One centralized database of screen-scraped information about various resources on the Web – regardless of any level of semantics involved – will not create a Web of data, or the Semantic Web. The options for getting the metadata out there may seem limited now, but people are still figuring that part out. For instance, one possible method of getting the metadata out there is to do what we have always done – don’t involve the user in the technical details of what he’s doing and make sure that it benefits him in some direct, quick, and obvious manner. We could also install plug-ins in our favorite blogging software and other CMSs that will do the heavy lifting for the user.

A WordPress plug-in that exports FOAF information about your relationships does more for the Semantic Web than Dapper will, unless Dapper plans on using the standards set forth by the W3C to expose this information publicly to the rest of the Web. Silos will not find a place in the Semantic Web, and an API to extract information from a silo probably isn’t going to do much either.

I see a lot of people (and companies) quickly scrambling to put together these hackish (screen-scraping is the epitome of hackish) ideas of how they can bring about something *like* the Semantic Web, but they are falling short and look silly trying. The Semantic Web is the natural next-step in Web evolution. The funny thing about these companies is that you can tell they just fell short of “getting it.” So, they try to build something like the Semantic Web and claim marvelous things (usually the exact same things the Semantic Web offers, only on even shakier grounds).

>>Bottom-up doesn’t work, and never will. Top-down is therefore surely the only way to try and do this.

Bottom-up is the only method that has ever worked for the Web. Do you know of any top-down services that have helped create the Web as it is today (proprietary or otherwise)? I’d like an example if you have one. The top-down approach to creating the Semantic Web is nearly as important as the bottom-up approach. Top-down systems will allow us to extract CURRENTLY EXISTING information from the Web and bring it into the Semantic Web, while bottom-up ensures that all NEW information makes it into the Semantic Web in the appropriate form.