Re: A bit of bomb throwing....

From: Zack Rosen <zack_at_civicspacelabs.org>
Date: Mon, 16 Jan 2006 18:29:04 -0800

>> I care deeply about the problem space. The issue is that it is
>> simply too costly to 'jump on board' at the moment and I don't see
>> that changing any time soon.
>>
>
> I started to use Java in 1995 where people knew for those little
> applets that ran into Netscape Navigator 2.0, but I used it on the
> server side.
>
> I started with Servlets 1.0, it didn't have sessions, the apache
> jserv servlet engine was so poorly written that the logs where put
> into a stack and then output, not a vector, a stack, so you
> couldn't understand what was going on because

not sure if there was supposed to be more written here...

>
>> Consider me an overly eager early adopter. I represent a number
>> of organizations with reasonable development budgets that would be
>> incredibly well served by semantic technologies but the tools are
>> simply out of reach. Why is this?
>>
>
> How would I know? you tell me. This stuff works great for what I
> need (better than anything else out there) and when it doesn't, we
> try to find a way to fix it or improve it.
>
> What I know is that coding builds software, complaining does not :-)
>
> You have to choices: walk away or help us improve what you think
> it's wrong.
>
> Personally, I think we need both people with real-world experience
> on writing software and put it in production and thinkers with a
> lot of whiteboards and hacked-up prototypes. SIMILE wants to be a
> place where the two can meet, speak and confront.

This is exactly what I would like to see SIMILE become, but it isn't
there yet and without a restructuring of approach I don't see it
becoming that any time soon. As someone representing the development
budgets of organizations looking to employ semantic web technologies
I assure you there is no realistic way to employ them yet. With all
the effort and passion going into this research I don't see why this
has to be the case.

Why aren't these tools being employed in real world use cases? Why
are they being built in silo'd development environments? Why aren't
researches collaborating effectively with organizations, businesses,
and open-source developers actively pursuing semantic web concepts?

> Constructively.
>
> You are welcome to join us.
>
> Or you are welcome to consider us doomed.
>
> Both are fine with me

I've been on the other end of gripers many times and I'm sorry to put
you through it. My only excuse is that there is no other vehicle I
see for getting engaged and helping shape semantic web research.

-Zack
Received on Tue Jan 17 2006 - 02:28:37 EST

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