The Semantic Web gets real

The Semantic Web, which is a fancy way of saying data can be defined, shared and reused everywhere, is becoming less academic and more real for technology folks--and their ROI driven bosses.

That's the big takeaway from Paul Miller's interview with Sir Tim Berners-Lee. Paul is new to the ZDNet network and has started a blog focused on the Semantic Web, which will become increasingly important to businesses.

In a nutshell, Berners-Lee notes that the Semantic Web is well out of its theory and lofty standards stage to becoming something the average bear can understand.

Berners-Lee says:

I think, data integration is the name of the game. That's happening, it's showing benefits. Public data as well; public data is happening and it is providing the fodder for all kinds of mashups. What we should realize is that the return on investment will come much earlier when we just have got this interoperable data that we can query over.

That's the money quote for me (quite literally). If you say Semantic Web my eyes glaze over even though I find it very interesting overall. When you say Semantic Web can integrate data across the Web, enterprises and government then I'm more interested. If you can use this Semantic Web thing to eradicate the data silos I'm jazzed. There's ROI in those hills.

Check out Paul's post, which has a lot more from Berners-Lee. Perhaps you can find a few nuggets to give your CFO. Your CFO won't get the Semantic Web, but he'll certainly get the importance integrating data.