The Semantic Web Gang discuss ontologies

Back in October I wrote about the first Vocabulary Camp, or VoCamp. These informal gatherings have gone from strength to strength, and the fourth is currently underway on the Spanish island of Ibiza.

A report from the island by Yahoo's Peter Mika begins this month's episode of the Semantic Web Gang podcast, and leads to a wide-ranging discussion of the role that vocabularies and ontologies continue to play within the Semantic Web. The very nature of these ad hoc VoCamps says much, though, about the way in which attitudes have shifted away from expectations that massive all-encompassing ontologies are the best way to help machines to reason about the world around them.