Assignment 2 – Part 1

Please read this article and this article on the semantic web. In your blog, post a brief opinion piece on what you've read. Try to explain why you think this is (or isn't) an important topic of discussion for an E-commerce practitioner.

The idea of the semantic web seems to be the next logical progression of information on the Internet. Similar to how people started figuring out networked computers were much more useful than standalone, this next level of information sharing will be key in making the Internet an even more effective informational tool for its users. So far, search engines like google and yahoo! have done a fine job in trying to aggregate relevant information for us – And they will continue to do so until the semantic web truly takes off. I definitely look forward to someday doing searches on the web and finding information that is exactly what I need, without having to sift through superfluous sites and irrelevant information.

Even the more simple ideas closer to home, such as the appointment scheduling example given in the Eric Miller article could be beneficial. Imagine having all meeting information in your PDA, desktop calendar, and mobile phone synchronized with one mouse click! I’m sure many people have felt the pain of maintaining separate contact lists on their personal organizers (PDA or planner) and mobile phones.

The other idea given about aggregating separate services to create one can have a tremendous effect on e-commerce services for both large and small organizations. For instance, product manufacturers can continue to be experts and concentrate on developing specific products while leaving other aspects of services (e.g., packaging and shipping) to their partners. Small companies can easily find and form affiliations with others to take advantage of business opportunities that may be out of reach acting alone. For those that are starting up e-commerce ideas, making their services semantic web friendly can lead to even more prospects for additional success.

Unfortunately, one thing rather disappointing was the fact that the idea of the semantic web has been in existence over for many years (The ERCIM article was written in 2002 and the article cited below was written in 2001) but it doesn’t seem like much visible progress has been made in this area. Hopefully, more people will continue to learn about this idea and be more willing to participate – it seems to be a great concept that will benefit everyone.

Additional Resource:
The Semantic Web: An Introduction