The Power of Pull: David Siegel’s Semantic Future

David Siegel's book Pull outlines a semantic future that is equally Orwellian and utopian.

I’ve been wrestling with the semantic web for a while, trying to figure out specifically what it meant for Mightybytes and what it could do for our customers. Focal Press suggested I include information on semantic search in Return on Engagement and that provided the impetus for me to really wrap my head around its admittedly sometimes esoteric concepts. As part of this process, I purchased numerous books on the topic, many of which read like a dissertation and typically put me to sleep after just a few pages (admittedly, most of them were never finished). None put semantic web concepts into as much relevant context as Pull by David Siegel.

The book outlines a future that is driven by semantic metadata in many forms and is, in my opinion, equal parts Orwellian and utopian (and a touch optimistic as well). In Siegel's future, we all have online data lockers that carry the valuable metadata in our lives, from medical histories to the temperature in our houses and when the last time our cars had tune-ups. Our preferences for everything will be stored in these lockers and we can control who has access to the data at a moment's notice. 

Need a new car? Set some preferences in your data locker about make, model, color, and yes, price to bring offers that meet your specific criteria to you. Need to sell the car you bought? The vehicle came with an online birth certificate and the transaction process itself switches ownership automatically. The certificate lives on the manufacturer's server with links to the aforementioned personal data lockers of the buyer and seller, giving all parties access one on level or another to the information. Similar approaches are outlined for everything from eBooks and accounting services to doctor visits and concert tickets.

Meanwhile, our businesses will be organized around customers' specific needs since customers will have more power than ever to make or break products and services in record time. Siegel discusses how the semantic web will revolutionize business, government, law, healthcare, entertainment, the home of the future, and of course search and marketing, as well as many other elements of our current culture.

While I really like the idea of how many conveniences Siegel's semantic future would afford, my head spins when I think about the logistics of getting all these disparate companies, data formats, and technology infrastructures to play nice with one another in open, standardized ways. Also, Siegel's approach to the personal data locker puts most of the onus on individuals to constantly manage their personal preferences and the information storied in their lockers. I'm sure many people will embrace this just as they manage their own bank accounts online today. I'd venture to guess that just as many others will be slow to adapt for many reasons, not the least of which are security and privacy, two of the biggest stumbling blocks I see to making this semantic future a reality.

Mr. Siegel closes the book with a set of general guidelines for integrating the semantic web into regular business practices. He doesn't focus on specific methods—like RDFa and Microformats for instance—but rather appeals to CEOs and upper level management to set the tone in their organizations for embracing the semantic web's potential. His guidelines include:

• Organize around customers and customer groups
• Fit into your customers' environment
• Never duplicate information
• Pay for performance and results
• Automatically generate metadata
• Ask questions and get answers
• Perform the semantic web acid test:

Is it semantic (using an unambiguous, tagged, open-data format)?

Is it on the web (as opposed to in a database)?

Though Siegel's concepts put a lot of faith in business and government to agree upon standards and work together, and a lot of responsibility on people to manage the huge amounts of metadata their lives generate, his book inspired more ideas and possibilities for me than any other on the topic. For this, I give it a big semantic <thumbs> up </thumbs>.

Have you read this book? I would love to know your thoughts on it.