I should explain first, that In addition to my role at Semantic Universe, I oversee the annual educational conference on enterprise data management (EDM), called Enterprise Data World. About 900 enterprise data people will be converging on Tampa for the next event on April 5-9, 2009.

I HAVE A REQUEST for the semantic web (SW) community please…it’s very clear from my involvement with both the SW and EDM communities that that the two groups are not talking to each other. EDM folks are largely uninformed about  linked data, RDF, ontologies, SPARQL or any of the fundamental concepts and building blocks of the SW. Likewise, if you ask someone developing SW apps how they can help solve integration issues in any enterprise application…CDI, CRM, MDM…you’ll usually get a blank stare. Most have no idea what MDM means (it’s Master Data Management). I would like very much to help bridge this divide. So…

MY REQUEST – I’d like to invite anyone in this community who wants to learn about enterprise data management – or who has expertise to bring – to contact me about attending the next Enterprise Data World Conference in Tampa on April 5-9, 2009, as my guest (ie. at no charge). I will make a (limited) number of free seats available to those who are willing to learn about EDM and reciprocate by sitting down with members of the EDM community and educating them about issues in enterprise data. I will organize the conversation between both groups during the conference. To “apply” please send me an email at tony(at)semanticuniverse.com

The Enterprise Data World agenda is available at:

http://edw2009.wilshireconferences.com/

Thanks, and hoping to hear from you soon,

Tony Shaw