Photo Courtesy: Flickr/Lars Plougmann

In recent blogs we’ve discussed where semantic technologies have gone in 2012, and a bit about where they will go this year (see here, here and here).

Here are some final thoughts from our panel of semantic web experts on what to expect to see as the New Year rings in:

John Breslin,lecturer at NUI Galway, researcher and unit leader at DERI, creator of SIOC, and co-founder of Technology Voice and StreamGlider

Broader deployment of the schema.org terms is likely. In the study by Muehlisen and Bizer in July this year, we saw Open Graph Protocol, DC, FOAF, RSS, SIOC and Creative Commons still topping the ranks of top semantic vocabularies being used. In 2013 and beyond, I expect to see schema.org jump to the top of that list.

Christine Connors, Chief Ontologist, Knowledgent:

I think we will see an uptick in the job market for semantic technologists in the enterprise; primarily in the Fortune 2000. I expect to see some M&A activity as well from systems providers and integrators who recognize the desire to have a semantic component in their product suite. (No, I have no direct knowledge; it is my hunch!)

We will see increased competition from data analytics vendors who try to add RDF, OWL or graphstores to their existing platforms. I anticipate saying, at the end of 2013, that many of these immature deployments will leave some project teams disappointed. The mature vendors will need to put resources into sales and business development, with the right partners for consulting and systems integration, to be ready to respond to calls for proposals and assistance.

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The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is looking for a Director of Web and New Media in Washington, DC. Responsibilities of the position include the following: “Responsible for executing on-line and mobile media projects for OPMS and creating technological solutions to enhance revenues in a technical publishing environment. Provide direction and support to e-media staff and users through training, usability and maintenance, and troubleshooting. Manage aspects of technology design and layout and interoperability between websites, mobile devices and related processes. Evaluate online and mobile products and technologies of competitors. Work with a variety of software and vendors- including but not limited to ad serving, job search and serving, video hosting, semantic technology, web hosting.” Read more

Accenture Technology Labs is looking for a Research Manager and Technology Researchers at their Chicago, San Jose, or Washington DC locations. The description states, “Accenture Technology Labs is seeking creative and energetic candidates capable of helping to define and execute a strong research program in the following areas: Cyber Security Technologies, Multi Channel Interaction, Data and Platforms, and Analytics.” The post continues, “We currently have multiple openings for Technology Researchers.  We are seeking creative and energetic candidates capable of defining and executing strong research programs in areas like those outlined above.  Read more

Empire is an implementation of the Java Persistence API (JPA) for RDF and the Semantic Web. Instead of another implementation of relational databases, Empire implements JPA for RDF and SPARQL, thus allowing developers who are familiar with JPA, but not with semantic web techologies like RDF, to make an easy transition into this brave, new world. JPA is a specification for managing Java objects, most commonly with an RDBMS; it’s industry standard for Java ORMs.

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In my previous article, I proposed that the library catalogue could be used as a blueprint for the Semantic Web. Perhaps theoretical and conceptual, the arguments fleshed out the ideas, but not the practical applications. For this article, I will outline in greater detail how exactly, developments in library and information science are playing out, not only in the SemWeb, but also in knowledge management for business.

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