Re: ::scr semantic

[celia romaniuk <space@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Mon, 5 Aug 2002, Simon Wistow wrote:

> So, this Semantic Web thing. Some people
> (http://www.blackbeltjones.com/work/mt/archives/000326.html#000326) seem
> to be very excited about it. As far I can see it's just a mechanism so
> that I dont have to do all that tedious screen scraping myself but then,
> up until now, I haven't cared enough to dig deeper.

I downloaded NetNewsWire and it did not change my life.

The main reason is that the value of the content depends on how
people set up their feeds. Some, for example, just have a link to the web
page and sometimes (if you're lucky a comment). And Slashdot's feed is
just a headline.

Call me a weirdo, but I read sites for the articles, and the headlines and
index pages are here I scan headlines and standfirsts. It doesn't seem
worth it to me to use an extra app to fill this function. Seems to me that
the process than becomes two steps instead of one. Especially when I don't
find design deciphering and semiotic grokking a huge cognitive load
(especially because the sites I read regularly are ones I get feeds for,
and as I've been reading most of them for a while I'm very familiar with
them).

I might like it more if it let me read all the content, or at least give
me a better idea. I really like the format of the Guardian morning and
evening mail bulletins, in which you read a summary of the article and
then go to the URL (they're also published on the web at
http://www.guardian.co.uk/thewrap/0,1189,541579,00.html). It's not a
massive difference in quantity of content but perhaps it's the quality. So
- I can see the app's potential but the dependency of quality content is
huge.

The subscription merging idea has potential but I wonder if it's overload.
For example, linking to other sites works cause then the reader can go and
visit the sites you like, and see if they like them. If they do, they may
start visiting them regularly. But the thing is - I usually only like a
few if any, so I'd probably want to cull a lot of stuff after each merge.
Yes I know it's easy to unsubscribe but it might be just easier to
subcribe to those you like, rather than merge-subscribe then unsub.  It's
that tradeoff of convenience again.

Celia