Emergent Semantics

Description

Emergent Semantics

Eric A. Meyer

Complex Spiral Consulting

What Was That Again?

"Emergent semantics" is a fancy way of saying... Ground-up semantics Grassroots semantics Evolutionary semantics

The general idea is that nobody acts as director; semantics are created ad-hoc and evolve over time

What we're talking about is the "lowercase semantic web", as opposed to the Semantic Web

Basic Principles

Define a microformat that solves a specific problem

Use or leverage existing XHTML markup structures to express semantics

Use or leverage existing standards that aren't immediately expressible in XHTML

A key to this approach is that semantic definitions are human -understandable "Microformats are designed for humans first, machines second" In a like manner, the semantics of everything in XHTML are defined via human languages

Why Take This Approach?

Put another way: "Pave the cow paths"

The semantic web is akin to evolution

The Semantic Web is akin to Intelligent Design

Who Can Do This?

Anyone at all, right now, today, without waiting for anyone else's approval

You want to identify a fairly narrowly defined problem and come up with a simple way to solve it

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Original URL

http://complexspiral.com/events/archive/2005/sxsw/

http://complexspiral.com/events/archive/2005/sxsw/