Comments on: Folow up on Microformats http://theryanking.com/entries/2005/04/13/folow-up-on-microformats/ Music and Technology, but NO TECHNO! Sun, 01 Aug 2010 07:02:36 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: a work on process http://theryanking.com/entries/2005/04/13/folow-up-on-microformats/#comment-230 a work on process Thu, 21 Apr 2005 13:40:48 +0000 http://theryanking.com/blog/archives/2005/04/12/folow-up-on-semantic-web/#comment-230 <strong>Microformats and extensibility</strong> I've been following the chatter over microformats (XFN, xFolk, hCalendar, and their kin) for some time, but having been having a hard time formulating a response to all the discussion. In particular, the discussion over at Ryan's blog and some postin... Microformats and extensibility

I’ve been following the chatter over microformats (XFN, xFolk, hCalendar, and their kin) for some time, but having been having a hard time formulating a response to all the discussion. In particular, the discussion over at Ryan’s blog and some postin…

]]> By: ryan http://theryanking.com/entries/2005/04/13/folow-up-on-microformats/#comment-209 ryan Sun, 17 Apr 2005 17:30:53 +0000 http://theryanking.com/blog/archives/2005/04/12/folow-up-on-semantic-web/#comment-209 Denis: Are you saying the Web isn't already chaos? Denis:

Are you saying the Web isn’t already chaos?

]]> By: Denis de Bernardy http://theryanking.com/entries/2005/04/13/folow-up-on-microformats/#comment-208 Denis de Bernardy Sun, 17 Apr 2005 11:41:37 +0000 http://theryanking.com/blog/archives/2005/04/12/folow-up-on-semantic-web/#comment-208 the thing that really troubles me with these ideas is that they are immediately diverted from their original use. take these comments i spotted a month ago, on <a href="http://www.semiologic.com/2005/03/17/tags-and-folksonomies-turning-categories-into-chaos/" rel="nofollow">how tags and taxinomies are turning the web into chaos</a>: Joshua Schachter: "One of the most popular tags created on the bookmarking service is 'to_read,' a tag attached to links of pages users want to remember to read." the thing that really troubles me with these ideas is that they are immediately diverted from their original use.

take these comments i spotted a month ago, on how tags and taxinomies are turning the web into chaos:

Joshua Schachter: “One of the most popular tags created on the bookmarking service is ‘to_read,’ a tag attached to links of pages users want to remember to read.”

]]> By: ryan http://theryanking.com/entries/2005/04/13/folow-up-on-microformats/#comment-206 ryan Thu, 14 Apr 2005 17:19:37 +0000 http://theryanking.com/blog/archives/2005/04/12/folow-up-on-semantic-web/#comment-206 Vidar: You say: "The thing is, very few people will ever need to know how to write OWL ontologies or how to generate valid RDF..." Funny, I'm pretty sure that similar things were said about HTML. Though it may seem counterintuitve, it seems that people learn HTML best by looking at the source, not the WYSIWYG representation of it. I agree that only a minority of people will need to really grok RDF in order for us to make it useful. But lets do the math.... supposing its 1% of Internet users (just random conjecture)– then I think that'd be about 8M people. I doubt that many people will ever grok it. Vidar:

You say: “The thing is, very few people will ever need to know how to write OWL ontologies or how to generate valid RDF…”

Funny, I’m pretty sure that similar things were said about HTML.

Though it may seem counterintuitve, it seems that people learn HTML best by looking at the source, not the WYSIWYG representation of it. I agree that only a minority of people will need to really grok RDF in order for us to make it useful. But lets do the math…. supposing its 1% of Internet users (just random conjecture)– then I think that’d be about 8M people. I doubt that many people will ever grok it.

]]> By: Vidar Hokstad http://theryanking.com/entries/2005/04/13/folow-up-on-microformats/#comment-205 Vidar Hokstad Thu, 14 Apr 2005 15:36:45 +0000 http://theryanking.com/blog/archives/2005/04/12/folow-up-on-semantic-web/#comment-205 Ryan, I can't agree. How many percent of internet users understand HTML? 1%? 0.1%? HTML is successful because it is simple and compelling enough for a small group of people to create tools that have become killer apps. Most of the people who write HTML by hand doesn't even understand it properly, but they can still use it because there are enough resources out there to let them do what they need to do. The thing is, very few people will ever need to know how to write OWL ontologies or how to generate valid RDF - most people will only ever need to know how to use tools that produce or consume RDF, or cut and paste snippets of RDF found in online resources. It's not as if the complexity of Microsoft Word documents have prevented word processing from being used by the masses, or the complexity of the MP3 file format have stopped that from being used. If the need is there, tools will be produced to let users manipulate the data. Just look at the popularity of RSS. How many "normal" users will ever hand generate RSS or write code to generate or parse RDF? A vanishingly small percentage. Ryan, I can’t agree. How many percent of internet users understand HTML? 1%? 0.1%? HTML is successful because it is simple and compelling enough for a small group of people to create tools that have become killer apps.

Most of the people who write HTML by hand doesn’t even understand it properly, but they can still use it because there are enough resources out there to let them do what they need to do.

The thing is, very few people will ever need to know how to write OWL ontologies or how to generate valid RDF - most people will only ever need to know how to use tools that produce or consume RDF, or cut and paste snippets of RDF found in online resources.

It’s not as if the complexity of Microsoft Word documents have prevented word processing from being used by the masses, or the complexity of the MP3 file format have stopped that from being used.

If the need is there, tools will be produced to let users manipulate the data. Just look at the popularity of RSS. How many “normal” users will ever hand generate RSS or write code to generate or parse RDF? A vanishingly small percentage.

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