DISQUS

I look forward to it!

Zach - agreed... which is why we'll send the printed copy to anyone who wants it, free of charge... :-)

Zach

Hi and thanks for your interest in Nodalities Magazine; I hope you will subscribe so we can let you have each issue as it comes out.

Your comment on the appropriateness of a print version is certainly a valid one, and it's something we considered long and hard.

Our Nodalities blog (http://blogs.talis.com/nodalities/) is regularly updated, and I also blog on the topic for ZDNet at http://blogs.zdnet.com/semantic-web/ . Many of our staff have their own blogs that are routinely relevant to the topic, too... and we also publish regular podcasts at http://www.talis.com/platform/podcasts/

Within this context of widely available digital content, we felt that there *was* a place for a print version of Nodalities Magazine, with identical content to its online counterpart at http://www.talis.com/nodalities/.

I am writing from Beijing Airport, on my way home from this year's World Wide Web conference. This is a pretty connected bunch of people, but they still appreciated the ability of myself and my colleagues to follow up conversations and introductions with printed material. Even today, there is *a* place for printed matter. It reaches different people than might follow blogs and podcasts, and it also proves useful - even for those who read some of the material elsewhere - to have something to skim through on the plane, the train, or in moments of downtime at their desk.

The print form will not supersede its online version; but we felt - and this week has validated that feeling - that there was value in a print run too.

Definitely! :-)

Mathew

working to reach agreement on the underlying capabilities that enable innovation does tend to be as boring as dry toast. That's hardly a Semantic Web innovation. I doubt the world at large got terribly excited about the discussions over railway gauges that opened a continent to settlement, or the design decisions that resulted in cost-effective world-spanning clipper ships...

I agree with both you and Fraser that the important piece is what we do next; it's the applications that people build on top of those underlying capabilities, now that they are in place.

Some will be consumer plays like Twine, where any user may well be able to 'see', 'touch', and be excited by the Semantic Web.

In most cases, though, Semantic Web technologies will be quietly implemented in the background... making Fraser's contextualisation better/smarter, exposing information from those big corporate data silos to other big corporate data silos, etc.

Most of the work arising from the Semantic Web will be important. Most of it will make someone money. Most of it will deliver enhanced functionality or capabilities to the user of an application. Most of it won't be sexy or exciting to the end user, though. And surely that's only a problem if we think it's going to be otherwise?

Paul - who has never owned (or even touched) a slide rule.

:-)

Paul

Yes... DEFINITELY about Open Data...

...and glad you like the podcasts... :-)

Can I add a vote for Seni Thomas' question? :-)

Robert - that should be an interesting one!

I guess you probably need to delve into the GGG story a little - it's been covered on various levels all over the place, and I have a piece on ZDNet that tries to extract some common threads from the coverage - http://blogs.zdnet.com/web2explorer/?p=419 . Does this expression of interest in the social graph mean a repositioning or change of direction for the Semantic Web effort... or is it a demonstration that the underlying ideas and technologies are flexible enough to do what they *were* doing and meet the needs of next-gen social networks as well?

Something I'm VERY interested in - and try to dig into via the Nodalities blog ( http://blogs.talis.com/nodalities/ ) and an ongoing series of podcasts ( http://www.talis.com/platform/resources/podcast... ) - is the way in which Semantic Web technologies are fit for mainstream business purposes. Podcasts with technologists, business people, venture capitalists and analysts provide some useful perspectives on that... and I'd welcome Tim's view on ways in which the Semantic Web is (finally?) emerging from the laboratory?

Finally (for now - I've got loads more if you want it! ;-) ) my colleague Ian Davis has been postulating about the 'Shadow Web' ( http://iandavis.com/blog/2007/11/is-the-semanti... ) - this idea that the rich web of RDF documents being built by Semantic Web practitioners is actually not very well connected to the mainstream Web that the rest of us navigate around. Is this really a problem and if so what can we do about it?

Paul

Mathew,

you raise some interesting points here, and this is precisely why we have been investing recently in the development of licenses that are intended to encourage sharing, use and reuse of data in much the same way that Creative Commons does for 'creative works'.

The mesh of clickstream, attention, intention, recommendation, and more is incredibly powerful, and it seems naive of Craigslist to (appear) to suggest otherwise, although I can admire their intentions in not wanting to 'abuse' data contributed by their users.

Explicit use of a license for those data would clarify things for all concerned, probably offer craigslist an additional revenue stream, and definitely create opportunities for an enhanced user experience.

See http://blogs.talis.com/nodalities/2007/10/open_... for pointers to the draft license and more.

There has been quite a lot of chatter about Web 3.0, mostly since an article in the New York Times earlier this year drew attention to what was already going on.

Some, such as Nova Spivack, take an interesting approach and define Web 3.0 as essentially the third decade of the web. Some pitch it squarely as a new name for the Semantic Web vision of Tim Berners-Lee.

From our perspective, Web 3.0 - or the Web of Data - is an amalgam of aspects of the Semantic Web and aspects of Web 2.0; a web in which data is open, exchangeable, linkable and actionable. A web in which clickstreams and context are put to far greater use in delivering a personal and interconnected experience to meet the needs of the user.

See, for example, http://www.talis.com/platform/resources/assets/....

I also got 81% - and probably damage my standing by commenting here rather than blogging it...! (although I did say "No" to the question which asked if I would blog about doing the test...)

Surely O2 can't get away with constraining the iPhone with imode? The 'internet in you pocket' message is a powerful aspect of the iPhone pitch, and imode is a long way from that! Given that Vodafone and even Orange must have been contenders, wouldn't Apple have been in a reasonably strong position to insist on full and unconstrained data use?

I agree, though, that the Mobile Web as a concept will not go anywhere far until the telcos give up some of their daft notions of walled gardens and premium content...

Anyone remember O2's silver surfer?

For those not so well connected as Robert, a listen to our latest podcast might shed a little light. In it Radar Networks' CEO, Nova Spivack, talks about his background, his company, and the Semantic Web/ Data Web - http://blogs.talis.com/nodalities/2007/03/nova_...

Nicole, the librarian in question was Thomas Brevik.

Chris

good questions, indeed. I'm grabbing a few moments here between sessions, but can provide more detail later if you'd like.

For now, though, check out tdn.talis.com, especially the sections around Talis Keystone (open source toolkit, freely accessible sandbox site, etc) and the Talis Platform (open apis, providing access to open data).

Project Cenote (cenote.talis.com/) is also worth a look; an application built very rapidly atop a number of our apis; apis that you could build a completely different application with to meet your own needs if you wanted to. Cenote is part of an ongoing shift from building an application and (maybe, begrudgingly) opening up some functionality via an api or two at a later date... toward gathering together a whole Platform of inter-connected apis and then encouraging anybody to build 'competing' applications that consume them.

On the Open Standards, we've also been heavily involved in things like VIEWS, and continue to engage with W3C, Creative Commons, and others...

If you, or anyone, would like more details, feel free to get in touch.

Carl
I couldn't agree more that we need to find ways to make the valuable resources and services of the library available in ways that promote the library, the local area, and more. Open APIs? Yes, definitely. Appearing appropriately alongside data from Amazon et al? Too right. Data available for use and integration in all the ways you suggest, and so many more? Can't happen soon enough!
With an early research prototype we called Whisper (http://www.talis.com/tdn/whisper), we demonstrated some of what you're looking for. Click on the 'Discover' tab and have a search or two. You'll note data coming back from libraries that hold the book, Amazon, and other places.
Behind the scenes? APIs just like some of the ones you asked for. See http://www.talis.com/tdn/platform for details on the current set, and check back soon for even more.
And no, your local library may not be listed right now in the set that hold a copy of any book you search for. But it could be. A community-maintained Directory (http://directory.talis.com/) holds information about libraries and the services (human and machine-readable) that they offer. And the underlying data about bibliographic holdings comes from the Platform too; and it's free for any library to choose to share their holdings with the Platform, so that they may be reused in real-world applications evolved beyond Whisper, in Amazon (http://www.talis.com/tdn/greasemonkey/amazon-li...), in LibraryThing (http://www.talis.com/tdn/greasemonkey/libraryth...), and in other places where a developer sees the value in leveraging the data, the Directory and the APIs to make real integration happen.

Nicole

I'm glad you enjoyed the presentation, and found it useful.

I've placed the MORI survey on the Talis site, and linked to it from http://blogs.talis.com/panlibus/archives/2006/0....

And yes, Walt, I was joking. I hope, as Nicole suggests, the audience got that...

I'll get you that link to our podcast with Ed Batista just as soon as I finish the edits... ;-)

Robert,

good to see Library of Congress and Microsoft talking... even if only in the back of a car!

LC, and others, are increasingly recognising the need to open up access to the wealth of material held in libraries around the world, and there are a large number of fascinating activities underway in this area.

Technology companies such as Talis are working with these libraries to ensure that this content, and the services that might be built upon it, are as open and accessible as possible, and that they fit within the wider web rather than sitting in a library ghetto.

The library should go to the user, rather than expecting the user to come to the library. And that's EXACTLY what we're doing, leveraging web-based standards, and the capabilities broadly described as 'Web 2.0'.

Watch this space!