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Semantic Web
Introduction Semantic web as defined by the creator of the web Tim Berners-Lee is "a web of data, in some ways like a global database" (Berners-Lee, 1998). To elaborate further Mr. Berners-Lee explains in an interview held by IDG Now, data is expressed on computers as associated files with applications that deal specifically with information, an example would be, data in calendars, bank systems, spreadsheets, and database application. Looking at a web page, data is not clearly defined and not associated with any of the applications usually on computers. Semantic web will allow data to interact and connect together; it will bring on a common data format for all applications, for databases and web pages alike (Moon, 1999). Semantic web is not to build an artificial intelligence system which allows computers to understand what humans write on web pages; on the contrary, it is an attempt to make web pages more understandable and well-defined to support automatic extraction of data from within web content (Berners-Lee, 1998). Analysis The emergence of the web and the way HTML took off was driven by how society's needed to grew, from Internet chat to file transfer to high-end communities through blogs and wiki's. HTML was not limited to web content, knowledge base and help files adapted the language as a format to document software applications and provide training material. The revolution of technologies on the Internet allowed companies like Google to index pages; a thought that was very far away, says Tim Berners-Lee in his lecture at MIT. Web services have evolved to pave the road for distributed information and modular programming allowing interoperability among sites. Through XML, data in one site can be used by another using the common protocols and standards supported by both (Berners-Lee, 1998). XML defines schemas that deal with fields of data, what is required is a system that can tell the computer what sort of information (data) it can derive from within a page (Moon, 1999). With Web 3.0 a site will provide data that can be navigated through and extracted from multiple sites, this is a result of the fact that semantic web data model is closely related to a relational database where records of data share common fields that connect them together (Berners-Lee, 1998). The solution provided to support semantic web is in the form of metadata that describes the data contained on web pages. Resource Description Framework (RDF) is a base to manage metadata; it is the ground that computers can use to exchange and interact with applications on the Web (W3C RFC, 1999). The applications for RDF include digital libraries, online catalogs, and indexing systems that are usually associated with content and content relationships models deployed in most web pages. With RDF data within business portals will be analyzed and identified as resources, properties, or statements transparent to the domain, further more, the specifications will merge with other documents to comprise a framework of classes. Classes organized as a hierarchy comprises a schema that can be reusable as metadata definitions along side multiple platforms. Resources created in this hierarchy can be identified using a resource identifier (URI), which enables a document given to a machine with this identification to be recognized by the system and triggers it to dig and find similar data (Berners-Lee, 1998). Implications Semantic web can be the solution to overpower the limitations of current information management systems in finding and extracting data from unorganized resources. RDF is meant to describe any data regardless of its character, location, source, or type, the concept of URI is richer to uniquely identify any object on the web (Berners-Lee, 1998). The pillars of Semantic web are standards and common protocols that are the bases for knowledge representation; HTML, RDF, the data language resource description web ontology language (OWL) that describes to the machine what is going on, in addition to RDF1 which is a query language to make inquiries among machines much easer, will all emerge and collaborate to bring in more to the web and more intelligent programs that will bring the Internet more closer (Cleave, 2004). The current research and implementation of Abilene network and the Next Generation Internet (NGI) Internet 2 of high-performance backbone network linking major universities and research labs across the US, is a good foundation for what Semantic web can do, and represent the perfect platform for grid computing, digital libraries, virtual laboratories, and distance learning (Abilene, Internet2). Internet2 or I2 was developed by a group of universities in 1996 providing improved connectivity standards to reach 10gbps (gigabits per second). With more than 227 universities and libraries connected, network based applications and experimental programs can run on this network of high-bandwidth connection feeding on the latest technology of gigabit Ethernet and IP protocol version 6 (Reardon, 2004). Semantic web standards can be the base of material and data distributed on this network, providing the best test platform to explore the full potential and what can be achieved. Conclusion Tim Berners-Lee believes that with Web 3.0 we can succeed and fantastic things can happen, but the infrastructure need to be built, laws of privacy and security need to be revised and honored, further more, the web need to remain open for researchers to allow for continuous upgrade and development. Semantic web will kick off when individuals materialize the need to work on data processing, and think about collaborating their data, with company's information and that of the government (Moon, 1999). References:
Creating Your Small Business Website - The Simple Truth
Your Small Business Website doesn't have to be a challenge. You'll be able to get it up and running without a professional web-designer, you'll be able to describe you're unique value proposition, and you'll have an offer waiting to bring in business that already believes your solution is the correct one for them. One of the biggest myths about creating a website is that you have to use a web-designer. Designers can bring a great service, but your goal is to make information available and to interest clients in your products and services. To leverage this, you should look for a templated site. Simply put, that means you pick out a predesigned website and make a few customizations that are appropriate for your business. Usually you have hundreds of choices from which to choose. Then you add your images, upload your logo; and more importantly use your voice to communicate. Quick and dirty in the world of websites can be worth more than you ever thought. Give them a reason to pick your business over the competition. Price isn't the only comparison people are looking for. And sometimes you don't want to compete on price-it limits your audience. Do some research on your clients. How do they search for your product or service? Are you saving people time and stress? Could your value be in the way you integrate with something they are already doing? Formulate your 'sweet spot' in the industry and broadcast it. This is the one piece of information that you can't afford to not include on your website. Make it the central message and use your features and benefits to back it up. State your offer! You've got their attention now make them an offer. So often a company puts so much energy and effort into their website, but they forget to ask for the sale. Whether you are selling products or services, you must give them explicit instructions about their next step. Should they sign up for a newsletter? Download a report? Call for an appointment? Customers love simple directions for the next step. Present your features and benefits and then drive them into a sale. Otherwise you're leaving money on the table. So you've made the offer. They identify with the features and benefits, but how do they know that this is really for them? You need to offer proof. This could be a video on youtube demonstrating the actual benefit or perhaps testimonials from your customers. This is big because you've led them down the path of searching and research. Make sure they know that they have chosen correctly. You ease their mind and add third-party credibility to your site's visitors by including statements from like-minded customers. Many times small business owners are fearful of their website. They don't know what it requires to set up a website or what it needs to include. Taking action can be as simple as finding an easily editable templated site that you can quickly customize, broadcasting your unique value statement, asking for the sale, and providing credibility from others. Erase the fear and profit from your small business website.
Tracking Your Website Performance
In any type of sales if you're not tracking your leads, your sales, your conversion rates, etc. then you are missing out on an opportunity to expand and grow your business; in the Internet Marketing world this is especially true. There are plenty of free tools on the Internet nowadays that allow you to see how many visitors you are getting, what geographic location they are in and 'how' they got to your website. The 'how' they got to your site is the most important question of all. You may be getting 500 visitors a month of which 300 may be coming from advertising source 'A' with another hundred coming from advertising source 'B' and yet another 50 visitors coming from advertising source 'C' with the rest coming in small increments of 1-5 from different ads that you've placed on the Internet. One good reason to track your website visitors is it lets you know whats working in contrast to that which is barely working if working at all; this way you can save time and energy focusing on what works and tossing aside what doesn't. Another excellent reason is, as stated before, to save time. You want an online business to enjoy the increase in time available to spend with your family, on hobbies or on whatever you want to do. If you're laboring at a computer all day wasting time on what doesn't work then you are also wasting precious time that would better be spent elsewhere. There are all kinds of free trackers on the Internet but one of the best I've ever seen is Google Analytics. You can see everything from the number of visitors your site had from day to day, but you can also see their geographical location as well as how they were referred to your site. This is very important as you want to know what is working and what isn't. Another benefit of Google analytics is that it doesn't leave a little box at the bottom of your page which allows both you and all your visitors to see your site statistics. With Google Analytics you place a small piece of code at the bottom of your page which is invisible so only you have access to your stats.
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