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September 23, 2008 Research, done by MarketCap in cooperation with Aduna, shows that more than 60 percent of companies with over 200 employees, intend to invest in a project that uses semantic technology (Web 3.0) within a year's time. Almost 10 percent already uses semantic technology, or has already defined a semantic technology project. The fact that 60 percent of the companies plan to invest indicates an enormous increase of the use of semantic technology in the coming 12 months. Companies abound in information, but only a tiny amount is used by managers, either because most of the information is not visible or connections are not, or cannot be made. This is the situation mid-2008, but with the rise of semantic technologies this will change drastically in the coming years. More and more information will come to light and it will become easier to judge its usefulness.

As JISC has recently announced an open call of funding for a study on Semantic Web technologies in teaching and learning we thought we'd use this opportunity to provide a bit of an update on Semantic Web developments. The JISC call seeks to fund a study which looks at pragmatic aspects of the actual use of semantic applications in real world scenarios. The successful applicant will review a number of case studies of real-world teaching and learning scenarios and look at the potential for use of semantic technologies. The key question they are asking is: "Can you convince us that semantic technologies offer one potential solution to some real problems?"

In September's edition of the Semantic Web Gang, regular members are joined by three guests to discuss the investment potential of the Semantic Web and semantic technologies. With continuing investment in (and acquisition of) companies for whom semantic technologies are a key part of their proposition, we explore the extent to which investors are interested in 'semantic technology' per se, and look at recent investments from Union Square Ventures to illustrate the wider discussion. A number of entrants to this year's TechCrunch 50 event feature a semantic technology focus, and we also look at these with the help of Union Square's Brad Burnham, TechCrunch's Erick Schonfeld, and VentureBeat's Chris Morrison.

In this paper it is presented our contribution for carrying out adaptive and intelligent Web-based Education Systems (WBES) that take into account the individual student learning requirements, by means of a holistic architecture and Framework for developing WBES. In addition, three basic modules of the proposed WBES are outlined: an Authoring tool, a Semantic Web-based Evaluation, and a Cognitive Maps-based Student Model. As well, it is stated a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) oriented to deploy reusable, accessible, durable and interoperable services. The approach enhances the Learning Technology Standard Architecture, proposed by IEEE-LTSA (Learning Technology System Architecture) [IEEE 1484.1/D9 LTSA (2001). Draft standard for learning technology - learning technology systems architecture (LTSA). New York, USA. URL: http://ieee.ltsc.org/wg1], and the Sharable Content Object Reusable Model (SCORM), claimed by Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) [Advanced Distributed Learning Initiative (2004). URL: http://www.adlnet.org].

Recent progress in mobile broadband communication and semantic web technology is enabling innovative internet services that provide advanced personalization and localization features. The goal of the SmartWeb project (duration: 2004-2007) is to lay the foundations for multimodal user interfaces to distributed and composable semantic Web services on mobile devices. The SmartWeb consortium brings together experts from various research communities: mobile services, intelligent user interfaces, language and speech technology, information extraction, and semantic Web technologies (see www.smartweb-project.org).

Project10X has just published a new study that charts the next stage of internet evolution - Web 3.0 - and the role semantic technologies in next generation applications and business models. Entitled Semantic Wave 2008 Report: Industry Roadmap to Web 3.0 and Multibillion Dollar Market Opportunities, this study is must reading for investors, technology developers, and enterprises in the public and private sector who want to better understand semantic technologies, the business opportunities they present, and the ways Web 3.0 will change how we use and experience the internet for pleasure and profit. The report is 400+ pages, comprehensive, well illustrated, and written to be readily understood by business and government executives as well as IT professionals. We invite you to download a free 27-page summary of this report at the following link: Semantic Wave 2008 Report: Executive Summary

Bo, you mainly deal with the application of semantic technologies in medicine and life sciences. What is your motivation to do this? What fascinates you about this field of research? Looking back from this point in time, I cannot help to ask myself: while information and communication technologies (ICT) have achieved incredible advances in the last decade or so and have been successfully applied in numerous fields to improve the quality of our everyday life, why do we still find old fashioned services dominant in public health care? Have we, as computer scientists or IT professionals, done enough in the so-called semantic web (SW) era to make patients suffer less and to make medical doctors' lives easier?

Research interests in applied technologies and learning/teaching systems. Provides a rich collection of publications and conference presentations.

Semantic technologies improve the way we work with information, in ways that current IT architectures and methodologies cannot. Semantic Power creates value by linking knowledge. Aduna applies semantic technology to the following areas: * Search & Discovery * eCommerce * Targeted Advertising Read more...

Since 1994, TextWise has been designing, building and implementing complex content-driven technology solutions that have one unifying objective: To understand the meaning of text for the purpose of delivering useful, scalable, and relevant semantic applications. TextWise has developed some of the seminal work in text extraction and was one of the early developers of NLP search engine technology fueled by the US intelligence agencies' requirement for "smart" communications.

How Semantic Web Technologies are Enabling the Bench to Bedside Vision Summary *Semantic Web Technologies help to integrate diverse data sets *Beneficial for drug safety and personalized medicine *Triple stores and on-the-fly mappings *Many organizations are deploying Semantic Web solutions in the life sciences

Cycorp is a leading provider of semantic technologies that bring a new level of intelligence and common sense reasoning to a wide variety of software applications. The Cyc® software combines an unparalleled common sense ontology and knowledge base with a powerful reasoning engine and natural language interfaces to enable the development of novel knowledge-intensive applications. As a premier knowledge-based technologies research and development company, Cycorp leverages its cutting edge innovations in knowledge representation, machine reasoning, natural language processing, semantic data integration, and information management and search to offer an array of semantic middleware, knowledge-based application development capabilities, and turn-key solutions.

What are the big players doing in semantic search? And which of the startups are challenging them? How does semantic technology change search results? What are the key advantages and new opportunities that semantics provides in both the consumer and business search markets?

Recent developments in Web technologies and using AI techniques to support efforts in making the Web more intelligent and provide higher-level services to its users have opened the door to building the Semantic Web. That fact has a number of important implications for Web-based education, since Web-based education has become a very important branch of educational technology. Classroom independence and platform independence of Web-based education, availability of authoring tools for developing Web-based courseware, cheap and efficient storage and distribution of course materials, hyperlinks to suggested readings, digital libraries, and other sources of references relevant for the course are but a few of a number of clear advantages of Web-based education. However, there are several challenges in improving Web-based education, such as providing for more adaptivity and intelligence. Developments in the Semantic Web, while contributing to the solution to these problems, also raise new issues that must be considered if we are to progress. This paper surveys the basics of the Semantic Web and discusses its importance in future Web-based educational applications.

Ontotext is a leading developer of core semantic technology. We have applications in multiple areas, among which: Web-mining, EAI, KM, BI, Media Research, and Life Sciences. Our brochure is avaliable here. More about us ...

To say that the Web has affected many societies and cultures is to understate its impact along several dimensions. The Web is a technology which not only affects, but in some sense encompasses societies, cultures, and certainly institutions. Higher education -- at least in the cluster of ways in which it is practiced in the US, the EU, and Japan -- is one such bundle of social institutions affected and encompassed by the Web. While it is possible to overstate or mis-state the Web's effect, whether on higher education or on other institutional clusters, the encompassing reach of the technology, used in every country on Earth by literally tens of millions of users, makes it clear that the Web truly has a revolutionary effect. However, exploring what the Web has affected and continues to effect is a necessary element of any accurate estimation of how the newly emerging Semantic Web may, in its turn, effect societies, cultures, and institutional clusters like higher education.

The application of "Semantic Web" technologies to learning processes is receiving an increasing attention from the perspective of facilitating the selection, delivery and tailoring of learning experiences. But most of the current approaches are centered on the final interaction of the learner with the "learning objects" provided for him/her, neglecting the organizational perspective. From the viewpoint of an organization, the application of Semantic Web technologies should be motivated by the improvement of learning-oriented mechanisms, including both cultural and structural aspects, and considering the ideal of achieving a state of continuous improvement in learning behavior. Such an approach to achieving a "semantic learning organization" gives a complementary perspective to existing "educational Semantic Web" propositions. In this paper, the potential role of the Semantic Web as a driver for enhanced learning organizations is analyzed, and a conceptual framework for the notion of a semantic learning organization is provided.

Abstract. Recent developments in Web technologies and using AI techniques to support efforts in making the Web more intelligent and provide higher-level services to its users have opened the door to building the Semantic Web. That fact has a number of important implications for Web-based education, since Web-based education has become a very important branch of educational technology. Classroom independence and platform independence of Web-based education, availability of authoring tools for developing Web-based courseware, cheap and efficient storage and distribution of course materials, hyperlinks to suggested readings, digital libraries, and other sources of references relevant for the course are but a few of a number of clear advantages of Web-based education.

Research Topic: The Semantic Web - Reference Pages for Higher Education The semantic web is a complex and exciting technology that will change how we work in the information age, and how we interact with the Internet. To support research activity within the field of Education, this site provides dynamic links to resources around the world. Gathered here, you will find: * a vision for educational application of learning made possible with semantic web technologies, * a general reference resource for terms and definitions, * technical resources within the field of the semantic web and semantic networking, * case studies of the semantic web applied in different fields and in education, and * publications and conferences focusing on the semantic web.

The World's Foremost Symposium on the Business of Semantic Technologies. This Website Is Semantically Enabled! We are proud to announce two semantic-based conference tools: a Scheduler/Faceted Search and a Session Blog.