Hi

I've read some articles about semantic web but still don't get it. A lot of articles seem to talk about different things.
Why should I use it and is it worth learning it?

I've read that it's just xml as rss fieds but than inside a webpage(inside <script> tags) but some say it's just declearing tags with class elements like <h1 class="title"></h1>.

Or if anyone has a nice article/website that gives some ideas how it should be because as a newbie it's hard to see what it is.

Semantic html, at it's core, is really just using HTML correctly, ensuring your selection of markup is appropriate given the meaning of the content you are communicating.

The term has only really come about because people generally have not followed this principle over the years and have thereby mixed presentation with structure. There's probably numerous reason now why people care more about semantic html now than before (web going 'cross platform', accessibility, flow of social data between different websites, SEO, etc).

Your latter explanation fits in most with my understanding of semantic html. E.g.:

Not semantic:


Semantic


Similarly people often incorrectly use html to visually present their content in a certain way when really all presentation should be handled via CSS:

non-semantic:


semantic


The class attribute can be used to give extra contextual information; which is something the microformats organisation are trying to standardize: http://microformats.org/get-started/

As a rule I always fully code my pages in html before doing anything in CSS to make sure they structure of the content is semantic and that I can make sense of the content firstly by just reading the source and secondly by viewing the page with the default browser presentation.

Good presentation on semantic html: http://www.tantek.com/presentations/2004et...anticspres.html

Hope all this helps!

This post has been edited by SoLi: 30 Jun, 2009 - 03:53 AM

Great post! Thank you!
Without knowing it, I was already doing it a bit:p

What SoLi described is a subset of semantic web. I don't suggest beating yourself up over terminology because it's meaning in practice tends to be so contextual.

I think the Wikipedia page on Semantic Web gets the information right. Note the paragraph:

"Humans are capable of using the Web to carry out tasks such as finding the Finnish word for "monkey"[citation needed], reserving a library book, and searching for a low price for a DVD. However, a computer cannot accomplish the same tasks without human direction because web pages are designed to be read by people, not machines. The semantic web is a vision of information that is understandable by computers, so that they can perform more of the tedious work involved in finding, sharing, and combining information on the web."

What SoLi described is semantic HTML. That is markup aspects of your website with HTML tags that describe the function of that text (headings with the H tags, paragraphs with p tags, lists with ul/ol tags, etc.) so that computers can deduce from the tags, the context and importance of it.

Because basic HTML isn't sufficient to realize the goals of the semantic web movement, a number of technologies and principles have been created or chosen to achieve it. Is it worth sorting through the details?

I think the entire semantic web stack doesn't have enough support. Semantic HTML makes sense because it's a good underpinning of proper web page markup and design. The rest of the technologies, not really in heavy use.

Ok thank you for your time.