PR and the Social Web

Semantics is the science of meaning. For communicators meaning is important at every level and semantics have always been significant (the Greek word semantikos means significant) in how we craft the language of our written communication.

As a term semantics has taken on additional meaning when it comes to the web. The semantic web, usually encompassed in the idea of a third generation web or Web 3.0, is the vision of Tim Berners-Lee, the creator of the worldwide web and is an evolution of the web in which the semantics or meaning of information is defined to a common standard.  This vision would make the the information on the web infinitely more searchable and discoverable.  The redesign of the web to semantic standards would make the discovery of information more intuitive.

In May 2006, Tim Berners-Lee, said “People keep asking what Web 3.0 is. I think maybe when you’ve got an overlay of scalable vector graphics, everything rippling and folding and looking misty, on Web 2.0 and access to a semantic Web integrated across a huge space of data, you’ll have access to an unbelievable data resource.”