Semantic Web - esperanto for automata?

Article in Read/Write Web about an interview with (Sir) Tim Berners Lee (points to a more complete transcript on ZD Net as well):

“There’s an awful lot of data out there. And I think, one of the huge misunderstandings about the Semantic Web is, ‘oh, the Semantic Web is going to involve us all going to our HTML pages and marking them up to put semantics in them.’ Now, there’s an important thread there, but to my mind, it’s actually a very minor part of it. Because I’m not going to hold my breath while other people put semantics in by hand… So, where is the data going to come from? It’s already there. It’s in databases…”

Our hypothesis is that the Semantic Web will be initially implemented in verticals, where the the total number of terms used is smaller and thus manageable (See earlier posts here and here), and I think this is also an implicit recognition of that, because most databases are in verticals. Some verticals are far more advanced in using common terms (eg EDI) to communicate than others

In fact I'd go so far as to say the Semantic Web is here, now - just very unevenly distributed

In addition, there was an allusion to the area we think will most drive the semantic web, ie the needs of machines on the 'net - they are just not smart enough to understand context, and thus will need a simple taxonomy (an Esperanto for sensors - the Pidgin protocols?) to function.

Incidentally, this could also have huge benefits for people, eg making it easy to have one identity and not have to sign in multiple times with names, addresses etc onto multiple systems.

Update - Paul Miller has a vodcast interview on the subject over on Nodalities (my RSS reader too is unevenly ditributed )