Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Web 3.0 ("Semantic Web") and Microformats Preview

Interested in previewing Web 3.0 technology?

Better yet, want to create your very OWN "Web 3.0-enabled" web page right now?

OK - then just follow along with these easy steps...

1) Get latest version of Firefox browser if you don't already have.

http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/

2) Get the "Tails" add-in which lets you view Microformats (data structures embedded in the XHTML behind the page).

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/2240

3) Get a Blogger account or use one you already have to create a new post.

4) Go here, create an hCard for yourself (Personal Contact Info) and paste the HTML into your Blog:

http://microformats.org/code/hcard/creator

5) Go here, create an hCalendar for some future event of yours and paste the HTML into your Blog:

http://microformats.org/code/hcalendar/creator

6) Publish your blog page and open it up in Firefox. The Tails add-on will have a separate panel on the left side. You should see these Microformats displayed there.

Below are the visible entires for the hCard and hCalendar I created for this post. If you are viewing in Firefox and Tails, you should see the Microformat Tags on the left side right now (if not, see screen shot below).

You should be able to mouse over them and see options for easily exporting into your Contact mgmt program, your Calendar program, etc.

Here's a MicroFormat hCard:

Charles F Byrne
Early to Rise
245 NE 4th Avenue
Delray Beach, FL , 33444
USA

This hCard created with the hCard creator. End of hCard.

Here's a MicroFormat hCalendar

November 9th12th, 2008 ETR 2008 Bootcamp– at Delray Beach, Florida
This hCalendar event brought to you by the hCalendar Creator.

End of hCalendar
----------

And here's how it looks when you open up this very post in Firefox with Tails.

Note the yellow/orange tags on the left side.

There's our Microformatted data!

Hey, it's not much but this really works.

Here I've clicked on the hCalendar "export" and now I've got a dialog box opened up.

If I like, I can now import this event into my Outlook calendar, all with the click of the mouse.



5 comments:

JFX said...

Dear Charlie,

Great ETR article today on web 3.0!
I have to admit, it was a new term for me. You clearly explained what it is and why it's important. Thanks for getting me up to speed - I'll be looking for your follow-up articles.
All the Best, Joe

MBerry said...

Hi Charlie,

Thanks for the the easy to understand info on Web 3.0, and microfromats. I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the articles in this series.

Cheers, Marc

Mark said...

Social Networking is NOT Web 2.0... Web 2.0 is "The Semantic Web" which you are calling "The Data Web". Please see this link http://www.w3.org/2001/sw/. Tim Berners-Lee has spent years trying to get companies on board for Web 2.0 Please don't get the masses confused.

peace

Mark

Charlie Byrne said...

Hi Joe, Marc and Mark,

Thanks for your comments on the Web 3.0 article!

Mark, Two points in reply to your post…

First, no one “owns” any of these terms (Web 2, Web 3, Social Networking, Data Web, Semantic Web). So at anytime they can “mean” whatever anyone wants them to mean. So we might debate this forever…

Second, that said, I must strongly disagree with your post based on what I am seeing as the “accepted meanings” of these terms right now.

Just looking at your own links, there are numerous instances where the “Semantic Web” is clearly tied to - and in essence equated with - the “Data Web” – most commonly when discussing its foundation of RDF. From your link:

“The Semantic Web is a web of data. The Semantic Web is… about common formats for integration and combination of data”.

In another link of yours, Tim Berners-Lee says this:

“People keep asking what Web 3.0 is. I think maybe when you’ve got … access to a semantic Web integrated across a huge space of data, you’ll have access to an unbelievable data resource.”

Thanks again for your comments,

- Charlie Byrne, Early to Rise

T Tague said...

Charlie:

You might be interested in taking a look at what Reuters is up to today in this space. About three months ago we rolled out our Calais initiative - which offers semantic metadata generation (including microformats in just a few weeks) free to anyone. Stop by http://www.opencalais.com

Regards,