Semantic web practices: infrastructural politics and the future of the web
In the past 30 years the Web has developed from its inception as a layer of protocols on top of the internet, to use by over 5bn people and organizations. This has driven the creation of vast quantities of digital data and – in turn – to deep concerns about the politics of digital data and computati...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Journal article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
SAGE Publications
2024
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| _version_ | 1811139871284133888 |
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| author | Halford, S Weal, M Hardcastle, F Gibbins, N Kanza-Pearman, S Pope, C |
| author_facet | Halford, S Weal, M Hardcastle, F Gibbins, N Kanza-Pearman, S Pope, C |
| author_sort | Halford, S |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | In the past 30 years the Web has developed from its inception as a layer
of protocols on top of the internet, to use by over 5bn people and
organizations. This has driven the creation of vast quantities of digital
data and – in turn – to deep concerns about the politics of digital data and
computational methods. To date, critical investigation of these concerns
has focussed on large commercial platforms built on top of the Web, and
their use of machine learning methods. Meanwhile, less attention has
been paid to the underlying design and protocols of Web itself, and how
these might be implicated in the very same process and concerns. We
explore ongoing endeavours to transform the Web from a library of
documents intended for humans to a ‘semantic Web’ using symbolic
Artificial Intelligence to enable machine reasoning across multiple
heterogenous data sources. In principle this would transform the
production and circulation of knowledge at Web scale. We present the
findings from an experimental, interdisciplinary study exploring the
epistemological politics and sociomaterial practices involved in situated
accomplishment of the semantic Web. Our findings have consequences
for the future of the Web and the future of Web based platforms. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-25T04:12:58Z |
| format | Journal article |
| id | oxford-uuid:ef69a3ec-fba3-47ab-a247-a0a907a276e8 |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-25T04:12:58Z |
| publishDate | 2024 |
| publisher | SAGE Publications |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:ef69a3ec-fba3-47ab-a247-a0a907a276e82024-06-27T10:15:14ZSemantic web practices: infrastructural politics and the future of the webJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:ef69a3ec-fba3-47ab-a247-a0a907a276e8EnglishSymplectic ElementsSAGE Publications2024Halford, SWeal, MHardcastle, FGibbins, NKanza-Pearman, SPope, CIn the past 30 years the Web has developed from its inception as a layer of protocols on top of the internet, to use by over 5bn people and organizations. This has driven the creation of vast quantities of digital data and – in turn – to deep concerns about the politics of digital data and computational methods. To date, critical investigation of these concerns has focussed on large commercial platforms built on top of the Web, and their use of machine learning methods. Meanwhile, less attention has been paid to the underlying design and protocols of Web itself, and how these might be implicated in the very same process and concerns. We explore ongoing endeavours to transform the Web from a library of documents intended for humans to a ‘semantic Web’ using symbolic Artificial Intelligence to enable machine reasoning across multiple heterogenous data sources. In principle this would transform the production and circulation of knowledge at Web scale. We present the findings from an experimental, interdisciplinary study exploring the epistemological politics and sociomaterial practices involved in situated accomplishment of the semantic Web. Our findings have consequences for the future of the Web and the future of Web based platforms. |
| spellingShingle | Halford, S Weal, M Hardcastle, F Gibbins, N Kanza-Pearman, S Pope, C Semantic web practices: infrastructural politics and the future of the web |
| title | Semantic web practices: infrastructural politics and the future of the web |
| title_full | Semantic web practices: infrastructural politics and the future of the web |
| title_fullStr | Semantic web practices: infrastructural politics and the future of the web |
| title_full_unstemmed | Semantic web practices: infrastructural politics and the future of the web |
| title_short | Semantic web practices: infrastructural politics and the future of the web |
| title_sort | semantic web practices infrastructural politics and the future of the web |
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