19 Aug semantic tagging

The process of associating meaningful language markers with digitally stored and delivered information. Championed for the World Wide Web, semantic tagging was initially inline with the text, so each tag could be embedded in the HTML at the beginning of a document or with the text to which the tag applied. This is “tight coupling” because they are inextricably connected and to edit the tags, you have to edit the entire document, and possibly redeploy it.

Then came Search Engine Optimization (SEO) in which the tools provide tagging which is separate from the document but still bound to the page using tools such as PHP or derivatives WordPress or Drupal. Finally, the loosely coupled strategy of using ontologies to perform the tagging made it possible to have completely separate processes for managing metadata and managing the content. This is especially valuable for tagging material you want to leave as is, such as a Shakespeare play or the Bible, a recorded Boston Pops concert, or a digital image of an impressionist painting or MRI of your heart. The tag lives separately and points to the associated content using a URI or URL.