Paul Ford wrote in his XML.com article covering WWW2004:

... But in the short term, while no one can fully agree on what the Semantic Web is, the need for a clearly articulated vision is of essence in order to move the Semantic Web further. It is surprising to see that its leading evangelist is also uncertain as to whether Semantic Web's immediate destiny is on the server or the desktop. Source.

Invention all starts with a very personal vision about how to solve a problem, followed by months of grueling work -- work make easier by exploiting available standards, tools, and ideas. I see the W3C, perl, apache, linux, and other open developer communities as the great givers of standards, tools, and ideas of our time. But they are catalysts, not drivers.

While I am skeptical of vision -- often found in the businesses and their feeder communities, I do enjoy and benefit from absorbing the visions of leaders such as Tim Berners Lee. But a "big idea" such as the semantic web does not need a clearly articulated vision to become widely adopted.

What it needs is what we already have.