consider myself to be in fine company.
Considering user-created spreadsheets, the data they contain, and the separation between them and corporate databases: what if you used RDF (wikipedia link) to link them? A spreadsheet naturally provides very definite delineations (ie. cells) and contains very definite, processable information (sales figures, measurement readings, part numbers, etc). If there was some way to map spreadsheet cells to database fields, they could update each other. As I understand it, this is what RDF was designed to do.
Of course, this could be extended far beyond simple spreadsheets. RDF is billed as a method of "saying anything about anything", so it should be able to cover the whole gamut of places information can hide in your average organization. The Semantic Web seems to be the ultimate in middleware - perfect for the world of disparate systems. I guess if Tim Berners-Lee is working on the same problems that I am thinking about, I shall consider myself to be in fine company.
