The Semantic Web - Social Semantics: The Search for Meaning on the Web - page 82

of at least RDF as a knowledge representation language puts the emphasis on 'Web'
as opposed to 'Semantic' in the Semantic Web, as it has a number of properties -
a graph structure, the ability to make unconstrained statements, and the like - that
have their basis in the tradition of the Web, rather than knowledge representation in
AI. As the Web has proved to be extraordinarily successful, the hope of the Semantic
Web is that any knowledge representation language which is based on the same
principles as the Web may fare better than its ancestors in artificial intelligence.
However, these changes in the formalism of RDF due to the influence of the
Web are all relatively minor, and while counter-intuitive to traditional knowledge
representation, they have yet to be vindicated as the Semantic Web has not yet
reached widespread use.
Overlooked by Sparck Jones in her critique of the Semantic Web, the only sub-
stantive difference between traditional knowledge representation and the Semantic
Web is the central role of URIs. Just as the later principles of Web architecture build
upon the Principle of Universality, so the Semantic Web builds on top of the use
of URIs as well. The true bet of the Semantic Web is not abetonthereturnof
knowledge representation languages, but a bet on the universality of URIs, namely
that agents in a decentralized and global manner can use URIs to share meaning
even about non-Web accessible things. As this use of URIs as the basic element of
meaning is central to the Semantic Web, and as it is a genuinely new technical claim,
it is precisely in the understanding of the status of meaning and reference of URIs
that any new theoretical claim must be made. Furthermore, it is precisely within the
realm of URIs that any technical claim to advance must be made.