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Re:Whatever Happened to the Semantic Web? by throwawaysemweb on Thursday September 20, 2018 @03:52PM (#18035026)
Wow, had such a similar story, except with a Master's degree. Most of my graduate program was consumed by a highly-cited and quite arrogant professor who focused on the Semantic Web. I took 2(!) separate Semantic Web courses and couldn't understand what the fuss was all about.

By the end, I figured out the professor was full of crap. When AJAX became a big thing, I remember the professor asking, "Why don't you add AJAX to this project?" What does that have to do with the Semantic Web? In the end, I got a paper published in a fairly prestigious journal by just combining some flashy visuals with the Semantic Web and having the professor be a co-author.

That was one of the big experiences that helped me figure out that academia wasn't for me. And I would be perfectly fine never hearing about triples, RDF, or that other nonsense again!

Re:Whatever Happened to the Semantic Web? by xtracto on Thursday September 20, 2018 @04:47PM (#18035327)
Yup, I was in academia in UK and Germany for a total of 7 years. Had similarly crappy experience and got out. I think 80% of research is crap done "just to get the grant" and not real research.
Re:Whatever Happened to the Semantic Web? by enraged_camel on Thursday September 20, 2018 @06:44PM (#18036000)
>>When AJAX became a big thing, I remember the professor asking, "Why don't you add AJAX to this project?"

Sounds like something my manager at my previous job would say. He was a Pointy Haired Boss.