Start Your Semantic Journey

Start Your Semantic Journey
H/T Teodora Petkova

Originally shared by Teodora Petkova

Where to start your Semantic Web journey?
An exciting steep curve learning path I want to share with you

Imagine you want to know how many writers lived in the region where during the last 50 years has been consumed the highest amount of coffee on the planet.

You go to the library. Could by any kind of informational space, used for storing and classifying data, hence the image: on the left the Alexandria library, on the right: servers. 

There you ask your question multiple librarians, who have access to any piece of information, anywhere, and never sleep, or are limited by lack of computational power. They’ve never heard your question before, but that doesn’t matter, within seconds they return a handful of verified connections, sources, structures for you to explore, analyze, conclude [as data mean nothing without interpretation].

Now open your eyes. The place you were at was the world the Semantic Web, a web of data, machine-readable and processable data. Building on the Web as we know it, as a web of documents, the Semantic Web is a layer that allows for data to be handled by machines for us. 

This world can be (and is) brought to you thanks to the:

* Semantic Web vision and the standards that propagate it 
* Semantic web technologies

Why would we need such a world? 

In order “ [...] to use computer power to help us exploit the information to a greater extent than our own reading.“ (cit. Tim Berners-Lee, http://goo.gl/NURpT4)

Where to start your Semantic Web journey? (resources)

The earliest time when Tim Berners-Lee  mentions the semantic web is in the above cited resource, where the need for semantics on the web is outlined and explained. 

If you want to further explore the semantic web (both the vision and how it unfolds) I believe these are valuable resources to start with, listed in the order I find appropriate for beginners.

Stage 1: Semantic what?
☆Intro to the Semantic Web, by Manu Sporny  (6 mins video): http://goo.gl/mlnLar
☆ A seminal article, published in Scientific American in 2001, co-authored by Tim Berners-Lee, James Hendler and Ora Lassila: The Semantic Web A new form of Web content that is meaningful to computers will unleash a revolution of new possibilities (http://goo.gl/lGgprk) 
☆ Nota bene If you don’t understand everything in the article (like I did the first 10 times :) I read it, don’t worry. I am sure these twenty minutes will make things clearer: In the video What will the Semantic Web Look Like 10 Years From Now? ( http://goo.gl/MLrT6P) J. Handler discusses this same article - what has happened from the predictions outlined in it and what hasn’t (20 minutes worth your time)
(i.s. once J. Handler was introduced the following way: If Tim Berners-Lee is the God of the Semantic Web, J. Handler is the Pope :))

Stage 2: OK, Semantic Web, but why?
☆ If you are curious to learn about real world implementations of semantic web technologies, browse the Semantic Web Case Studies and Use Cases on the W3C’s page here: http://goo.gl/EDY03K

Stage 3: I got this Semantic Web thing, but how exactly? [An “Aqua-Lung” for deeper dive]
☆ W3C Tutorial on Semantic Web and Linked Data at WWW 2013: http://goo.gl/QKWBs2 
(this is with a h/t to Bill Slawski, the slides are quite a resource and will be your “Aqua-Lung” for deeper dive. On his website, Bill has also put a list of resource which you might want to check: http://goo.gl/zQp6Zu)

☆ The first (as far as I know) semantic web patent: System and method for creating a semantic web and its applications in browsing, searching, profiling, personalization and advertising (http://goo.gl/ODtaZ4)

A personal note (and a piece of advice)
It’s one thing to read and another to grow your knowledge organically through conversations and questions.

The core of my understanding of what the semantic web is I owe to David Amerland. His book Google Semantic Search (http://goo.gl/IjpQrJ), specifically the "Trust in a Semantic Web" part, ignited my curiosity to search further.

Understanding TBL’s  Semantic Web vision looks easy: making the flat dumb web machine understandable. Next, though, come a lot of details and activities which we are currently seeing unfolding and which add to the understanding and more importantly to the implementations and the implications it leads to.

It’s one thing to read and another to grow your knowledge organically through conversations and questions.

I am lucky to have met Bernard Vatant, Kingsley Idehen, prof. Amit Sheth, Jarno van Driel and Aaron Bradley who are gladly and open-mindedly answering all the questions that arise in my mind when exploring the essence of the Web of Trust (the final stage of the unfolding of the Semantic Web).

So, more abstractly speaking, your semantic web journey starts with the first step: realizing that the semantic web is a web of relationships (you will know what I mean when you take your first steps)
  
Enjoy the ride and thanks if you made it that far :)