Key Ingredients for Your Next Semantics Elevator Talk

Abstract

Abstract. 2012 brought a major change to the semantics research community. Discussions on the use and benefits of semantic technologies are shifting away from the why to the how. Surprisingly this more in stakeholder interest is not accompanied by a more detailed understanding of what semantics research is about. Instead of blaming others for their (wrong) expectations, we need to learn how to emphasize the paradigm shift proposed by semantics research while abstracting from technical details and advocate the added value in a way that relates to the immediate needs of individual stakeholders without overselling. This paper highlights some of the major ingredients to prepare your next Semantics Elevator Talk.

Why the Data Train Needs Semantic Rails

“…A major paradigm shift introduced by the semantic web is to focus on the creation of smart data instead of smart applications. The rationale behind this shift is the insight that smart data will make future applications more (re)usable, flexible, and robust, while smarter applications fail to improve data along the same dimensions (Janowicz and Hitzler 2012). As a result, semantic web applications and infrastructures can be put together largely by using off-the-shelf software such as faceted browsing frameworks and user interfaces, transformation, alignment, and link discovery tools, reasoners, editors, and a wide variety of programming frameworks.…”

Toward a semantic web of paleoclimatology

“…When engaging colleagues about semantic technology in paleoclimate, we are always asked this pertinent question: “what can a semantic framework achieve that a standard database cannot?” The most honest answer is probably “nothing” [ Janowicz and Hitzler , ], but issues of efficiency quickly come to the fore: one can go anywhere on a bicycle, but it is often too slow or impractical to do so. Similarly, while much of EarthCube could conceptually be built with existing tools, the fact that it has not is a testimony to the difficulty of the enterprise; we believe that a semantic framework would lower those barriers.…”