Boot-Strapping the Semantic Web – by Chris Testa

We often mention our efforts to help build the technology community in LA. In fact, at a recent networking event organized by Q, we were excited to present a panel discussion on Semantic Web and Big Data. Considering the insights of the expert panelists, we thought we might share a bit of the knowledge with the community at-large. In that vein, Q is proud (and frankly very lucky) to present the expert thoughts of Semantic Web guru Chris Testa. Chris is formerly the VP of Technology at Adly (and has worked as an engineer at Google and YouTube) and is currently working on a new start-up that is focused on Semantic Manufacturing.

Fun Fact: The annual cost of dirty (or bad) data to US businesses is approximately $600 billion.

Semantic Technologies – they’ve been harped on for a dozen years by the World Wide Web’s creator, but they’re rarely used in real commercial systems.  Semantics on the Web have traditionally implied abstract concepts that make your brain hurt.  I know because I did research on the topic while at the University of Maryland, and by the end I vowed to never use the archaic stuff again.  But all that changed when I joined a company where I needed a dataset to bootstrap a Big Data problem, with limited engineering resources.  I looked again, and found a dataset that was comprehensive enough for real problems, and easy enough to manage for a Junior Engineer.  Freebase is the name of that dataset, and it satiated my Semantic Web skepticism.  We successfully used Semantic data to drive business intelligence, create a richer user experience, and significantly increase REVENUE.  The Semantic web is in fact ready for prime time use.  Learn more about how with my 5 step process to easily linking Semantic data at: http://slidesha.re/m6bQco