etech 2004

real world semantics

tantek çelik
kevin marks

real world semantics

• what is it?
• current examples
• possibilities

real world semantics: what is it?

• aka lower-case semantic web
• emerging semantic (x)html
• adoption by "real people"
  • beyond academics and theoretical discussions

"lower-case semantic web" is:

• Not "Uppercase Semantic Web"
  • RDF, OWL, "The Semantic Web" etc.
  • plenty of sessions on them
  • out of scope for tonight's discussion
• but can work together
  • for more on xhtml<->RDF:
  • rdxh: http://www.w3.org/2004/01/rdxh/spec
  • grddl: http://www.w3.org/2003/g/data-view

"lower-case semantic web" is:

• simple semantics with microformats
  • don't try to "define the world"
  • small pieces loosely joined
• evolutionary not revolutionary
  • add semantics to today's web
  • rather than create a future web
• user centric design
  • humans first, machines second
  • "people are helping to create metadata" - david sifry

semantic (x)html is

• in contrast to presentational (x)html

  presentational	semantic
  <br>	<p>
  <font>	<h1>,<h2>,<h3>
  <i>,<b>	<em>,<strong>

semantic (x)html driven by CSS adoption?

• eliminated <font> and <table>
  • replaced with CSS font-family, float etc.
• documents got smaller
• explosion of <div>s and <span>s
• some use of lists <ul>, <ol>, <dl>

semantic (x)html example: blogs

• headings and paragraphs
• no more <b>ed and <br>eakfast

  old:	new:
  <b>had lunch</b> <br> i had lunch today <br>	<h3>had lunch</h3> <p> i had lunch today </p>

• advantages:
  • Google relevance from heading tags
  • easier to style paragraphs, etc.

semantic (x)html example: blogs

• discoverable permalinks
• no more <a>norexic </a>nchors

  old:	new:
  <a name="post123"></a> ... <a href="#post123">#</a>	<div id="post123"> ... <a href="#post123" rel="bookmark">#</a> </div>

semantic (x)html example: blogchalking

http://www.blogchalking.tk/

• "hobo-language for bloggers"
• e.g.

  
  <meta name="blogchalk"
        content="country, state, city,
                 neighborhood, language, name, 
                 gender, age, internet connection,
                 hobbies" />
  

• successful blog meme
• 2003 bloggies award

semantic (x)html example: geolocation

• GeoURL by Joshua Schachter
• also uses simple <meta> tags

  note: 11k weblogs with GeoURL

• check out the session tomorrow
• @ 11am Ballroom C

semantic (x)html example: social software

• xhtml friends network (xfn)
• http://gmpg.org/xfn/
• started at sxsw 2003
• easy way to personalize hyperlinks
• with relationship information
• e.g.

  
  <a href="http://joe.example.org"
     rel="acquaintance met">Joe</a>
  

semantic (x)html example: social software

• xhtml friends network (xfn)

  relationship category	XFN values
  friendship (at most one):	friend acquaintance
  physical:	met
  professional:	co-worker colleague
  geographical (at most one):	co-resident neighbor
  family (at most one):	child parent sibling spouse
  romantic:	muse crush date sweetheart

• mix and match and combine values

  • rel="friend met"

  • rel="acquaintance colleague"

  • rel="muse"

semantic (x)html example: social software

• xhtml friends network (xfn)
• xfn built with xhtml meta data profile
  • http://gmpg.org/xmdp/
• simple way to define new "rel" values
• also new meta property names and values
• reuse semantic (x)html to define more semantics

semantic (x)html example: social software

• xhtml friends network (xfn)
• specification: http://gmpg.org/xfn/1
• status: v1 completed in December 2003
• tools: blogging: wordpress, blosxom plugin, mt template, blogrolling.com
• editing: nvu editor, dreamweaver plugin
• browsing: rubhub.com aggregator, favelets
• adoption: rubhub stats show 1 in 12 spidered blogs

semantic (x)html example: CC

• creative commons
• e.g.

  
  <link rel="license" 
        href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/1.0/" />
  

semantic (x)html example: outlines

• extensible open xhtml outlines (xoxo)
• started: over IRC on #joiito
• specification: http://developers.technorati.com/wiki/xhtmloutlines
• status: draft
• tools: any web browser will display; author by hand

semantic (x)html example: blogrolls

• use XOXO to list, plus CSS styling to display
• easy to embed in a website
• e.g. http://diveintomark.org/public/2004/01/xo-with-style.xo

semantic (x)html example: vote links

• vote links
  • rel="vote-for"
  • rel="vote-against"
  • rel="vote-abstain"
• e.g.

  
  <a rel="vote-for" href="http://example.com/proposal">   
  

• specification: http://developers.technorati.com/wiki/VoteLinks
• status: draft
• tools: any web browser will display; author by hand
• adoption: Technorati will index these - add to blogging tools

semantic (x)html possibilities

• recommendations?
  • another kind of voting
  • hyperlink with rel="recommendation"
• syndication?
  • problem: no xhtml markup for time
  • limitations of xhtml
  • create an xhtml Modularization time module?
  • atom folks have thought more about this
• playlists?
  • an XOXO ordered list
  • containing links to the media files.

semantic (x)html possibilities

• questions for discussion:
• what other examples can you think of?
• is this something that is taking off?
• what is the future of semantic (x)html?