Mike Bergman recently shared a list of the top ten challenges facing IT over the last ten years and the amazing strides that have been made in each area. Bergman states that in the last ten years, “a whole slew of Grand Challenges in computing hung out there: tantalizing yet not proven. These areas ranged from information extraction and natural language understanding to speech recognition and automated reasoning. But things have been changing fast, and with a subtle steadiness that has caused it to go largely unremarked. Sure, all of us have been aware of the huge changes on the Web and search engine ubiquity and social networking. But some of the fundamentally hard problems in computing have also gone through some remarkable (but largely unremarked) advances.” Read more

Semantic Tech & Business Conference Returns to San Francisco

Semantic Tech & Business Conference returns to San Francisco in June! Join us from June 3-7 for complete coverage of Big Data, Linked Data, Extreme Information Management, and Semantic Web. From breakthrough approaches to solving business problems to the big data implications of fast–evolving technologies, SemTechBiz provides you with an unparalleled interactive experience and delivers tangible business value. We're offering a special early rate when you register by February 17. Sign up now!

A new report entitled “Disaster Relief 2.0: The Future of Information Sharing in Humanitarian Emergencies” looks at the need for better information sharing in the face of disaster. According to the article, “The report – commissioned by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the UN Foundation and Vodafone Foundation – looks at the aftermath of the Haiti quake and makes recommendations on how the humanitarian aid community can work with volunteer and technical communities to improve response and accountability in future emergencies.” Read more

Today the Pew Center released a survey regarding the future of the Semantic Web. More than half of those responded didn’t think that the vision associated with the Semantic Web would be realized – that’s a startling conclusion, really. It’s even more remarkable given the fact that those who responded negatively didn’t think it would even happen by 2020.

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In part 1 of the Cyber Security and Semantics series we discussed some of the highlights of how or where semantics may help transform the practice of Cyber Security. To understand the full implications of why Semantics and Semantic Technology is so crucial for Cyber Security we need to examine more of the problem space associated with.

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Over the past twenty years, a number of standards groups have arisen to develop, manage or reconcile Healthcare data or IT-related standards. Much of the focus over the past decade has been dedicated specifically to data exchange standards and identifying standard data elements for various sub-domains of Healthcare practice automation. The primary standards bodies involved in these activities include but are not limited to the following organizations:

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Over the past two years I’ve tried very hard to help define the potential application for this technology area in the context of Information Technology disciplines or problem spaces – out of those efforts has come a focus on:

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Integration is more than the coding of application or data interfaces. When dealing with complex integration within or across enterprises, there must be sufficient discipline to achieve reproducible results. Furthermore, that discipline must be tailored to the unique requirements of the domain/s in question. Few domains are as complex as Healthcare. Even more important perhaps is that integration cannot be viewed outside of the context of the outcomes within the domains they are meant to serve. Technical success may not translate to process or performance improvement if the relationships between domain goals and enabling technologies aren’t properly understood. Some of the basic concepts associated with our IH include the following:

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In part I of this two-part series, Dean Allemang & Scott Henninger draw on years of teaching TopQuadrant’s introduction course on the Semantic Web to make some observations on teaching Semantic Web concepts to a wide variety of students.

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Does your organization find that it can develop a new product faster than your IT group can create a new application to manage it?  Are your existing systems too inflexible?

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The Internet’s Big Bang TIME This search for the Semantic Web has the potential to be even more significant than his invention of the World Wide Web. His success could open a new chapter in the history of information technology.