Planet Semantico

Sir Tim Berners-Lee first talked about the Semantic Web in the seminal Scientific American article back in 2001.  The first mention of it I can find on Panlibus was back in 2004, and anyone who has spent a few minutes talking about data with us at Talis will know we have been passionate about Semantic Web technologies ever since.  My colleague Paul Miller has interviewed Sir Tim on Talking with Talis. Our Platform is built using Semantic Web techniques and technologies.  

In the techno-geek community there is a significant division between those that get the Semantic Web, and can’t wait until it is a reality, and those that don’t get it and think it is science fiction that will never become usefully real.

The discussions between these groups often involve things such as RDF, Open Linked Data - all far too techie for a conversation with  the general public - or you would think so.

Now along comes Sir Tim on BBC Radio 4’s morning current affairs program Today.  Today pulls in a regular national audience of millions, the vast majority of whom you could in no way describe as techie. He delivered a classic description of the Semantic Web, in language which made it easy to follow - even the interviewer appeared to understand! - and the dreaded RDF was mentioned.

This eight minute conversation, which includes an introduction from the BBC’s science correspondent Tom Feilden, should become introductory listening for anyone wanting to find out more about the Semantic Web.   Because of the potential benefits to data rich environments such as libraries, it should be compulsory listening for librarians, who can then go on and listen to library people who get it such as Allan Cho and Ed Summers.  For those that want to dig even further, I can do no better than recommend Nodalities Magazine, and our sister blog Nodalities.

Back to Sir Tim’s interview.  Towards the end he is asked about what is happening with the Semantic Web in the UK.  He has a reputation for not wanting to advertise particular companies, but I must admit I was shouting out what about Garlik, what about True Knowledge, and what about Talis! - there I’ve done it for him.

Picture from hyoga on Flickr.

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English Allan Cho, BBC Radio, Ed Summers, Paul Miller, RDF, Semantic Web technologies, Tim Berners-Lee, Tom Feilden, United Kingdom, Web techniques, Web technologies

UPDATE: video from the talk, expertly shot by Jyri Engestrom, is now available.

I'm heading to Helsinki in a few days for the next Thinglink workshop. My lovely hosts Ulla-Maaria and Jyri have organised a chance for me to give an Aula talk on "the Open Data Movement". I'm honoured to be part of a series that has included Ben Cerveny, Henry Jenkins, Joi Ito and Lawrence Lessig.

Here's the invitation:

OPEN DATA MOVEMENT - THE NEXT WAVE OF OPEN SOURCE

Matt Biddulph
www.hackdiary.com

Thursday August 17th at 18:00
Helsinki Institute for Information Technology (HIIT)
6th floor, Pinta-building, High Tech Center (HTC), Ruoholahti
Tammasaarenkatu 3, Helsinki

Tilaisuus on avoin ja maksuton. Luento on englanninkielinen.
Welcome - Tervetuloa!

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The Wikipedia is only the tip of the iceberg of information that is becoming freely accessible on the internet. Following the success of open source, an open data movement is occurring online that seeks to gather, publish and enable the reuse of rich machine-readable datasets - like all programs ever broadcasted by the BBC.

By opening up these wellsprings of information, which were previously only accessible to large institutions, the open data movement has unleashed a new wave of creativity on the Web. Programmers, students, and companies are building mashups by overlaying photos, blog posts, and other objects to open datasets like the BBC Programme Catalogue, Wikipedia, Open Streetmap, and Thinglink.

As a case in point, Biddulph will describe how the BBC's database of programming from the 1950s to the present day was transformed from an internal green-screen application to a public Web 2.0 service using Ruby on Rails. Expect to see some playful examples of what you could do with it and other open datasets.

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Matt Biddulph is a freelance software developer based in London. He previously worked at BBC Radio and Music Interactive as the leader of the software architecture team, aka Head of Plugging Things Into Other Things. He blogs on Hack Diary (www.hackdiary.com).

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The event is organized by Aula (www.aula.org) in collaboration with HIIT. Aula is an open network that promotes the exchange of ideas across boundaries.

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Uncategorized BBC, BBC Radio, Ben Cerveny, freelance software developer, Helsinki, Helsinki Institute for Information Technology, Henry Jenkins, High Tech Center, Information Technology, Joi Ito, Lawrence Lessig, London, Matt Biddulph, Open Data Movement, public Web, software architecture team, www.aula.org, www.hackdiary.com