(Mis) Understanding the Semantic Web, Part III

After blundering my way through two blogs on the Semantic Web, I think that I at least have been able to separate some of the concepts from the techno-babble, and have achieved a better understanding of what is being referred to, and what the goal of the project is. Providing a better explanation than I would be able to, however, is Semantic Web guru, and W3C Chairman of Linked Data and Web Payments Initiatives, Manu Sporny, who created this excellent video that should cover most of the basics for any of us still struggling with what Semantic Web is:

So we're trying to create webs of data that allow machines to more properly interpret and "understand" the meaning of webpages and information resources, and their relationship to each other, all the while greatly improving their ability to retrieve just what we're looking for. This is all necessary, as Dr. MacCall points out, because computers are "dumb de dumb dumb dumb."

It all sounds like a pretty noble goal in trying to help bring greater order and efficiency to the web, though the big question is probably whether there is enough buy-in to make it a reality. There's undoubtedly a whole lot of "under the hood" type information that I'm not even going to attempt to touch, but hopefully some of you have gained a better understanding of this topic, like I have, over this series of posts. I at least won't be getting a "deer in the headlights" look the next time I'm reading about Semantic Web in my SLIS readings.