Some Antics, Some Antics, they’re up to Semantics!

The semantic web clearly has great usage in areas like epidemiology. Being able to have database type information provided through a more intelligent system can vastly speed up the process of identifying correlations (though not causes) and associated information.

More than that though, the time and money cost of implementing semantic  ideals outweigh the benefits. When I was in the Quality Team at Nokia, one issue that came up was - no surprises – quality. A reason that the company was continually late in delivering software to schedule was that the engineers wanted it to be perfect. All well and good, but this was unacceptable if this dedication caused manufacturing deadlines to slip and product release delays.

So a VP came up with a campaign based around ‘Good Enough is Good Enough’. The simple message was to finish and ship the product. On time. Not when it was ‘ready’, but according to the schedule. Clients, partners and customers wanted a product by the contracted date, not a perfect product at some future point. The former can be altered, the latter cannot. 

And I think this is a major argument and force against the semantic web having the momentum to rally pick up outside of limited areas. Who’s going to want to spend the time creating a far ‘better’ WWW when the one we have now works so well? Only those with a very clear and present need for what it offers.

As a quick aside, perhaps if the adult entertainment / pornography business got behind the idea it would take off. That multi-billion dollar industry has arguably created the internet as a place where you can securely buy products, have high quality video, steam live feeds and driven broadband access just as they led the charge in the move from film to VHS format in the years before. 

Back to DITA and away from the filth merchants, the below is what some of us came up with in relation to RFD triples, taxonomy and ontology...

If X does Y then Z.

In relation to a library the formula could be expressed as...

IF library patron BORROWS library book #765 THEN book status changed to issued.

Clear? Jolly good.