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Ask YC : Could Rails build the Semantic Web?
This is just an idea that I wanted to throw out to the community. Everyone talks about how to build the underlying structure into the web to allow the Semantic Web 'flourish'. What if web app frameworks, like Rails or Django, could build in the structured information in the same way that Java Docs build out documentation for Java Code.
Maybe there is a very good reason why this won't work but I'm sitting in a meeting and wanted to throw this out there. What do you think? Could you build in Semantic Web structure at development time, or DB insert time, etc. Instead of trying to build some program that infers it from existing web pages?
- thomasswift 19y agoRails could. It gives you an api for free and there are plugins/gems that you could modify to fit into the semantic web. BUT, I don't think this 'semantic web' is ever going to be achieved. Most of the big players want you to give the information to them. Sure they give you an API, but it's against the terms of service to take your data out(Youtube,Facebook). I think when those barriers break we could get closer to it, but how are they going to make money? Maybe I am wrong.
- Readmore 19y agoThat's true, but my thought here is that if something like Rails automatically generated semantic web structure when it serves the pages then as people build web apps we get the semantic stuff for free. Think if Scribd had something like that when they built their site. Then all of those documents could have extra data, pulled from the database and the document itself, embedded in the page. I guess what I'm thinking of is an extension to something like ActiveRecord that pulls that information out of your models and database to embed in your pages.
- bct 19y agoThere are lots of industries that don't make their money by controlling access to data. Pretty much anybody selling you something can gain by making it easier for you to find the product you want. I'm sure eg. realtors would be happy to publish their listings in a machine-readable format if they thought anybody cared. Lots of government data too, explicitly open data like Wikipedia, and things that aren't worth the trouble to try to lock up and monetize.
- pius 19y agoYes, absolutely. All it takes is the right defaults.
- bct 19y ago> Could you build in Semantic Web structure at development time, or DB insert time, etc. Sure; just use a triple store rather than an SQL database. Take a look at ActiveRDF.