Uses of the Semantic Web
The Semantic Web is already in use today:
- The 'Friend of a Friend' (FOAF) system allows machine-readable homepages to be created. Each page describes a person, and can be linked to pages describing their friends, or the things they do. It allows people to find others with similar interests. FOAF is in fact simply RDF vocabulary.
- The Semantic Media Wiki (http://ontoworld.org/wiki/Semantic_MediaWiki) is a semantic version of the MediaWiki that powers Wikipedia.
Further extensions to the Semantic Web could involve integration into our everyday lives. URIs could be used to point to physical entities such as mobile phones, TVs, even light switches. Using RDF these objects could broadcast their properties, and allow external control (an extension of the current 'plug and play' system used for hardware devices and computers).
Home automation could become standard. Currently, if we wished to turn down the volume on all devices within a room, we would have to specify each device individually. However, not only could it be possible to simply turn down all local devices that advertised, for example, having a volume control, but this could even happen automatically when the phone rang. If new devices were brought into the room, or devices removed, these would automatically be detected, and their volumes controlled. Priorities could even be used, turning different device volumes down by different amount according to their importance (for example, a television might be less important than a doorbell or alarm clock).