11.08.11
The Semantic Web is Alive and Well
[Cartoon]
The semantic web is an international issue. It is growing in its application as shown at the IC3K 2011 Conference. The purpose of the IC3K is to bring together researchers, engineers and practitioners in the areas of Knowledge Discovery, Knowledge Engineering and Knowledge Management.
At the 2011 Conference held in Paris, France, three complementary conferences were co-located: International Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Information Retrieval (KDIR), the International Conference on Knowledge Engineering and Ontology Development (KEOD), and the International Conference on Knowledge Management and Information Sharing (KMIS).
As an Enterprise Architect, I was overwhelmed by the efforts in both theory and application. There is no question in my mind that capturing and sharing knowledge over the internet is already underway and will continue to expand as more tools emerge.
I was impressed by the number of projects that are utilizing ontology as the base for capturing knowledge. Projects were described that are being done by universities all over the world. Many of the projects were presented by graduate students as part of their work towards a PH.D. Many others were presented by professors operating under grants.
At one of the join sessions of all of the conferences there was a panel discussion from business representatives. Each business representative described how they captured and used knowledge in the operation of their business. It was clear that the concepts and theories described in the conference are beginning to find a value-added home in business.
My objective for attending the conference was to get an update on the status of the application of ontology. My objective was met. I learned that application is what all of the efforts are about. Every theory presented was being investigated with targeted applications in mind. In summary, I was impressed by the enormous amount of international work taking place.
For those interested in following the development of the semantic web, I recommend you follow the publications from the IC3K. I also recommend that you become acquainted with the standard ontology language for the web, OWL. You can get an introduction to OWL by downloading the Protégé open source product for viewing and developing ontologies.
Enterprise Architects are well-aware of the continuing evolution of technology. They creatively look for technology convergence that can provide breakthroughs in thinking. We are at one of those convergent junctions today. What is about to happen will give non-professional information technologists control of their use of automation in their business. No longer will they simply peer through windows and see only what applications let them see. They will be able to go inside, see how things work, and control their automation. – Enterprise Architects Masters of the Unseen City
Closing the Business / IT gap.
