Monday November 22

meta hooey

Marc Canter continues the battle of metadata vs. no metadata that was recently re-ignited by Adam Bosworth.

These discussions are interesting, but I don't buy the notion that something has to be super-simple to win out. All it takes is one successful product that either employs metadata or not, and it will take the rest of us along for a ride. Simplicity is one factor in success, but people will glady tolerate complexity if a product has enough overall value.

So, predicting whether or not the "semantic web" will happen isn't a matter of whether the idea is too complex for developers, it's just a matter of how many genuinely useful semantic applications are delivered. So far the pickings are slim, but growing...