Zack Rosen has a post called "RDF Semantic web research isn't working". It's a very easy read and yet so packed full of interesting points that I won't quote any of it and will just say "go read it".

A few additional comments:

• many SW people "don't get it". Sorry, we don't model the world in triples so starting your sales pitch with that just doesn't cut it; and I'm not an idiot for disagreeing with you
• the SW missed a wonderful opportunity by not jumping on the "mashup" bandwagon, where it would have been a natural fit for arbitrary data passing between apps (rather than crud-o hand rolled XML formats)
  
• every page produced by the BlogMatrix Platform has a corresponding XML/RDF page. Placing the structured data into the RDF shouldn't be too difficult except I'm really not going to make the effort if there isn't the demand
• I'm working on articulating an alternative vision to the Semantic Web called the Datasphere built microformats (for data sharing), structured blogging (for ad hoc data creation), tagging (for fluid structure) and directories (for inherent structure). Stay tuned.