MODERATOR:
Wen Ruan, TextWise

PANELISTS:
Ronald M. Kaplan, Powerset division of bing
Christian F. Hempelmann, RiverGlass, Inc.
Riza Berkan, hakia

Semantic Search technology in the Semantic Web community is often understood as retrieval of knowledge from tagged data such as RDF sources, which require substantial formatting and markup to realize. Understanding unstructured query and document text and conducting searches according to their meaning is another approach, exemplified by linguistically rooted semantic matching, ontological knowledge-based semantic interpretation, and statistically based semantic similarity search.

This panel will look at different ways to tackle semantic search as a problem of text understanding. Powerset division of bing’s natural-language processing engine does deep syntactical analysis to determine the meaning of a query or a sentence. Hakia relies on a language-independent ontology model and an ontology-based English lexicon to translate text into a representation of its meaning. RiverGlass has developed an ontological semantic approach to search and text analytics, emphasizing the in-context, linguistic meaning of textual content in order to return truly relevant results in response to information requests. TextWise’s Semantic Signature matching looks for similarities between a query and text at the topic level.

PRESENTER:
Holger Knublauch
Vice President
TopQuadrant

The current generation of Semantic Web languages is well suited to link data and to define domain concepts and relationships. However, real-world applications that operate on those linked data models typically need higher expressivity than what is provided by OWL and RDF Schema alone. SPIN is an open-source framework that supports the use of SPARQL to define business rules and constraint checks on Semantic Web models with object-oriented modeling techniques. This simple yet powerful mechanism makes it possible to define self-describing domain models that can then be used by generic software components such as user interface renderers, schema mappers and workflow engines. Instead of hard-coding behavior in languages like Java, SPIN makes it possible to declaratively define complex business rules and processes. SPIN can also be used to define new higher-level modeling languages with built-in semantics.

This talk:

• Sets the stage with a quick review of SPARQL (incl. CONSTRUCT keyword)
• Introduces SPIN as a mechanism to attach SPARQL queries to class definitions
• Shows how to define new SPARQL functions and reusable query templates with SPIN
• Demonstrates the use of SPIN for tasks ranging from unit conversion to computer games
• Shows how the ideas of SPIN give rise to a new software development paradigm around self-describing linked data models

MODERATOR:
Steve Bastasini, Cerebra

PANELISTS:
Eghosa Omoigui, Intel Capital
Peter Rip, Crosslink Capital
Michael S. Dunn, Hearst Interactive Media
Shawn Carolan, Menlo Ventures

After a period of caution about the viability of semantic technologies, investors seem more willing to fund semantic start-ups right now. And even with the economy in distress, semantics is managing to create excitement amongst the VCs. Semantic search has been hot for a couple of years – the possibility of finding the next Google being just too enticing – but the focus seems now to be shifting to enterprise and consumer apps where as Jim Hendler famously said "a little semantics goes a long way." Money is going into enterprise software, such as business intelligence tools, and innovative consumer apps based around social networks, smarter information filtering and productivity enhancement.

So what do the VCs want to see in the business plans for semantic start-ups now? Are there still plenty of good opportunities out there for entrepreneurs or have the best ideas already claimed their share of available capital?

Joseph C. Wicentowski, U.S. Department of State
Dan McCreary, Dan McCreary and Associates

The U.S. State Department’s Office of the Historian has embarked on an ambitious effort to migrate its diplomatic history document archive from paper to an enriched electronic media for online consumption. We have extremely high standards for semantic precision and accuracy, due to Congressional mandates, which makes this unique resource useful to a broad audience, which includes scholars, government officials, and the general public. Furthermore, the new format allows us to repurpose our content and integrate it with "mashup" applications such as timelines and geographical map views.

Greg Boutin, GrowthRoute Ventures
William Mougayar, Eqentia, Inc.
Fraser Kelton, AdaptiveBlue Inc

We will review the state of semantic technologies as a business, discuss the near future, and exchange suggestions with entrepreneurs in the space. In particular, marketing semantic applications presents a challenging paradox: attracting early-adopters by promoting Semantic technology alienates main stream consumers; and, marketing toward mainstream consumers creates disinterest with early-adopters.

Alex Iskold, AdaptiveBlue
Jeremy Bentley, Smartlogic
Brian Crook, Cerebra

Semantic Search is often considered to be the holy grail of applying semantics to the web. But there is another set of applications that are gaining prominence – contextual. Several companies are applying semantic technologies to infer user context and then provide enhanced experience on the web.

Michael A Smith, Clark & Parsia LLC
Deborah L. McGuinness, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI)
Ivan Herman, World Wide Web Consortium
Zhe Wu, Oracle Corp.
Ian Horrocks, Oxford University

OWL 2 is the first major revision of OWL, a key semantic technology standard, and is on-track to become a W3C standard in late Spring 2009, just in time for a panel-led community discussion about the opportunities provided by OWL 2.

Lifecycle Support for Networked Ontologies

NeOn started in March 2006 and has a duration of 4 years. Our aim is to advance the state of the art in using ontologies for large-scale semantic applications in the distributed organizations.

See this video on Vator.tv »

Global leader in Semantic Web application development technology

TopQuadrant is the global leader in Semantic Web application development technology, solution services and training programs. Established in 2001 with the mission to enable enterprises to be agile through practical application of Semantic Web technologies, TopQuadrant offers TopBraid Suite, the only Semantic Web platform with a graphical application assembly toolkit and end-user customizable tools to discover, explore and visualize relevant data without programming.