Earley & Associates
Presents a Free
Semantic Technologies JumpStart Call Series
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Join us every Thursday, from October 30th – November 20th  from 11:30 – 1:00 EST.

Earley & Associates presents a 4-part conference call series on Semantic Technology.  Call in each week to hear from world-class expert practitioners and consultants and be exposed to search tools from select vendors.

October 30th, 2008
Call 1  What are Semantic Technologies and How are they Different? 
In this session we’ll define semantic technologies and the semantic web and discuss the history of transitioning from older models of information management to new ways of integrating data, leveraging the diversity of web resources and deriving greater value from internal and external data.

Are Semantic Technologies truly different?  Or is this just another example of vendor hype?  What are the short term applications that will allow organizations to explore this space and realize a return on investment? 

We’ll hear from experts in the field about these topics and others in this overview session. 

November 6th, 2008
Call 2:  Practical Semantic Applications
What problems can semantic technologies solve?  In our second call of the series, we’ll explore examples of real world problems that can be addressed through semantic tools and approaches.  We’ll avoid too much abstraction and theory and focus on areas of immediate concern to most businesses today:  improved customer service, speed to market, new product development, cost reduction, customer acquisition, research and discovery, etc. 

In many cases, semantic approaches are solving the same basic problems as traditional approaches to information technology.  The goal of any application is to speed information flow and decision making.  However, new approaches allow for faster evolution of capabilities in response to changes in user needs and marketplace drivers.

This session will illustrate several applications where semantic approaches provide these kinds of tangible benefits. 

November 13th, 2008
Call 3:  A Brief Survey of Semantic Technology Standards and Approaches
In our third call, we’ll explore some of the nuts and bolts of formats and standards that organizations are developing and adopting to the ‘semantic approach’.  Some of these have been around for many years in such fields as publishing, government, life sciences and financial services.  Others are fairly new and less widespread.  In any case, standards are the backbone of integration and interoperability and as the old saw goes, ‘the nice thing about standards is that there are so many to choose from’.  Where should you be investing time and energy?  What approaches have fallen out of favor?  What does the future look like for things like OWL, RDF, SKOS and all the various flavors of XML mark up? 

In the standards world, there is no one size that fits all, and there is a tremendous amount of variability among implementations of even seemingly the “same” standards.   We’ll briefly review various classes of metadata representations and discuss how organizations are navigating the alphabet soup of standards. 

November 20th, 2008
Call 4:  Industry Direction and Approaches for Developing Your Roadmap
Our final call in the series will look at the future or semantic technologies and what capabilities are on the horizon.  Where does the industry expect to be in 3- 5 years?  Though advances in technology adoption are notoriously difficult to predict, there are certain drivers that will almost assure some uptake of these approaches.

In that context, it is important for your organization to begin the planning process and explore opportunities to build out certain capabilities.  We will outline approaches for finding opportunities in your organization for pilot projects and exploring the benefits of semantic technologies.  We’ll discuss what appropriate applications look  like, organizational and industry drivers, cost benefit analysis, and ways of mitigating risks for these kinds of initiatives. 

This session is a must for business and technology leaders who want to ensure their organizations do not get caught short as competitors inevitably adopt these approaches to managing information.