Semantic Web

ReadWriteWeb just posted an interesting article about investor opportunities and pitfalls in the Semantic Web space. The questions were asked to a panel of industry insiders at the SemTech 2008 conference. Panelists include Amanda Reed (Palomar Ventures), Eghosa Omoigui (Intel), and Stephen Hall (Vulcan Capital). This information can be very useful if you're looking to start a business within the Semantic Web industry.

When constructing the Semantic Web, we are actually building two varied aspects simultaneously. One aspect is the Web that includes things such as the communication protocols, the Web data presentation formats, and so on. In particular, we have invented new technologies such as RDF, OWL, SPARQL, and other W3C recommended Semantic Web standards. The other aspect is the semantics that represent the meanings of Web data. Building semantics is, however, different from building the Web.

Continue reading Building Semantics is Different from Building the Web

Today finally I logged in to Twine the first time. I was reading yesterday about some shortcomings of the system, so I was keen on trying out the system by myself to get my own impression.

It's true that the system isn't as easy to understand as del.icio.us or other bookmarking tools. It takes a while until you get used to all those additional ways you can navigate through the system. Remember: "Twine looks at content and parses it automatically for the names of people, places, organizations and other subject tags. Users are then able to navigate between related content, view recommended content and connect with recommended people with related interests."

Continue reading My First Experiences with Twine

A lot of you emailed me asking where to find more videos, so I'm delivering the goods. I've expanded the previous list from a paltry 17 to a remarkable 302, and I've included podcasts this time! There were so many videos I had to break them up into different categories for easier skimming. There are no duplicates, however I did place some videos into more than one category when I felt it was appropriate. This list is monstrous, enjoy.

Continue reading 302 Semantic Web Videos and Podcasts!

To all my fellow Python enthusiasts, Ivan Herman (with the help of new programmers from the CTIC Foundation in Spain) has released a new version of his SPARQL wrapper for Python. The wrapper creates the query URI for you and will convert the results to RDF/XML and JSON, if possible. Keep up the excellent work guys, we can never have enough Semantic Web libs for Python!

Update: 302 Semantic Web Videos and Podcasts!

I've compiled a list of videos about the Semantic Web, RDF, and OWL for your viewing pleasure! Most of these videos are short, ranging from about 6 to 10 minutes while others are long (45+ minutes). Included are a few introductions, a few interviews, and a few that get into the gritty details.

Continue reading 17 Semantic Web, RDF, and OWL Videos

The Web as we know it today is an ecosystem of people, documents, machines, and an exponentially increasing amount of unstructured information. Everyone is free to change the landscape of the Web, and millions of us (people, that is) have taken our crack at it, shaping it how we see fit. This generally entails creating our own Web sites, but anyone contributing in any way is actively changing the way the Web is structured. Changes to the Web's structure will only become more obvious and pervasive as we approach the full-scale vision of the Semantic Web.

Continue reading The Fault-Tolerant Semantic Web

We're still using Protege, but this time working with the new ALPHA version and getting deeper into concepts.

Get the Flash Player to see this player.

The RDF Data Access Working Group has published the following three SPARQL Proposed Recommendations:

SPARQL Query Language for RDF

Defines the syntax and semantics of the SPARQL query language for RDF. The results of SPARQL queries can be results sets or RDF graphs.

SPARQL Query Results XML Format

Defines an XML format for the variable binding and boolean results formats.

SPARQL Protocol for RDF

Uses WSDL 2.0 to describe an HTTP protocol for conveying SPARQL queries to an SPARQL query processing service and returning the query results to the party that made the request.

Aperture is a Java framework for extracting full-text content and metadata from various information systems (filesystems, Web sites, email inboxes) and the file formats (documents, images) in these systems.

Continue reading Announcing Aperture 1.0.1: Beta Release