Next Generation Semantic Web Applications

In this short paper, we examine current Semantic Web application and we highlight what we see as a shift away from first generation Semantic Web applications, towards a new generation of applications, designed to exploit the large amounts of heterogeneous semantic markup, which are increasingly becoming available. Our analysis aims both to highlight the main features that can be used to compare and contrast current Semantic Web applications, as well as providing an initial blueprint for characterizing the nature of Semantic Web applications. Indeed, our ultimate goal is to specify a number of criteria, which Semantic Web applications ought to satisfy, if we want to move away from conventional semantic systems and develop a new generation of Semantic Web applications, which can succeed in applying semantic technology to the challenging context provided by the World-Wide-Web.