A new article from the BBC Blog discusses the future of the BBC, its archives, and the Digital Public Space project. The Digital Public Space project “is a partnership between the BBC and other cultural institutions in the UK, including museums, archives, libraries, galleries and educational bodies, all of whom share a vision of not simply using Internet technology as a distribution channel, but instead being part of that digital environment as it evolves: being part of the Web, rather than just on it.” Read more

Announcing Semantic Tech & Business Conference - San Francisco 2012

Semantic Tech & Business Conference is returning 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!

Karen Coyle, a librarian and consultant in the field of digital libraries recently won the Outstanding Publication Award from the Association for Library Collections & Technical Services (ALCTS). Coyle’s winning paper is entitled “Understanding the Semantic Web: Bibliographic Data and Metadata.”

Coyle’s paper is “an insightful articulation about how library catalogs must transition to become part of the current information environment… In this thought-provoking and transformative publication, Coyle breaks new ground while still offering practical guidelines about how to achieve the goals set out for libraries to move the catalog into the Semantic Web and transform the role of library metadata in today’s Web driven world.” Read more

Andy Powell recently responded to the semantic web community’s feedback on his and co-writer Pete Johnston’s draft of Metadata Guidelines for the UK RDFT. According to the draft, the purpose of the document is to provide “a set of guidelines for how metadata associated with library, museum and archival collections should be made available for the purposes of supporting resource discovery in line with the JISC/RLUK Resource Discovery Taskforce (RDTF) Vision.”

Powell’s personable response to the comments of his peers gives insight into the collaborative attitude of semantic web professionals Read more

Executive Summary

SeMuSe is an open and collaborative community based project to work on a Semantic Museum vision, and provides a forum for discussion of the future of applied cultural and natural heritage data management. Members of SeMuSe can greatly benefit from advancements made in the Semantic Technology community. The goal of SeMuSe is to help organizations and practitioners to introduce Semantic Technologies and concepts to cultural and natural heritage data management efforts and to capitalize on the results of more than a decade of Semantic Technology research. Emerging technology standards like RDF, RDFS and OWL and domain specific vocabularies such as museumdat and the CIDOC CRM ontology specification are a marriage made in Semantic Technology heaven, allowing to lead semantic cultural and natural heritage data management to its full potential – SeMuSe.

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