microformats ftw

Maybe not "cool" to say so, but MySpace++. Love the initiative to push forward with Microformats. µFormats ftw

http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/myspace_to_bet_its_future_on_open_standards.php

Here's how MySpace's plan is unlike what Facebook is doing. The updates will be marked up for the types of activities they represent with standardized microformat code, beginning with the events format hCal and soon to include the book, movie or other review format hReview. Those little bits of code that will be added could have big consequences.

Keller says the company acknowledges that this won't be a small task for third-party developers, so in the meantime she is working on automated methods of pulling user data in from other sites' Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) and marking them up automatically, with the microformat code communicating what kind of updates they are (events, reviews, etc.)

grok-ing POSH

..class names in XHTML are for semantics, not presentation. Yes, provide presentation with CSS calling out the class name, but the main purpose is for semantics.

http://www.w3.org/QA/Tips/goodclassnames

http://www.w3.org/2001/tag/doc/contentPresentation-26.html

Knol and Semantic Web

http://knol.google.com/k

...reading between the lines on this for awhile... Google is seemingly going to move in the semantic direction... this is a step... by referencing a Knol (or a Wiki link or any link to a definition) in an RDF, you define that element in the HTML hierarchy with a real meaning "a shark is an aquatic creature, yada yada". Search for "shark" not only pulls up hyperlinked web content (current legacy which uses headers, urls, hyperlinks... to relate search terms to highest relevance), but pulls up all in the 'web' defined, so it pulls up shark, the creature that swims, not Shark the former wide receiver for the Irish Jeff Samardijza, nor The Shark Greg Norman, for instance... it's a way to relate words with different definitions in a semantic way, which is a common and big problem to solve on the web. It also enables new automated ways for apps to talk with other apps. The web has been missing this step towards progressing.

Google doesn't want to be beholden to Wikipedia... and why should they be, they have the resources and the intelligence to pull this off and move it forward.

... those ahead of the curve, start thinking about and programming your internetz and interwebs semantically...

http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/LinkedData.html

Semantic blog post by Tim Berners Lee

Nice article by Tim Berners Lee's blog related to his thoughts on the recent Time's article. Insightful blog to read if you're interested in moving forward on this topic.
http://dig.csail.mit.edu/breadcrumbs/node/232

RDF and the Semantic Web

Nicely written introductory link on RDF and the semantic web if you're curious. To give this some background and context... imo, this is why Google is coming out with it's "Knowls", etc, that was recently reported in the media.

a quick summary of RDF: Within in the flavor of XML that is RDF, people/companies creating web pages embed loosely organized 'sentences' of how the data on their pages is structured -- such as [what this page represents] [is a] [noun], or [actor] [starred_in] [movie] --- or more specifically ...whereby the URI " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolphin" could be used by anyone working in RDF to represent the concept of a dolphin.

...Wikipedia is currently way ahead of any site in terms of static informational pages, or references that are the answer to the "is a" question, for example. What do I mean by that/ why are these important? While databases structure data in a hierarchical, contained, somewhat inflexible way -- in the sense that this format of contained information therefore takes 'work' to connect that data to other data E.g. a webservice, an api wrapped around the database is required to allow others to access it etc. The Tim Berners Lee world of REST and the Semantic web theorizes ways to change that for the better in many ways, where pages themselves are related to the web in general via a common, standardized meta language.

So perhaps Google wants to catch up with Wiki (stands for "What I Know Is...") and extend its capability (dominance) in search in that different direction. I personally only care about what Google or Wikipedia is doing in the sense of how it will play out with the infrastructure of the web and how to anticipate what is ahead. REST, RDF, the Semantic web are interesting topics gaining momentum (which is one motivator for me in learning the Ruby web framework known as Rails, which embraces REST).

If the semantic web booms, which seems like a logical evolution, these Wiki or Knowls sorts of web properties find themselves at the core of finding information on the semantic web -- i.e. the semantic-noun-verb core. The standards for RDF and the semantic web are evolving, and it will be fun to see where/how this evolves over the next few years.

Some other links:
Redland RDF libraries: http://librdf.org/ : (Ruby binding: http://librdf.org/docs/ruby.html)
ActiveRDF (Rails): http://activerdf.org/

-Holts