• A parallel web, readable by machines

At the doctor's office, Lucy instructed her Semantic Web agent through her handheld Web browser. The agent promptly retrieved information about Mom's prescribed treatment from the doctor's agent, looked up several lists of providers, and checked for the ones in-plan for Mom's insurance within a 20-mile radius of her home and with a rating of excellent or very good on trusted rating services. It then began trying to find a match between available appointment times (supplied by the agents of individual providers through their Web sites) and Pete's and Lucy's busy schedules.

• A system where all your applications can talk to one another
• And to everyone else's applications and data
• in a decentralised fashion

Systems will automatically retrieve the information they need from wherever it's stored, and then pull these sources together into one thing.

RDF:

• links things together
• all terms are defined somewhere

• (katGoodwin) (isA) (pythonDeveloper)
• (pythonDeveloper) (programsIn) (python)
• (python) (isA) (programmingLanguage)

• The plan relies on a consistent set of metadata
• Which is created cooperatively by everyone
• and that is not ever going to happen

• People tell lies (search engine keywords)
• People don't create metadata (mp3 tags)
• People can't create machine-readable data (RSS feeds)
• People don't know what they do (TV viewing)

• There is no universal hierarchy of knowledge (washing machines)
• There is no good trust system (name one!)
• Not all data is owned (dreams aren't real)
• Data conflicts (dreams are real)
• Identity theft (defacements win money)

• The Semantic Web is the quest for AI in a new guise
• Except now it's our responsibility to make it work

I stand here without fear because I remember. I remember that I am here not because of the path that lies before me but because of the path that lies behind me. I remember that for 100 years we have fought these machines.

Morpheus