Semapedia.org – Tagging The Mobile Semantic Web

May 29, 2007 Blog No Comments

Semapedia is a Web 2.0 service that we think has many useful applications. It was designed to help people connect their virtual and physical worlds. To do this, users create Semapedia Tags—cellphone-readable hyperlinks to online content from (for now) Wikipedia, or one of its sisters services: Wikibooks, Wikisource, Wikinews, and Wikiquotes—that contain a link from a physical place or object to relevant online content. The service provides instructions for creating and distributing tags.

Users create tags by entering a Wikipedia URL into the Semapedia tag creation-form. Doing so generates a custom bar code (PDF file). The user downloads and prints the barcode (for convenience, on self-adhesive paper). Once created, users stick the tags to the desired object or physical location. People who encounter the barcodes can use their cellphone to read the tag and gain online access the information about the item or place. Semapedia can also be mashed up with other Web 2.0 services, including our favorite, Timeline from MIT’s SIMILE project.

Things You Can Do With Semapedia

Create a mashup – marry the physical location of the places/things you’ve tagged (GoogleMaps) with photographs of those places/things (Flickr).
Provide access to additional information by embedding a Semapedia Tag into the content of a document

Learn more at the Semapedia Blog.