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Re: [ontolog-forum] Study says Uncle Sam should get out of Web publishin

To: "[ontolog-forum]" <ontolog-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
From: "John F. Sowa" <sowa@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Tue, 10 Jun 2008 08:02:28 -0400
Message-id: <484E6D54.9030106@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Deborah,    (01)

Some comments:    (02)

DM> I think there is also a problem with people not being able
 > to make stuff. I liked that article because it seems like maybe
 > people could make things if the stated goals could be realized.    (03)

Goals are fine, but there is a need to understand what kinds of
things are possible.  Some goals are hopelessly unrealistic, and
others are not ambitious enough.  Some goals seem obvious *after*
somebody discovers them, and some seem ridiculous until somebody
shows that they're fantastic.    (04)

DM> ... making stuff requires lots of things to work with, sort
 > through, pick out what you like and get rid of 90 percent of
 > what doesn't matter.    (05)

That is what made search engines successful.  Before AltaVista,
very few people thought it might be possible to index all of
human knowledge and make it available almost instantaneously.    (06)

A few people, such as Vannevar Bush, did think of that idea
about 60 years ago, but it was so unlikely at the time that
nobody paid much attention to it.  AltaVista was revolutionary,
but they didn't have a good way of picking and sorting.  Google
became spectacularly successful with a better way of estimating
relevance.    (07)

DM. Without those features, all the open data we are left with
 > is..........a bunch of flat, boring, non-human, non-inventive,
 > paranoid non-stuff.    (08)

Getting the boring data is a prerequisite.  But so far, we have
only begun to explore all the ways of using it (and preventing
bad guys from abusing it).    (09)

John    (010)


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