Ships from: acton, MA
Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Ships from: Richmond, TX
Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Ships from: Chatham, NJ
Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Anonymous
Posted November 7, 2006
This is a fun to read and instructional computer science textbook. Although the target audience for this book is most likely those interested and well versed in computer science, I believe casual readers interested in the leading edge of Web Science can benefit from reading this book. I believe that my time spent reading Thinking on the Web, was well worth the effort. I learned a great deal and was entertained. This book necessarily presents the very technical terminology of Web ontology with code examples. The authors' style lets one move through these important but usually dull sections as it emphasizes concepts behind the Web and how humans and computers can improve the management of information. Philosophical arguments (e.g. How We Think, What is Intelligence. What is Logic) are interlaced between the technical presentations. At the end of each chapter, two real-life like fictional college students continue an informal running dialog to debate and discuss the efficacy of the presented concepts. These characters often offer different opinions. The book presents the history of the Web starting with the early contributions of Berners-Lee, Gödel, and Turing. The present status of the Web and its limitations are described. I learned the concepts behind Google and other Web search engines. The authors present the technical reasons why surfing the Web and locating relevant information can be frustrating. The authors offer advanced Semantic Web software techniques with their challenges and potential limitations. What is Thinking, and how we think and organize our thoughts and data, are examined throughout this book. Understanding how we think can be a prelude to the application of artificial intelligence (AI). The authors discuss how one starts to recognizes a truly smart machine. The authors present advanced concepts, tools, and challenges to apply AI to enhance the Web experience. The book contains many references to additional Semantic Web resources, developers, and tools for further reading. Many of these are located on the Web. Some of the references are adjuncts to the text.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted October 30, 2006
I liked this book. It actually had three distinctive features: First, the general presentation of the pioneers Berners-Lee, Godel and Turing with the key questions they posed was well done. Second, the chapters on ontology engineering, RDF, and OWL were instructive and had good examples. I found the chapters on semantic search and sematic services particularly interesting. Third, the interludes consisted of several pages of debate in-between chapters. I particularly enjoyed the interludes - these short debates between two fictitious characters crystallized many issues dealing with AI, thinking and intelligence as they emerged from the chapter material. They were presented with humor and high spirits, but the arguments seemed well-founded and balanced. They included amusing backdrops, such as, the characters playing a chess match while discussing the tournament between Gary Kasparov and IBM's Deep Blue computer
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.
Overview