Our colleagues at Factiva have decided to start their own blog, Let's Talk Knowledge - congrats gang! Might I humbly say that they were inspired by Synaptica Central, and thank YOU, our readers, for helping make this enough of a success as to inspire others here at Dow Jones!

Ken kicks off this new endeavor with some interesting thoughts on "Information Overload." The problem, he posits, is not that we have too much information, but have not invested enough in the tools to manage and analyze the information. IT investments have focused on creating, storing and distributing information (and, I would argue, retrieving it), but NOT in how we analyze or synthesize it. As Daniela and I have argued here on Synaptica Central in posts on data visualization and our Semantic Webinar, that is truly an area that needs work!

Let's be clear though: it's not about the latest widgets! It's not about the pretty, sparkling thing that just flashed in the browser window! It's about data that can be used and re-used in any form - be it sparkly, conservative, mobile or consumed by machines. Putting time and effort into crafting the models for this data can reduce confusion, reduce time spent towards rules-writing or custom query building, and allow a greater diversity in a product portfolio from the same data set: not just in delivery channels, but in customer focused channels as well. Employees are more productive, prouder of their work and motivated to innovate. Customers get what they need - they reduce information overload as well as relevancy overload - and are much happier and more loyal for it.

We're working hard here at Dow Jones to integrate and evolve our data models to full take advantage of the semantic web. Taxonomies and thesauri are becoming ontologies; lightweight ontologies are being transformed to take advantage of the full power of RDF, OWL and SKOS. Welcome to the blogosphere Ken, thanks for your thoughts, and we look forward to continuing to innovate with you and your team!

A very interesting Flickr image came across my desktop this morning. It's a cool visual posted by Steve Jurvetson showing many of the different parts of the semantic web. I missed it the first time around, but the tiny copyright statement at the bottom of the original size indicates Tim Berners-Lee as the IP holder. Should be especially interesting to Tolkien fans!

If you're interested in learning more about the semantic web, this is an interesting place to start - especially if you are a visual thinker. Do some searching on the topics mapped out here - Vannevar Bush, Logic (First and Second order logic), protocols and markup languages, RDF, OWL, GRDDL - whatever strikes your fancy. Let me know what you think!

Map to the Semantic Web on Flickr

As promised during the webinar, the correct link for the museum! You can search and browse a portion of the collection held in the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney, Australia. Browse around! Search, read, zoom - add tags! This is a site at which to have fun, learn new things, spark new thoughts.

The team at the museum have made great use of readily available technologies and user generated content to augment the records and formal taxonomies that existed at the museum. Sites such as Flickr, tools such as OpenSearch, and licensing and use models from Creative Commons are combined to provide access to the data by as wide a variety of users as possible - users who become potential visitors; potential patrons. The design and interaction models are simple and elegant; the search and browse mechanisms are powerful; the images and image manipulation tools allow you to see great detail and experience the pieces wonderfully from afar.

If you are so inclined, I highly recommend you read through the "About" tab, and follow the links from there to the papers and blogs about how they've built the site. It's an interesting read, and a great way to be inspired - yet again - by those serving in institutions that preserve and promote our global heritage.

View of Low Waterfall Over Rocks, Powerhouse Museum Collection, The Commons on Flickr

Does finding content in your organization often feel like this?

I have recently celebrated my one year anniversary with Dow Jones. It has been quite a year! I wear several hats here and that has given me the opportunity to meet a great deal of people in all areas of the business. How does it feel after a year? It feels great - I continue to be impressed with the caliber of talent exhibited by my colleagues. The domain knowledge, the business savvy, the passion for their work - it is very exciting and motivating to be surrounded by these people.

Yes - I love working with the core Dow Jones teams: the product champions, the technical staff, the marketing, sales and strategy teams for Factiva, Newswires, the Wall Street Journal. Yes, I also think it's pretty cool to talk to folks in other parts of NewsCorp: MySpace, Slingshot, Fox Interactive.

Today though I want to highlight some of the people I work most closely with. I'll start with some you haven't met yet on our blog - my internally focused team of Metadata Managers who, with their teams, keep our content organized: Frances, Annika and Bouriana. Three very bright and talented women who have a significant impact on the structure of Dow Jones' Intelligent Indexing, they quietly and diligently work to improve the quality of our content indexing to ensure the most relevant documents are returned in Search and Discovery. They are the champions of new branches of our taxonomies, builders of our ontologies, curators of our primary intellectual assets. And everyone here wants to build on their work - it's a significant part of our metadata platform. Huzzah ladies - and thank you for your dedication!

Then there's Marti Heyman. Who you'd have met by now if Daniela had her way! (Only partially teasing here Marti!) Marti and I joined Dow Jones at the same time to fill the shoes of two incredible folks - Dave Clarke and Trish Yancey - who were moving on after seeing to the smooth integration of their company, Synapse, after it's acquisition by Dow Jones. I got the product side, Marti got the consulting side of Taxonomy Services. It's been my pleasure to have known Marti for several years. For a long time it's been a small world, this group of corporate taxonomists, and we've had the pleasure of speaking together, chatting on TaxoCoP calls, and now working together to take this organization to the next level, taxonomically speaking. Marti's depth of knowledge, experience, and willingness to roll up her sleeves continues to impress me. I also love that she gets a few bees in her bonnet! (Perhaps someday we'll have her tell you about why you can't use ROI as a success metric for taxonomies!)

Marti's team has been a great joy to work with too - Ian and Dan have some of the most sophisticated knowledge of practical applications of cataloging and classification I've encountered outside the academic and library world. They are a phenomenal resource for our consulting clients. And how can you not love someone who puts up thousands of Christmas trees - as Laura and her family do each and every year - with every ornament cataloged?! Now, that's a true taxonomy geek!

Of course, this being a blog for Synaptica, I cannot overlook a team that practically runs itself: Jim S., Jim D., Sean and Daniela are the folks who make Synaptica what it is. Jim and Sean are the core of our technical team, and have the ability to deliver excellent code and great customer service. Mostly, I love that they don't groan too much when Daniela and I dream up some crazy new idea! They are usually right there with us, and I appreciate their creativity and willingness to try new things with the product. Jim S. is the pillar of the team, our Product Manager, Customer Champion, Pre-Sales Support, Trainer, Chief Cook and Bottle Washer! He takes great pride in his work and is one of the best PMs it has been my pleasure to work with. What can I say about Daniela? I daresay most of you know her already. One of the next Robert Scobles, Data Portability advocate, Super Librarian, She Geek. Daniela is our Business Development Manager, and in the last year she has done more good for Synaptica and Taxonomy Services than I ever could have hoped for. She is a true customer advocate, true Dow Jones advocate, and isn't afraid to do what it takes to get the job done. I've said how glad I am to work with her before, and I'll say it again: she is a force to be reckoned with - work with her if you can!

There are so many other wonderful people here, I'm looking forward to getting to know them better. We have an incredible team, and I encourage you to reach out to them to talk shop, to talk tech, to talk business. We are one of the few companies with capabilities that run the full spectrum of content management: indexing & classification, taxonomy management, ontologies, content creation, integration, processing & delivery, archiving and user interaction; and we enjoy our work immensely. We look forward to hearing from you!

Flickr image by daintytime