Fraser over at AdaptiveBlue has me thinking about the “semantic web” this morning. More specifically, he has me mulling over Matthew Ingram’s idea the the “semantic web” (as a talking point) is as boring as “dry toast.”
AdaptiveBlue is what some folks might call a semantic web company. Really, though, its more helpful to think of what they’re doing as “contextual browsing.” Is that just personalization all over again? Eh - not really.
Personalization tailors content within a specific domain (a website) to one individual. At least, that’s how I think of it.
Contextual Browsing builds implicit structure into unstructured data in a cross domain setting.
Which brings me to one of the key qualities of the defrag space: working cross domain.
Whether we’re talking about enterprise 2.0 tools, semantic tools, implicit tools, collective intelligence tools — the common denominator is working “cross-domain.” Enterprise 2.0 (and online collaboration) tools work across departmental domains (or knowledge domains, or employee domains). Implicit tools bring to the surface bits from varying domains. Collective intelligence tools cross the barriers of individual beliefs and knowledge. And contextual browsing takes the experience of the web from being one of a localized “place” (a site) to a network of connected ideas.
And that’s not boring.
Thanks for the push, Fraser. Good stuff.
