The Semantic Web – semantically viable?

Ever heard of the Semantic Web? If not then you are not alone.

A fantastic idea that even Tim Berners-Lee and his colleagues have said “remains largely unrealized”.

The principles of the Semantic Web are that the wealth of information and data available on the internet are available for machines to find, share and combine – without a person being involved. It might sound like an idea that has elements of both “but can’t they do that already?” and “who cares?” – but when the idea takes hold it will make huge differences to the way individuals and companies interact – and in time it will significantly affect your bottom line.

Most companies have vast unused assets – and do not realise they even have them. The asset is information and data. All companies spend a great deal of time and money improving efficiency and looking for new opportunities. The semantic web offers the ability to achieve both.

All companies are aware of specific key information and data in their field, employees will then use this information to identify leads, find better prices, find new opportunities and find new solutions to old problems. Most of this work is done by people, and often this is the only way, as it is far too expensive to write a computer program to do something a human can do in a few minutes. The reason it is expensive to write a computer program to achieve this is because the information and data that needs to be understood is disorganised and badly managed.

The Semantic Web looks to change that – to take all of the information and present it in a way that ties down what that information is and means, and what it is related to so that machines can understand it without the need for human involvement.

Imagine an industry where all of the suppliers, service providers and customers have machine readable data – the industry could then afford very simple programs that could assess that information, automatically identifying customer’s requirements, alternate suppliers and new opportunities – automatically 24/7. The companies that manage this will be able to react instantly to the changing world, giving them a distinct edge in the market place. On top of this, companies that start to embrace the Semantic Web will find themselves grouping together trading access to structured data and information with each other, creating business alliances that allow them to leave their competitors behind. The Semantic Web might just sound like another “new phrase” – but one day it will be realised that it is the basis of a whole new way of doing things that will change not just how the internet works, but how the whole world works.

David C