Having problems sleeping again - a familiar pattern: I wake up, I start thinking about stuff, I don't sleep again until I write something down.

OK, semantic web - What's useful/important now?:

  1. Getting data
  2. Aggregating data
  3. Querying the aggregated data

What's not so important?

  1. Getting people to agree on how to serialize the data
  2. Getting people to agree on how to model the data

The thing is, I've been assuming that the latter two are important for achieving the goals in the first set, so much so that I confused them with being the goals.

Shift in emphasis:

Instead of coming up with a data format that's easy to aggregate (e.g. rdf, tagtriples), maybe concentrate on making tools that help in aggregating the existing stuff.

Instead of requiring the data publisher to work to fit the model, shift the work onto the person aggregating the data, and give them better tools to do it. Or maybe even the person querying the data (since they have the most to gain).

And make it easier to publish, even if it means more difficult to aggregate and query.

(Actually, what's most important is me getting some sleep).