Mike’s Digital Laboratory

So now I have a notebook bulging with new things to try. I think I’m in a state of semantic shock. I debated (yes, with myself) whether I should make one big list of stuff I learned from the conference and place it in one big blog post, or just tackle things one at a time. One at a time wins. So today I installed Tagaroo on this web site and will try it out on a number of posts including this one. The idea is that Tagaroo sends your post off to the tagaroo server, analyzes what you write and sends back suggested tags to use to add semantic metadata to your post. The semantic tagging is then available via RDF and the my site becomes part of the semantic web.

Although it’s all quite a blur my notes seem to indicate I caught Thomas Tague’s presentation on Calais home to many projects (including Tagaroo). Calais is backed by the publishing giant Thomson Reuters. What will they do with all this semantic data from the worlds bloggers who choose to use Tagaroo. Only good things they promise. The data will be kept confidential and they claim they are not selling it. Ok, I’m a trusting sort of fellow so here it goes.

Oh, did I mention Tagaroo will also offer suggested images from Flickr to add to your post. Here’s one I like:

Woo Hoo! My second year attending the Semantic Technology Conference. This year is even better than last. I really feel like I’m in my element here. I’m also making a lot of new friends and acquaintances. Feels like 1993 all over again.. Anyway tomorrow I give my presentation on how we are using Semantic MediaWiki at Excellus. I have written a paper on the topic that you can download along with my slides. Although I recommend the paper over the slides. (Additionally you’ll find a few links to Semantic MediaWiki stuff.)

And now for some random conference stuff:

Sem tech hallway quote of the day; “It’s the meaning stupid” –Kent Bimson

Semantic app I found myself fiddlin with the most on breaks; Twine – I was inspired by NovaSpivack’s talk on how Twine is architected and the enhancements coming later this year. Hey, It’s turtles all the way down. E-mail me and I’ll send you a Twine invite.

Best talk I missed today: John Gilman, Mike Dean and Matt Fisher on Semantic Queries in a RESTful architecture. I caught up with John on the break only to discover he’ s an Architect at Blue Cross Blue Shield of California, and they have all the same problems to solve as we do at Excellus. John has some very clever solutions. We’ll be talking…

Ok, there’s more cool stuff I could write about, but I must sleep…

If you like to read Sci Fi or Fantasy, and you have at least one young adult in the household as we do, then you maybe interested in this list of Young Adult SF/F Books That Adults Will Like, Too from SF Signal.