Conflation is the tech industry's equivalent of macroeconomic
inflation. Whenever it rears it head, we lose value courtesy of
diminishing productivity.
Looking retrospectively at any technology failure -- enterprises
or industry at large -- you will eventually discover -- at the core
-- messy conflation of at least one of the following:
-
Data Model
(Semantics)
- Data Object (Entity) Names (Identifiers)
- Data Representation Syntax (Markup)
- Data Access Protocol
- Data Presentation Syntax (Markup)
- Data Presentation Media.
The Internet & World Wide Web (InterWeb) are massive
successes because their respective architectural cores embody the
critical separation outlined above.
The Web
of Linked Data is going to become a global
reality, and massive success, because it leverages inherently sound
architecture -- bar conflationary distractions of RDF. :-)