On Friday, February 10, a group of Semantic thought leaders from around the globe met with their host and colleague, Paul Miller, for the latest installment of the Semantic Link, a monthly podcast covering the world of Semantic Technologies. This episode includes a discussion about data; specifically, the recently announced “wikidata” project with special guest, Denny Vrandecic.
At the recent SemTechBiz Berlin conference, Denny presented a talk titled, “Wikidata: The Next Big Thing for Wikipedia.” As evidenced in the “Wow’s” expressed by the panelists in this month’s podcast call, this is indeed a big deal for Wikipedia and for Semantic Web. Read more

After December’s episode of the Semantic Link, we asked for your thoughts on both the topics we should cover, and the ways in which you would like to interact with the podcast. You spoke, very clearly asking for an opportunity to pose questions for the team to answer during recordings. This is that opportunity.

February’s episode of the show will be recorded this Friday, 10 February, and we’re joined by a guest with a lot to contribute during our conversation.

There is growing interest in publishing, sharing and using data on the Web. The Semantic Web’s Linked Data effort is clearly one approach to this, but there are others. At Wolfram Alpha, for example, founder Stephen Wolfram suggests that a new Top Level Domain (TLD) for data will make data easier to find on the web. And inside the Wikimedia Foundation (the home of Wikipedia), a new WikiData project is rapidly taking shape.

WikiData project director, Denny Vrandecic, joins us to share his perspectives on these and other approaches to the space.

And now over to all of you. Please use the comments facility below, to share your perspectives on the question, or to submit your comments and questions for Denny and the regular gang to consider. Then tune in the week of 13 February to hear the result!

…and we want to hear from you.

After December’s episode of the Semantic Link, we asked for your thoughts on both the topics we should cover, and the ways in which you would like to interact with the podcast. You spoke, very clearly asking for an opportunity to pose questions for the team to answer during recordings. This is that opportunity.

January’s episode of the show will be recorded this Friday, 13 January, and we’re joined by a guest with much to contribute. I’m sure he needs no introduction for most of you. Nova Spivack was behind semantic technology startup Twine, and has subsequently turned his hand to supporting a range of semantically relevant offerings such as Bottlenose (our coverage) and StreamGlider (our coverage).

Drawing upon some of Nova’s experiences, and digging further into questions that we have touched upon before, we’re going to take a look at the following topic this month:

Is it important to hide semantic smarts behind a simple user experience/interface? If not, why not? If so, how are we beginning to see that manifested?

Siri‘s obviously one example that we’ve discussed before, but there have been other examples recently that also attempt to hide significant power behind UI simplicity. Read more

Eric Hoffer, a regular panelist on The SemanticLink monthly podcast, summed up the most recent episode calling it a review of the past year and a look forward. Hoffer writes, “The framework for the discussion was: (1) What company, technology or issue caught your attention in 2011? (2) Are we ‘there’ yet? (3) What are people watching for 2012?” Topics that were discussed included: “schema.org and its impact on who pays attention (i.e. SEO space); linked data (and open data); increase in policy maker awareness of the need to pay attention to interoperability issues; commercial integration of technology (ontologies plus nlp capabilities) to leverage unstructured content; and of course Siri (a key example of such integration).” Read more

Today, Experian, the global information services company, announced that it has acquired Garlik Limited, a provider of web monitoring services based in the United Kingdom. Garlik uses Semantic Web Technologies to help consumers protect themselves from the risks of identity theft and financial fraud.  At the last SemTechBiz UK Conference, Steve Harris, CTO of Garlik, presented “Combatting Online Crime with RDF.” Mr. Harris presented a compelling case of Garlik’s use of Semantic Technology throughout its offerings to support business-critical, highly sensitive production systems to financial institutions worldwide. Read more

[Editor's Note: In our most recent SemanticLink podcast with special guest R.V. Guha, we mentioned RDFa 1.1 Lite, proposed by Ben Adida at last month's Schema.org workshop. Thanks to Manu Sporny for sharing the following look at RDFa 1.1 Lite.]

Summary: RDFa 1.1 Lite is a simple subset of RDFa consisting of the following attributes: vocab, typeof, property, rel, about and prefix.

During the schema.org workshop, a proposal was put forth by RDFa’s resident hero, Ben Adida, for a stripped down version of RDFa 1.1, called RDFa 1.1 Lite. The RDFa syntax is often criticized as having too much functionality, leaving first-time authors confused about the more advanced features. This lighter version of RDFa will help authors easily jump into the Linked Data world. The goal was to create a very minimal subset that will work for 80% of the folks out there doing simple markup for things like search engines. Read more

Summer can be a great time to learn something new, and SemanticWeb.com is always on the lookout for new ways of explaining the terms, techniques, standards, and technologies involved in the world of Semantic Web. We were thrilled, then, to see this much-needed executive briefing on Linked Data from our colleagues at 3 Round Stones:

Please share this video with anyone you think would benefit, leave a comment below, and check out some of these other resources:

• Webcasts on core semantic topics
• “Introduction To” articles
• Podcasts
• Elevator Pitches
• Our community-run Q&A platform – ask a Semantic Web expert!

… or any new technologies for that matter…

By Krista Thomas, VP Marketing for Ad.ly, and formerly VP Marketing for The OpenCalais Initiative, Thomson Reuters.

Below please find three helpful tips on how to get started Marketing your Semantic Web technology.

1.) SIMPLIFY YOUR MESSAGE

1. Iterate: The 3rd time you will be close; the 5th time you might be right.
   • Test it on friends and family members who don’t know anything about tech & don’t care.
2. Benefits: Talk about the problems you solve & the benefits of solving them, NOT about tech for tech’s sake.
   • “It’s more important to be interesting than it is to be intellectual.” (Suneel Gupta, Groupon)
   • Ask: do Semantic vs. semantic debates advance your cause in a practical, quantifiable fashion? Read more

In case you missed it, we launched a monthly podcast series in December with Paul Miller of Cloud of Data and a slate of Semantic Technology thought leaders from around the world.  We are pleased to announce that the RSS feed for this series is now available for your MP3 player of choice.

• Subscribe to the Monthly Podcast 
• Episode 1
• Episode 2

Episode 3 will appear later this month, so stay tuned!

For me, the best bits of a good industry conference are always any well-run panel discussions. Not those panels where the ‘moderator’ has more to say than the panellists. Not those panels where panellists completely fill the allotted time by standing up in turn to deliver one over-long prepared presentation after another. Not those panels where every member has exactly the same story to tell, and any differences of opinion are left outside. Not them.

The panels I mean – the panels I love – are the ones where the panellists talk to one another and their audience. The ones where different perspectives are brought to the table and shared. The ones where knowledge and prior experience are self-evident. The ones where differences of perspective or opinion inform and enrich rather than disrupt and divide. The ones where the moderator knows to keep (reasonably) quiet. Them. They’re great, but sadly all too rare.

Working with the team at SemanticWeb.com we’re going to try recreating that ‘great panel’ vibe in a form that everyone can easily consume, without the horrors of air travel or the cost of hotel rooms. To do this, we’re launching a new monthly podcast called The Semantic Link, a PodPanel if you will, and assembling what I hope you will agree is a great team of panellists to get it going. Read more