This post was orginally published on my personal blog 'chitchatting about information delivery':

The Silicon Valley Semantic Technology Group organized by Peter Berger is one of the meetups that i have been going to for a while and have even helped coordinate and host in the past. Last Thursday the 15th they had what seems to be a great session about Semantics in Financial Services with David Newman who is a Senior Architect in the Enterprise Architecture group at Wells Fargo Bank (now part of Wachovia). I missed it due to the bambina, but lucky for me and for the rest of you that were not able to make it, the excellent slidedeck that David Newman used has been posted on Slideshare- see below (thanks Peter!). Based on the Slidedeck, the presentation covered:

• The Case for Semantic Technology- Important Key Drivers, Limitations and Benefits
• Overview of Semantic Technology - Basic Overview that hits all the most know items for business and technology folks
• Semantic Technology Providers and Adopters -a high level list. He makes mention of Dow Jones as an adopter but forgets to mention Synaptica as a technology provider of ontology editor
• Semantic Applications for Financial Services- I am always a sucker for 'use-cases' of semantic technologies in the enterprise and Newman provides two slides that outline various semantic applications for financial services which i have highlighted below
• Recommended Semantic Technology Books and Articles

Many of the Semantic Applications that Newman points out for financial services can also be extended to other non-financial services companies but his breakdown highlights specific opportunities for financial services. Wish i had been there in person to learn more about which of these applications Newman and his team are tackling using semantic technologies:

From Peter Berger's introduction: David Newman serves as a Senior Architect in the Enterprise Architecture group at Wells Fargo Bank. He has been following semantic technology for the last 3 years; and has developed several business ontologies. He has been instrumental in thought leadership at Wells Fargo on the application of Semantic Technology and is a representative of the Financial Services Technology Consortium (FSTC)on the W3C SPARQL Working Group

An overview of how the Dow Jones Enterprise Media Group uses semantic technologies / solutions for our own organization and for customers. This brief presentation was given at MIT to the Cambridge Semantic Web meetup on October 14, 2008.

My kids are still in their "Bob the Builder" years. At some point Bob went "green" - left Bobsville to build a sustainable community in Sunflower Valley, complete with grass-growing roofs, hand-pumped water and solar powered trailers. He even got a new catchphrase - "Can we fix it? Yes we can!" has been joined by "Reduce, Recycle, Reuse." While it's a little over the top, I can't complain. Every reminder helps. This last weekend though, when Bob chanted his new mantra, I heard a different voice echo in my head - one saying re-use, re-mix... it sounded eerily like Eric Miller at SemTech keynotes, in consulting presentations, in print. I guess I got the message!

Reduce - for our environment we want to encourage people to think carefully about what we actually need to consume. We need to think about that notion in regards to our data stores as well. Are they full of clutter? Are we afraid to get rid of data in case we might need it later? I don't think it should be about ownership - we "own" data about as much as we "own" the earth - we are stewards, not controllers. Yes, there is data we need to more carefully manage, as we would our home and property; government regulations help us define our responsibilities there. But how much time and effort do we want to spend managing all of that data? How many resources - human and infrastructure - does it take? Can we acquire some of the data we need from a trusted source - a trusted steward who will commit to maintaining its integrity? I'm not suggesting we create monopolies - we need diversity of thought, and may need to subscribe to more than one data provider. It could be simple or complex data you outsource - do you really need to maintain your own list of US States or Countries for your online form? Do you NEED to download a local copy of a paper, or do you simply want to make notes on a certain paragraph? The costs can range from free to exorbitant.

Recycle - find new ways of using data. If we can turn billboards, magazines and plastic shopping bags into purses, we can transform mere metrics into compelling visualizations and startling statistics. One compelling example is Gapminder. Using data from the United Nations, the team under Hans Rosling have developed interactive charts and maps detailing global trends that provide greater impact for consumers in a world of information overload. The same data we usually see in boring columns and rows, have new form: new impact.

Reuse - how many of us have taken a plastic container from the grocery store and used it later to store leftovers in the fridge? Or to carry our lunch to work where if it gets lost, no worries? We can do the same with our bits of data. Really, this notion of data reuse has taken off already - new mashups are being generated at an exponential rate! We can use this same creativity inside the firewall - let your geeks play with the data, give them sandboxes and free time to explore. At the very least, don't prevent them from trying new things when security restrictions have been met. Anthony Bradley of Gartner called this the MacGyver Principle at the Gartner Web Innovation Summit this past week in Los Angeles. MacGyver didn't go collect the right tools for the job - he used the resources already available. This is where serendipity occurs (and in MacGyver's case, survival!) - unanticipated uses by unanticipated users.

As to the technologies themselves - there are options, just as we have in the real world! Choose the tool right for your project. Wind, water, solar power - each option has a micro-climate for which it is best suited. Use the same consideration for your own information and technology projects. Will Microformats do the job? Do you need to use a W3C standard? Do you need a triple store, or can you start building on available databases? Think carefully, balancing the long term return on the investment.

One site I've recently come across is the new BBC Music (Beta) site. They're taking data from their own radio play system, Musicbrainz, Wikipedia and more to create comprehensive profiles of musicians. I can't do it justice - read about it for yourself.

I think Bob and the gang would be proud. Heck, so would Al Gore! ;) What are your favorite ways of making the internet "green?"

Flickr image by Kate Blackport, found thanks to Search by Creative Commons

This is a reposting from Daniela Barbosa's blog

On September 22nd from 2-6pm in Palo Alto, CA - Christine Connors the Director of Semantic Technology Solutions for Dow Jones and the Business Champion for Synaptica, will be leading a roundtable discussion on the subject of Semantic Technologies in the Enterprise.

Many of our Enterprise Customers have been asking us about semantic technologies and since Christine will be in town to present at Taxonomy Bootcamp in San Jose, we thought it would be a great time to schedule a roundtable discussion on the subject since our May scheduled one had to be canceled due to last minute scheduling conflicts.[read more]

[Note: I originally posted this on my personal blog in May 2008, but it's so much more appropriate here!]

I met a gentleman who was at SemTech for the second time. He was very excited, really jazzed about the whole experience, but still wasn't sure how to win people over back at the office. How could he get them to embrace semantic technologies? It was a hard sell.

I wasn't surprised at all; it's the same song Kevin and I sang when we worked together. We got some great advice from people like Andy Shain and Eric Miller, which I have heard repeated at SemTech each year since.

Take baby steps. Keep it simple.