This was not on the map!

Here’s Danny’s continuation of the “SemWeb types should embrace OPML/RDF is too hard” thread, in which he takes a step back to paint the big picture.

The goal is the Web of Data, Web as a platform. An RDF-based semantic web could be one way to get there. Emerging “naive” technologies like RSS and OPML and microformats and structured blogging are other paths that lead into the right direction. So are heavyweights like Microsoft’s WinFS. Danny does a great job connecting the dots between the current web and this jumble of technologies.

What’s the clear path? The point where I disagree with him is whether RDF is the “clear path,” the one that will ultimately lead to the goal on an optimal route. To stay with his forest analogy, we’re following a map that was drawn by early trailblazers with incomplete knowledge of the territory and is now cast in stone as W3C Recommendations. It’s a magnificient and elegant map, seducing in its apparent simplicity. But as we make our way across the territory, we waste endless time fighting obstacles that were not on the map.

Meanwhile, the “naive” folks are exploring different corners of the forest from the ground level. They waste time in areas where we have long established a clear trail, they often take the easy road downhill en masse just to find out it’s blocked, but they adapt, they learn, they optimize locally, and new folks who embark on the pilgrimage follow their lead instead of trusting our map.

We are believers. Our trust in the map is rooted in its good-looking theory, and we follow it even if the day-to-day evidence suggests it has major flaws. Correcting these flaws is extremely hard because they have been cast in stone as standards and we already have invested so much, we are committed, we can’t just backtrack and try another route.

Phil Jones said the same thing in less colorful words and stresses that the “naive” types explore and fight and mess up and learn in public:

With communities of thousands of users depending on the format and tools for their everyday needs, there’ll be “many eyeballs” identifying problems and suggesting workarounds and fixes. The naive community will probably address the problems in order of actual pain they cause, undoubtedly leaving dozens unsolved altogether, but solving the big ones to most people’s satisfiction in a fairly short time.

Do you remember? So, my fellow believers: Do you remember when you first beheld the map in all its glory and became convinced that this was the path to follow? Do you remember how you figured out the hard way, step by step, that it’s not so simple in practice? It’s time to stand up and point at things and say: “This was not on the map!”