Rather than finding fault with the Semantic Web and cursing the semantic darkness, I should be trying to light one candle of semantic clarity, even if it is a universal meaning for a diverse world. (Opps, sorry lapsed, again)
In the spirit of lighting one candle of semantic clarity, consider the: Plergb Bylaws Summary.
The background statement reads:
The Plergb Language Entropy Regulatory Governing Bureaucratic Commission Overseeing Multiple Managerial Issues Surrounding Singular Instances Of Nomenclature (“P. L. E. R. G. B. C. O. M. M. I. S. S. I. O. N.” or “Plergb Commission” for short) (Hereafter referred to as the Commission) is the body which oversees and administers the use of the word Plergb and its authorized variants.
Further, the Uses of the Word Plergb reads:
The word Plergb may be used in many ways, some of which have not been discovered yet.
- The simplest use of the word Plergb is as a general-purpose noun, sort of like "doohickey" and "thingamabob". It may be
dynamically redefined within a sentence if the context makes the meaning clear, as in the old saying "A rolling Plergb gathers no Plergb". It can also be used as a euphemism, as in "What the Plergb is this Plergb?!?!" The use of the word Plergb to maliciously hinder communication is strongly discouraged.- Another simple use is to bring good luck by saying "Plergb" as you are plugging something in. The Commission makes no warranty covering such use.
- Whenever the word Plergb is used in a song, it may be defined as the entire remainder of the song. For example, singing "Oh, say can you see by the Plergb?" lets you start the ball game that much sooner. When used in a song on radio or TV it may be defined as the rest of the broadcast day, allowing the staff to shut off the transmitter and go home without further ado or explanation (CAUTION: Some advertisers consider this to be bad manners, especially if their commercials are affected).
- The most sophisticated use of the word Plergb, however, is as an operator. Computer people may think of it as a sort of macro to be executed by one’s audience. For example, if you are composing something on a manual typewriter but wish to have a professional-appearing document, you may add at the bottom "Plergb, defined as justifying margins, correcting typos, and general cleanup". It can also be defined as minus something you wish to cancel. For example, if you are running for office you might end all your speeches with "Plergb, defined as minus anything you didn’t want to hear". The word Plergb can also be used to correct hyphenation at ends of lines, clean up politically incorrect language, cleanse erotica of anything the authorities might consider obscene, conditionally insert or delete paragraphs depending on the state of other variables, insert illustrations or other special effects the your Web software cannot handle, and so on.
Now that we have clarity for the word Plergb, who will volunteer to take up the cause of owl:sameAs?
To be truly universal, we will need to talk about UN semantic enforcement coalition forces in the event any group fails to heed UN resolutions on semantic usage. But that is for another post.
(Sam Hunting forwarded the Plergb Bylaws to my attention. Thanks Sam!)