Mike Bergman recently asked the deceptively simple question, what do things mean on the semantic web? He explains, “The crowning achievement of the semantic Web is the simple use of URIs to identify data. Further, if the URI identifier can resolve to a representation of that data, it now becomes an integral part of the HTTP access protocol of the Web while providing a unique identifier for the data. These innovations provide the basis for distributed data at global scale, all accessible via Web devices such as browsers and smartphones that are now a ubiquitous part of our daily lives.” 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!

Steve Hamby proclaims that 2012 is the year of the Semantic Web. He starts by quoting Sir Tim Berners-Lee’s vision of the semantic web back in 1996: “If the interaction between person and hypertext could be so intuitive that the machine-readable information space gave an accurate representation of the state of people’s thoughts, interactions, and work patterns, then machine analysis could become a very powerful management tool, seeing patterns in our work and facilitating our working together through the typical problems which beset the management of large organizations.” Read more

Christopher Dawson has commented on Google’s recent changes to their privacy policy. Dawson writes, “I live, eat, breathe, work, and play Google and there aren’t many people more aware of Google’s business model and the amount of data it collects than I. So is it just sheer stupidity and naiveté that has me utterly embracing the Google ecosystem and relatively unconcerned about newly announced privacy policies that have caused so much consternation this week? Before you jump down to the talkbacks to tell me how stupid I really am, read on for another couple paragraphs.” Read more

Todd Watson has commented on Sir Tim Berners-Lee’s recent appearance at Lotusphere 2012. Watson writes, “How ironic that Sir Berners-Lee was speaking to the Lotusphere faithful about the open, Semantic Web on a day when so many are protesting the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA, as it’s come to be known) as a means towards protecting intellectual property online… As for Berners-Lee’s message, it was both history lesson and reminder that’s what past is prologue. After Vinton Cerf invented TCP/IP to create the ‘internetwork’ of all those computers, it was Berners-Lee who figured out a way to link all those computers in a more user-friendly way (through the HTTP protocol via the WWW).” Read more

David Hunter Tow has made a number of predictions regarding the future of the internet. He predicts “that within the next decade the Internet and Web may be at risk of splitting into a number of separate entities- fragmenting under technological, national, business and social pressures. In its place may emerge a network of networks – continuously morphing- linking and fragmenting, with no central dominant domain backbone; instead a disconnected, random structure of networks with information channeled through uncoordinated switching stations and content hubs, controlled by a range of geopolitical, social and enterprise interests.” Read more

Dr. Kieron O’Hara has examined how the semantic web might be used to implement a so-called ‘right to be forgotten.’ O’Hara writes, “During the revision of the EU’s data protection directive, attention has focused on a ‘right to be forgotten’. Though the discussion has been largely confined to the legal profession, and has been overlooked by technologists, it does raise technical issues – UK minister Ed Vaizey, and the UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office have pointed out that rights are only meaningful when they can be enforced and implemented (Out-law.com 2011, ICO 2011). In this article, I look at how such a right might be interpreted and whether it could be enforced using the specific technology of the Semantic Web or the Linked Data Web.” Read more

Our own Jennifer Zaino recently shared the story of two developers turning to the semantic web to create a social democracy platform for global protesters. The effort is called Tribeforth Foundation’s Project 99. In a parallel effort, Ed Knutson and the Federated General Assembly are at work on their own social networking platform for protesters. Trent Nouveau reports, “Activists associated with the rapidly evolving OccupyWallStreet (OWS) movement have kicked off an initiative to redefine social networking for a new age of global protest. According to web and mobile app developer Ed Knutson, the new tech could go well beyond OWS to help create more distributed social networks, optimize online business collaboration and perhaps even help make the concept of a semantic web a reality.” Read more

A new paper has been published entitled “Systems Chemical Biology and the Semantic Web: What They Mean for the Future of Drug Discovery Research.” The paper was written by David Wild, Ying Ding, Amit Sheth, Lee Harland, Eric Gifford, and Michael Lajiness. It can be downloaded for a fee of $27.95. According to the abstract, “Systems chemical biology, the integration of chemistry, biology and computation to generate understanding about the way small molecules affect biological systems as a whole, as well as related fields such as chemogenomics, are central to emerging new paradigms of drug discovery such as drug repurposing and personalized medicine.” Read more

In the dying weeks of Britain’s last government, then-Prime Minister Gordon Brown promised a new Institute of Web Science. But the new government cancelled it. Then, late last month, that same government gave the idea a polish, a new name, and unveiled it once again as the Open Data Institute. W3C’s Sir Tim Berners-Lee and Southampton’s Professor Nigel Shadbolt are still in charge. Semantic stuff, and open data stuff, and government transparency are still the point. Millions of pounds are still on the table. But something has changed. Partly it’s the name, but it’s also a (welcome) shift in emphasis; away from the technology and towards the value. Others could learn the lesson that government appears to have learned, and focus far more on what their technology or product offers and far less on the technical intricacies of how it works. Read more

NPR is running a two-part report this week on the “digital breadcrumbs” that lead to “Big Data Gold.” The article states, “One way to understand how big data works is to think about your daily life. You write an email, call your boss, pass a security camera, maybe buy a plane ticket online. Taken alone, this is disjointed, boring information. To Elizabeth Charnock, it makes up your digital character. ‘Digital character is this idea that almost everybody these days leaves behind a giant digital breadcrumb trail,’ she says.” Read more