MODERATOR:
Scott Brinker, ion interactive, inc.

PANELISTS:
Brooke Aker, Expert System USA
Amiad Solomon, Peer39
Amit Kumar, Dapper
Greg Stuart, gregstuart.com

This moderated panel discusses "semantic advertising" in the market today, with representatives from:

* An ad network using semantic technology (Peer39)
* a company using semantic technology to dynamically generate advertising content (Dapper)
* A company using semantic technology to dynamically feed ad content on a mobile platform (Expert System)
* an expert in advertising and former CEO of the Interactive Advertising Bureau (Greg Stuart)

The focus of this session is to give business people and technologists an understanding of how semantic technology is being used in online advertising today. This is a broad survey of the different ideas labeled as "semantic advertising" — presented by the people leading those initiatives — both to see what they have in common and how they’re different.

Panel: Semantic Advertising from Semantic Universe on Vimeo.

MODERATOR:
Paul Miller, The Cloud of Data

PANELISTS:
Greg Boutin, GrowthRoute Ventures
Leigh Dodds, Talis
Alex Iskold, AdaptiveBlue
Peter Mika, Yahoo! Research
Mills Davis, Project10x

Every month, the Semantic Web Gang podcast brings together a team of researchers, practitioners and managers to share their views on topical developments in the semantic technology space. In a departure from the regular telephone conversation, June’s Gang finds host Paul Miller together on stage with Gang regulars Greg Boutin, Mills Davis, Leigh Dodds, Alex Iskold and Peter Mika and special guest Tony Shaw (Semantic Universe). We take a typical Gang look back over the Semantic Technology Conference, discussing our impressions and listening to those of our audience. Watch this video to see the Gang in action, to hear their opinions, and comment below to contribute your own views.

The Semantic Web Gang looks back at SemTech 2009 from Semantic Universe on Vimeo.

MODERATOR: Paul Miller, The Cloud of Data

PANELISTS:
Jamie Taylor, Metaweb Technologies, Inc.
Leigh Dodds, Talis
James Leigh, James Leigh Services, Inc.
Kingsley Idehen, OpenLink Software, Inc.

The "data commons" is a cornerstone of the semantic web vision. The Linked and Open Data movements are progressing beyond the early adopter phase and preparing to cross the chasm. Enough experience now exists to reflect on how this data set is being used, how useful it is, and where we can take it from here. Beyond the basics, the panel will discuss issues such as quality of service, stability, and longevity. They’ll also explore the evolution of the semantic web with a particular emphasis on modes of data use, reuse and aggregation.

Panel: Linked Open Data from Semantic Universe on Vimeo.

The first semantic search system for The New Times was released in 1913 and was available bound in either paper ($6) or cloth ($8). In the 96 years since the advent of The Historical Index to The New York Times, semantic technology has become central to The New York Times’ daily operations and the focus of much internal research and development. In this keynote, Rob Larson, VP of Digital Production, and Evan Sandhaus, Semantic Technologist, will review the long history of semantic technology at The New York Times; discuss the application of this technology in our operations; and review an innovative initiative to enlist the global community in solving some of our toughest challenges.

KEYNOTE: Semantics at The New York Times from Semantic Universe on Vimeo.

At the end of the Keynote, Evan and Rob made a significant announcement regarding The New York Times and their contribution to the Linked Open Data movement.

View this Announcement:

New York Times Announcement at SemTech 2009 from Semantic Universe on Vimeo.

We are beginning to see a new interaction paradigm for the web: the Virtual Personal Assistant (VPA). A VPA is task focused: it helps you get things done. You interact with it in natural language, in a conversation. It gets to know you, acts on your behalf, and gets better with time. The VPA paradigm builds on the information and services of the web, with new technical challenges of semantic intent understanding, context awareness, service delegation, and mass personalization.

Siri is a virtual personal assistant for the mobile Internet. Although just in its infancy, Siri can help with some common tasks that human assistants do, such as booking a restaurant, getting tickets to a show, and inviting a friend. We will describe the technology underlying Siri and how it fits in the larger ecosystem of services and data providers. And we will offer a vision of where assistants like Siri are going.

KEYNOTE: The Game Changer: Siri, a Virtual Personal Assistant from Semantic Universe on Vimeo.

We are beginning to see a new interaction paradigm for the web: the Virtual Personal Assistant (VPA). A VPA is task focused: it helps you get things done. You interact with it in natural language, in a conversation. It gets to know you, acts on your behalf, and gets better with time. The VPA paradigm builds on the information and services of the web, with new technical challenges of semantic intent understanding, context awareness, service delegation, and mass personalization.

Siri is a virtual personal assistant for the mobile Internet. Although just in its infancy, Siri can help with some common tasks that human assistants do, such as booking a restaurant, getting tickets to a show, and inviting a friend. We will describe the technology underlying Siri and how it fits in the larger ecosystem of services and data providers. And we will offer a vision of where assistants like Siri are going.

KEYNOTE: The Game Changer: Siri, a Virtual Personal Assistant from Semantic Universe on Vimeo.

SPEAKER: Thomas "Tom" Tague
OpenCalais Initiative Lead
Thomson Reuters OpenCalais Initiative

The mainstream adoption of Web 2.0 technologies – from RSS feeds to social networks – is hastening the demise of the portal. With each new face on Facebook, and each new Twitter account, our once routine habits and traffic patterns shift. This wave of change in the way we consume, transact and interact on the Web is dis-intermediating ‘destination’ sites of all kinds. Our once centralized content has been atomized.

And yet our fundamental problem persists. We’re overwhelmed with input, yet still can’t find the one thing we need. . . now.

Semantic technologies – and the content interoperability and Linked Data connections they beget – offer new hope. That is not to say the answer lies in building new search engines, and few would argue for another news aggregator. Rather, our point of inflection lies at the point of consumption. Our task is to simultaneously refine and enrich our digital experience of everything from content and community to commerce.

Thomas ("Tom") Tague spent the past year meeting with developers and entrepreneurs that are tackling these challenges. In our opening keynote, he shares insights and impressions from OpenCalais’ first year out the door, including areas of progress and areas that require more focus, inter-disciplinary collaboration and cooperation across the industry.

KEYNOTE: The Big Picture – How Semantic Technologies Introduce a New Paradigm for Interaction from Semantic Universe on Vimeo.

This Keynote is presented in six parts.

Moderated by: Carla Thompson, Guidewire Group
Speakers:
Andrew Tomkins, Yahoo! Search
Peter Norvig, Google
Riza Berkan, hakia
Scott Prevost, Powerset division of bing
Tomasz Imielinski, Ask.com
William Tunstall-Pedoe, True Knowledge

Semantic technology changes the rules of the search marketspace, but exactly how, and by how much, are the key questions. Announcements are made daily for new companies with niche search applications, and clearly lots of start-ups are betting they can gain enough market share to create value for their investors. Meanwhile the major players are rapidly adding semantic enhancements to existing services to improve relevancy, create new query services, improve ad targeting and provide more customization options for users. The field is full of innovation, competition and new investment.

This Keynote Panel session brings together major incumbents with promising upstarts to assess the current and future state of the semantic search market. Can semantic technology open up truly differentiated search services? Will success be won with technological advantage, creative branding and positioning, or sheer market dominance? The executives represented on the panel bring deep technical expertise and business savvy.

PART I: Introductions and Differentiators

Executive Round Table: Semantic Search – PART I: Introductions and Differentiators from Semantic Universe on Vimeo.

PART II: Why do we need to change search?

Executive Round Table: Semantic Search – PART II: Why do we need to change search? from Semantic Universe on Vimeo.

PART III: How do you measure the "Semanticity" of a search engine?

Executive Round Table: Semantic Search – PART III: How do you measure the “Semanticity” of a search engine? from Semantic Universe on Vimeo.

PART IV: Search vs. Answers

Executive Round Table: Semantic Search – PART IV: Search vs Answers from Semantic Universe on Vimeo.

PART V: New Services – Wolfram Alpha

Executive Round Table: Semantic Search – PART V: New Services – Wolfram Alpha from Semantic Universe on Vimeo.

PART VI: New Services – Bing and Siri

Executive Round Table: Semantic Search – PART VI: New Services – Bing and Siri from Semantic Universe on Vimeo.

Russell Foltz-Smith, Business Development for Wolfram|Alpha sits down with Nova Spivack of Twine.com to discuss the recent launch; what Wolfram|Alpha is (and is not) and where the much talked about project is heading from here. How is Wolfram pursuing distribution, licensing deals, etc.? What will their API look like?

Wolfram|Alpha – An Interview from Semantic Universe on Vimeo.

Former president of IAB, Greg Stuart, says semantic technology isn’t close to improving targeting

Former Interactive Advertising Bureau President, Greg Stuart, sits down in this video interview with journalist Bambi Francisco (Vator.tv) at SemTech 2009 to discuss how semantic technology isn’t even close to improving targeting (6:20 minutes).

See this video on Vator.tv.