Manu Sporny recently opined that RDF is facing a problem of perception similar to the problems faced by nuclear power. He writes, “The Resource Description Framework (a model for publishing data on the Web) has this horrible public perception akin to how many people in the USA view nuclear power. The coal industry campaigned quite aggressively to implant the notion that nuclear power was not as safe as coal. Couple this public misinformation campaign with a few nuclear-power-related catastrophes and it is no surprise that the current public perception toward nuclear power can be summarized as: ‘Not in my back yard’.”

He continues, “Never mind that, per tera-watt, nuclear power generation has killed far fewer people since its inception than coal. Never mind that it is one of the more viable power sources if we gaze hundreds of years into Earth’s future, especially with the recent renewed interest in Liquid Flouride Thorium Reactors. When we look toward the future, the path is clear, but public perception is preventing us from proceeding down that path at the rate that we need to in order to prevent more damage to the Earth.”

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Image: Courtesy Flickr/ Paul J Everett