Enterprise Semantics: Can Smarter Data Really Add Value?

Among the many reasons that organizations choose to deploy semantic technologies is to make their data "smarter." The goals of smarter data may be better quality search, faster data integration and more flexible application development. More recently the needs of big data analysis across a wide variety of disparate data has been another driving factor.

This discussion will focus on the defining the benefits that can be gained from semantics and whether they offset the perceived complexity and changes in mindset that are required to be successful. In particular, the speakers will look at the easiest entry points for smaller semantic projects that can provide short-term payback and proof of concept.

Dave McComb has over 30 years of experience with enterprise level systems and enterprise architecture. He has built enterprise ontologies for over a dozen major enterprises.

Brian Sletten is a liberal arts-educated software engineer with a focus on forward-leaning technologies. He is a system architect, a developer, a mentor, and a trainer. Brian has been speaking about REST, the Semantic Web, and other technologies around the world as part of conferences such as NoFluffJustStuff, JavaOne, Jazoon, the Spring Experience, the Rich Web Experience, and Museums on the Web. Brian has written for DevX's Semantic Web Zone, JavaWorld, and has contributed chapters to O'Reilly Media's "Beautiful Architecture" and "97 Things Every Project Manager Should Know." He has a B.S. in Computer Science from the College of William and Mary and currently lives in northern California. He consults and speaks frequently about next generation technologies around the world.

Barbara Starr, Founder and principal of SemanticFuse, was recruited to the United States to build expert trading systems on Wall Street from a teaching position while studying for her doctoral degree in South Africa. She has worked in the Semantic Technology arena ever since. She provides consulting services such as Semantic Search Engine Optimization, Semantic Technology consulting, Product Feed Optimization and Streamlining for e-commerce sites and enterprise level businesses. After working with Overstock.com she developed a passion for e-commerce and now works with major organizations in the e-commerce arena, including GS1 US. Barbara is a columnist for SearchEngineLand, a governing board member of the Semantic Computing Consortium and industry Co-Chair for the IEEE international conference on Semantic Computing. She is also a frequent speaker at conferences such as SMX (East & West), SemTechBiz, EDW & others. Barbara founded and manages the Semantic Web San Diego Meetup.

Sean Martin has been on the leading edge of Internet technology innovation since the early nineties. His greatest strength has been the identification and pioneering of next generation software & networking technologies and techniques. Prior to founding Cambridge Semantics he spent fifteen years with IBM Corporation where he was a founder and the technology visionary for the IBM Advanced Internet Technology group. Sean has an astonishing number of Internet "firsts" to his credit. These include inventing and implementing both IBM's first Web application server and content-manager, WOM, along with its distributed Web application hosting environment, the Womplex, not to mention a number of other important web site scaling technologies.