Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Amy Karr-Web 3.0: The Systematic Web

Today I will be discussing the emerging technology of Web 3.0, or the Semantic Web and will address the question of the week, which asks, “How are emerging technologies impacting society?” The Issue today is that we have made it easier for the average Internet user to read content on the web, but now we face the issue of implementing new technology that allows for the computer to understand human content through semantics. The Semantic Web is a developing technology that takes data and links it together to form a network that will better connect users to the information they actually desire. There are many resources available on-line but no way to connect and process it in a way that the computer can understand. My main argument is that the World Wide Web gives us access to information, but this information is not understood by the computer and cannot effectively provide what we ask the computer if it does not know what we mean. The information that we have access to via the Internet is limited to documents on the Web, rather than data. The Semantic Web will provide the opportunity to connect data for the advancement of research. Once the technology is implemented fully onto the World Wide Web, it will save the time and effort put forth in research by bridging related data together and eliminating the never-ending Google search. Institutions that use semantic technology, such as the medical field, in the same way save time and energy that would normally be devoted to an endless amount of time searching medical records and historical data. The development of The Semantic Web is taking measures to revamp how research is done, and this impacts not only the efficiency of gathering information for Internet users, but for the advancement of research particularly in the medical field.

A helpful video of the development of the world wide web: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=off08As3siM

1 comment:

Amy Grace said...

During the class discussion, students had questions and comments about projections of when the Semantic Web would be available for public use. In my research, I have found that it is already being implemented by social sites such as flickr and twitter by their use of tags within their content. The Semantic Web has also already proven effective within research as they are merging numerous databases by translating them into RDF and placing data into one Semantic Web database. This has allowed researchers to find precisely the information they are looking for and more quickly.
In response to the question of the week, "How are emerging technologies impacting society?" I would say that semantic technology is allowing our computers to understand us better. As the technology develops, it will allow us to more effectively communicate with the internet, what exactly we want from it.