Semantics Please

Here we go. This is my usual introductory speech when talking about semantics:

NO, the semantic web has NOTHING to do with semantics.

It is interesting to see how the term “semantic” has been abused here (search Google for semantic web, very few of the 5M+ results has anything to do with information’s meaning).

The idea behind what is commonly referred to as “the semantic web” is the alteration of data so that current information systems can process it. It has nothing to do with actually understanding its meaning. It merely consists of a data-rewrite according to a format that tell computer systems which information is important and how to deal with it.

The success of the semantic web is very tamed. Aside from practical reasons: doubling the representation of data, one for human and one for computers, and the rewrite of all existing information, the semantic web’s non-success is deeply rooted within its failure to apprehend the actual sense of information, to understand its content.

The solution is not to alter information for computers. But rather to alter computers for information. We need to create new information systems that understand non-structured information given its nature and content.

This is the goal of the SALSA technology. We are not interested into morphing and interpreting data to further process it. We are working at the core of information systems to provide an intuitive understanding of semantics, a real sense of it, to future systems.