This week we released the beta version of the open API for our new Calais Web service, and debuted our new developer community at www.OpenCalais.com.  

The Calais Web service is a free metatagging service that enables both publishers and content consumers – search engines, news portals, RSS Readers, etc. – to automatically metatag the people, places facts and events in online content. Doing so adds an important layer of Semantic intelligence to that content while increasing its relevance and accessibility on the Web. (You can read more about the speicifcs of this initial API release in our press release here.) 

Why does the Semantic Web matter?   Let me go back to the beginning of my interest in the Semantic Web – some ten years ago. The Semantic Web – often referred to as ‘the Data Web’ and considered part of ‘Web 3.0’ –enables computers to access and use the meaning of words, instead of just noting their presence on a page or mapping that page’s relationship to others.  Also called the ‘Great Global Graph’ by Tim Berners-Lee, the Semantic Web adds a new layer of context to content, commerce and community sites that enables computers to detect existing connections and make new ones. Once this new layer of context is created, ‘intelligent agents’ can be built that can access data across a variety of applications. For instance, a simple movie bot might scan the Web for film titles, returning links to synopses, credits, reviews, ratings, listings and tickets in one easy place.  The basic promise of the Semantic Web is aligned with the Data Portability initiative, which posits that individual Web users should be able to share their identities, photos, videos and other personal data between chosen and trusted tools and vendors.  Both initiatives are about enabling applications to share data and communicate amongst themselves – with the requisite privacy protections in place – to automate the exchange of information where possible and let human beings focus on bigger picture tasks. 

Why do we need this much help? Despite the plethora of cool Web 2.0 apps – in fact, in part because of them – people are still suffering from information overload.  Web 2.0 has set content free to roam the Web via feeds, bookmarking services, widgets, social networks, etc.  And while this “opportunistic” distribution of information has increased the accessibility of insight overall, it hasn’t helped us find exactly what we need when we need it.   Semantic tagging offers superior sorting and filtering of content for more targeted and timely delivery. 

What’s the hold up? Good question. 

The Semantic Web has historically struggled with two problems: 

  1.) The Semantic Chicken & Egg  •   Semantic applications require publisher metadata in order to attract users and gain popularity •     Publishers will only bother to create metadata when Semantic applications get popular 

  2.) Metadata Cost & Transport  •   Creating quality metadata entails costs and resources that most publishers can’t afford.•          There is no way to transport metadata with the content as it moves thru feeds, widgets, etc.  

The good news: Today, not only are Semantic search tools cropping up – like Powerset, Spock and Wikia – but consumer-facing Semantic applications have emerged, like Twine, Freebase and TripIt.  Publishers and providers now seek a simple, effective way to tag their content, make it accessible to these new applications and export it liberally across the Web. 

OpenCalais.com  Drop by OpenCalais.com (www.OpenCalais.com) and check it out.  Note that this is a beta, and our initial release, so you can expect to see additional languages and functionality as we evolve. I would love to get your feeback, which will help guide the addition of new features and additional developer support as we go forward.