May 15, 2007 (Vol. 27, No. 10)
Rating:
Strong Points: Interesting descriptions
Weak Points: A deep topic – not for everyone
Summary:
What, exactly, is DNA Mania—something you’re likely to catch in a B-grade sci-fi movie? Something you contract as a molecular biology graduate student? I wondered about this as I scrolled through this interestingly named blog site. The opening page at press time had the following heading—Ontology, thesaurus, taxonomy meta-model, and semantic web. Semantic web is an attempt to create a universal medium to share information that involves transforming documents to have computer-processable meaning. The web part, of course, means it is happening on the web. Thus, the focus of this site is, at least partly, developing a vocabulary that makes sense to a computer. Yes, this is a deep subject, but there are implications and applications for scientists.
