Web 3.0: The expanding Sea of Data

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The Semantic Web provides a common framework that allows data to be shared and reused across applications and community boundaries. It is based on the Resource Description Framework (RDF). Sir Tim Berners-Lee, Internet pioneer, and director of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), discusses the future of the Web.



A characteristic of user engagement with the Semantic Web, noted by Berners-Lee, is the ability to apply different analytical lenses to data sets in order to "mine" that data. Data mining is a term used to uncover patterns in data samples. The challenge is to find cross domain semantic terms and to be able to communicate these both within and across disciplines. EXtensible Markup Language (XML) is now as important for the Web as HTML was to the foundation of the Web. It is the most common tool for data transmissions between all sorts of applications, and is becoming more popular in the area of storing and describing information. With XML, data can be available to all kinds of "reading machines" (Handheld computers, voice machines, news feeds, etc), and make it more available for the visually impaired. RDF is used to describe resources and ontology. Common RDF standards reduce costs for individuals, communities and organisations managing information. Dr K Faith Lawrence, Digital Humanities Observatory, speaking at Cork, noted that data is invested with different intellectual capital between the humanities and the sciences. A scientist may invest intellectual capital in the raw data itself, while, a humanist, may invest intellectual capital in the final analysis of that data. Common RDF standards enable data to be stitched together from mutiple sources enabling a web of data - The Semantic Web.

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