In part I of this two-part series, Dean Allemang & Scott Henninger draw on years of teaching TopQuadrant’s introduction course on the Semantic Web to make some observations on teaching Semantic Web concepts to a wide variety of students.

Does your organization find that it can develop a new product faster than your IT group can create a new application to manage it?  Are your existing systems too inflexible?

No, these are not just the opening lines of a sales pitch aimed at selling you the latest IT package or platform. They reflect critical business drivers and challenges.

The Semantic Web is nearing the point of widespread practical adoption:

• The core specifications have stabilized • Tools and frameworks implementing key features have been through several development cycles • An increasing number of major software companies have developed semantically enabled products or are actively researching the space