B2B Media 2.0

Article in Read/Write Web about an interview with (Sir) Tim Berners Lee (points to a more complete transcript on ZD Net as well):

“There’s an awful lot of data out there. And I think, one of the huge misunderstandings about the Semantic Web is, ‘oh, the Semantic Web is going to involve us all going to our HTML pages and marking them up to put semantics in them.’ Now, there’s an important thread there, but to my mind, it’s actually a very minor part of it. Because I’m not going to hold my breath while other people put semantics in by hand… So, where is the data going to come from? It’s already there. It’s in databases…”

Our hypothesis is that the Semantic Web will be initially implemented in verticals, where the the total number of terms used is smaller and thus manageable (See earlier posts here and here), and I think this is also an implicit recognition of that, because most databases are in verticals. Some verticals are far more advanced in using common terms (eg EDI) to communicate than others

In fact I'd go so far as to say the Semantic Web is here, now - just very unevenly distributed

In addition, there was an allusion to the area we think will most drive the semantic web, ie the needs of machines on the 'net - they are just not smart enough to understand context, and thus will need a simple taxonomy (an Esperanto for sensors - the Pidgin protocols?) to function.

Incidentally, this could also have huge benefits for people, eg making it easy to have one identity and not have to sign in multiple times with names, addresses etc onto multiple systems.

Update - Paul Miller has a vodcast interview on the subject over on Nodalities (my RSS reader too is unevenly ditributed )

....I like this one by Lynette Webb..an interactive chart that could be updateable like a wiki. (If you follow the link to the original you will see that you can roll over the datapoints, and Lynette asks for people to submit data as it comes in).

It also plots Flickr's hockey-stick in mirrorvision...

For those who are Powerpoint-weary yet get fed up with the vacuity of the "loads of media and fanny all content" approach, this is quite a useful take on gettinng data across.

There is a fascinating piece in this week's Economist about how power in software development is shifting from business based apps to consumer based apps, and how businesses are now adopting consumer apps in and around the business IT function.

For those old enough to remember, the last time this happened at such a structural level was the invasion of the PC into corporate worlds in the late 1980s imho.

This is going to be a Big Disruption I think....Salesforce.com is just the start.

Carpe Diem......Sam Sethi and Mike Butcher have now set up on their own now, at Vecosys (that was Sam's Sethis old website, I don't know if they will keep that as the brand)

No news of any TechCrunch plans to re-launch in UK as of yet.

Postscript...Mike Arrington has written an astoundingly detailed post of the goings on here but no news of plans for the UK

Was reading about the Skype boys' new project, The Venice Project. I love the blurb:

We're working on a project that combines the best things about television with the social power of the internet - a project that gives viewers, advertisers and content owners more choice, control and creativity than ever before.

Can't resist this - it reminded me so much of the stuff going on in the South Sea Bubble in the early 18th century....Among the many companies, more or less legitimate, to go public in 1720 was – famously – one that advertised itself as

"a company for carrying out an undertaking of great advantage, but nobody to know what it is".

No beta in those days, just hand over the money....

Seriously though, leaving The Original Bubble aside, it started me thinking about what a proper VideoSkype could be. I have VoIP and Webcam from Skype (and MSN.....come back Unified Messaging), but its pretty much for social comms, not professional so you have to integrate a whole lot of things together to videoconference and videowork with colleagues. So at Broadsight we're fairly tech savvy, we can do all that - but its takes time and effort and hassle. The power of a totally integrated, semi pro VideoWorking Webservice would be pretty useful for Small Businesses and Corporates alike.

There has been lots of work over the years on the Integrated Workstation of the Future, but it seems to me that using a combo of the consumer technology around today, Web2.0 principles and a big broadband pipe is a clear way to go.

And if investment is basically just a Webcam plus the service and the gear for MyPCTV, it will come in an order of magnitude lower in cost than most VideoCon systems today.

Just wifi in the mobile phone as well........

The issue initially will be QoS, but I think over the next few years this will largely go away as:

(i) Technology for video transfer over the 'Net improves
(ii) Corporates will buy the most groomed networks
(iii) Cometh the need....the darknet will be lit up

This feels to me like VoIP technology c 1999