Holy Grail of PIM

Walter Rafelsberger who runs the meta portal of media polemic has blogged about His Holy Grail of PIM.

Excerpt:
One thing I have in mind would be a microformats/AJAX/xmlrpc/API/etc. powered Wiki with focus on ease of use and service integration. The SemanticWiki implementations are heading in the right direction, but they still feel more like proofs of concept and not really usable in terms of usability.

That said, for the moment I decided to switch from one evil to many small little devils. Here’s what I use for PIM for now.

Yep! read on ….
link

socialising web 2.0 musical performed at big brother awards by monochrom

lim (nerdness)>1 when Austrians art dada fluxus group monochrom hit the topic of social networking, facebook, myspace, youtube, etc and mash it up in a live musical performance at the big brother awards 2007.

The experienced and award-winning group hit again the musical genre.
Here is the video, you need to scroll to about half-length to come to the actual musical (the beginning is 10 minutes of gamejew boredom, scroll it), I would bet that there is a version of this video on youtube. Well, and if you don’t understand my outmost appreciation of this: I am a fan.

http://s1.video.blip.tv/1010000946590/Gamejew-GamejewSeason2Ep4326p.mov

naturally, via monochrom blog.

SOA = Software Oriented Architecture (ah, web 3.0)

What is SOA? Software oriented architecture! That is a accidentially mixed up meaning of the acronym just said in a talk of a speaker at this years “Akademische Jahresfeier” at the TU Kaiserslautern.

“service oriented architecture” is the buzzword that really drives the techies at the moment, but often software oriented architecture is the outcome.

But the speaker looks into the future and his talk is very good. semantic web is the next thing, web 2.0 is it, web of things, international communication, business software is at the beginning of a Kondratiev cycle, etc. Nice overview. flattering was a slide that linked to Nepomuk and the article by technology review about me.

here is a moblog pic from that slide, pointly before the talk ends (yes nokia e70 makes the moblogger extatic)

http://m.flickr.com/photo.gne?id=1747446165&

Ufos attack Hoax Art – Artist survives

Did you see the video of UFOs floating over Haiti? If not, enjoy it now:

(original video here)

The artist behind, Barzolff, a professional french movie-artist (worked with Michel Gondry), links now to hoax art.

HOAX is an art
UFO hoax is the symbol of hoax art
Hoax Art movement was created with a network of artists, graphic designers and writers in 2007

The principles of this movement are simple :
– question reality
– create the best artifical reality with graphic creation, media strategy and network
– identify artificial creation in “officiel” images (ex : errased fat on french president Sarkosi)
– contaminate reality image with hoax as an artistic posture
– ultimatly create a absolutely new way to bring artwork in the public’s home

Which in turn goes to Realitism:

REALITISM : artistic and philosophical movement at the root of this questionning of reality. This movement can gather all artists and people interested in this subject.

I would love to quesiton reality more, the skills of these guys are so high, its cunning to seem them work.

The tempting rule to break

W3C has published new Semantic Web Logos (as blogged before) and with them, rules how to use them. One of the rules, which caused uproar in some blog posts and questions in mailinglists, was:

  • The logo may not be used to disparage W3C, its Member organizations, services, or products.

Also, the logo is not so distinctive as the triples.

The phrase alone triggers free minded web enthousiasts to do the right thing, namely, to question the other rules about photoshopping the logo 🙂

semweb chasing microformats by burningbird Shelley Powers

sparql logo by Danny Ayers

the gladiator “the gladiator” by Danny Ayers

update (22.10.2007)
your own combinations by gridinoc

W3C published new Semantic Web logos

swhorzWe have a visual identity now! SWEO and the W3C communications team worked on different designs for a Semantic Web logo, to the right you see the nicely colored result.

They are available in different colors and tastes, like this:
owl in magenta

The three sides of the tri-color cube in these logos evoke the triplet of the RDF model. The peeled back lid invites you to Open Your Data to the Semantic Web!

W3C anticipates using the Semantic Web cube in conjunction with other imagery related to the Semantic Web. However, until the imagery is more widely recognized, it should not be used on its own. Please use the full logos above rather than the cube alone.

So, could someone please photoshop a picture of my head “opened up” instead of the triple on my forehead?

All the other logos here:
www.w3.org/2007/10/sw-logos.html

microsoft manager: “needed a robust and scalable RDF repository” –

In an easily overlooked Press release by Intellidimension, an interesting statement about RDF is done.

Read the interesting part first:
“We chose to integrate the Intellidimension solution based on the strength of its technology and the company’s semantic web expertise,” said John Deutscher, group program manager of Industry Solutions at Microsoft Corp. “We needed a robust and scalable RDF repository with tight integration into SQL Server 2005 to meet our goals for housing extensible metadata in Interactive Media Manager, and RDF Gateway addressed our requirements.”

intellidimension logoWell done! Managing media with this setup is probably very clever.
Intellidimension is the company that does RDFGateway, a compact, good-performaning RDF application building platform (store + gui).

The whole press release:
Brattleboro, VT, USA, May 21, 2007 – Intellidimension announces that Microsoft has integrated Intellidimension RDF Gateway in their new product, Microsoft Interactive Media Manager. Interactive Media Manager is a server-based solution which enables organizations to better manage the complexity inherent in the digital content lifecycle, from content creation to management to distribution. The solution, an extension of Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, is specifically designed for organizations in the media and entertainment industry, including film, television & postproduction studios, broadcasters, game developers, publishers and advertising and marketing agencies.

We’re excited about our work with Microsoft, which combines Intellidimension technologies with their recently introduced Interactive Media Manager solution,” said co-founder and CEO of Intellidimension Geoff Chappell. “It’s inline with our business goals and is an important vote of confidence in our technology. It’s also a great sign for the semantic web in general that a technology leader such as Microsoft is embracing semantic technologies.”

As part of this integration, Intellidimension enhanced RDF Gateway to support Microsoft SQL Server 2005 as a storage engine for its RDF deductive database. This integration with SQL Server will be available widely with the next release of RDF Gateway, providing Intellidimension enterprise users all of the capabilities of RDF Gateway with the added reliability and manageability of SQL Server for their mission critical data.

“We chose to integrate the Intellidimension solution based on the strength of its technology and the company’s semantic web expertise,” said John Deutscher, group program manager of Industry Solutions at Microsoft Corp. “We needed a robust and scalable RDF repository with tight integration into SQL Server 2005 to meet our goals for housing extensible metadata in Interactive Media Manager, and RDF Gateway addressed our requirements.”

About RDF Gateway

RDF Gateway is a high-performance, scalable semantic web server with a RDF deductive database at its core. Its dynamic scripting environment, rules-based inference, and host of other powerful features enable rapid development and deployment of semantic web applications. Its scalable architecture and proven performance keep applications running as data requirements grow.

About Intellidimension

Intellidimension, founded in 2000, provides solutions to satisfy today’s demands for richer information. The company supports the vision of a Semantic Web in which information is easily shared and re-purposed, and where a new generation of tools offer increased information automation by harnessing the power of networked, intelligent data. Its technologies enable the development of practical applications incorporating this vision.

Thanks to Intellidimensions CEO Geoff Chappell to point me to the press release.

Sie haben gewonnen – superbonus49

Ich (L) war wieder mal der glĂĽckliche. Habe gerade einen Anruf einer netten Dame (D) von Superbonus49 bekommen, der etwa so ablief (genau weiĂź ich nimmer):

D: Hallo Herr Sauermann, sie haben gewonnen. Sie haben beim e-mail gewinnspiel mitgemacht und einen gutschein fĂĽr eine Kreuzfahrt gewonnen.
L: aha. interessant, e-mail?
D: Ja, wir machen das Gewinnspiel in Kooperation mit o2. Wir schicken ihnen den Gutschein zu. Ihre Adresse ist Pirmasenser Str 18?
L: ja.
D: Gut, Ihre postleitzahl ….?
L: Ja
D: dann bräuchte ich nur noch ihr Geburtsdatum, das wäre?
L: (naja, die säcke wissen eh alles, das ist auch schon egal): 30.08.1977.
D: Gut. Zusätzlich zur Kreuzfahrt dürfen sie am Superbonus 49 Gewinnspiel Teilnehmen, und o2 zahlt 80% der Kosten, super was?
L: ja, toll
D: Das sind dann etwa 10€ im monat für drei monate.
L: Aha.
D: Ja und wollen sie das… das ist so toll … bla bla bla
L: Ich möchte mir das noch überlegen
D: kein Problem,….
L: Also das sind 10€ im Monat und ich bekomme per Post noch einen Gutschein für eine Kreuzfahrt?
D: Ja, den Gutschein haben sie auf jeden fall, und es sind 39€ im Monat.
L: aha.
…. es dämmmert…..

Ok, ein schneller internetcheck auf o2 und superbonus 49 ergibt heiĂźe 243 hits, also ist das alles defniniver Bullshit und gelogen was die Dame da verzapft hat, da diese Angaben nicht stimmen kann man wohl sehr gut auf die seriösität der Firma Superbonus 49 schlieĂźen. Betrug? Abzocke? Wohl nicht, Firmen wie Faber und Superbonus leben als “added value” zur Lotterie. Als gläubiger Christ bin ich zum GlĂĽck gegen jede Form von GlĂĽcksspiel allergisch, drum werde ich wohl nicht zusagen.

Andere haben es aber durchaus gemacht.
Nach deren Erfahrung kein Betrug, aber ein ernĂĽchterndes Erlebnis.

Bin jedenfalls gespannt, die Dame hat gemeint sie ruft morgen nochmal an, werde sie nach der Kontaktperson bei o2 fragen 🙂

warum ich das blogge? Falls der nächste danach sucht…

Now Queryable and open linked data: U.S. Census/Congress datasets: 1 billion triples

and its fast!

As you can’t blog enough about it, I am copying a story from this announcement email:
(following Text by Josh Tauberer)

Hi, everyone. (This is a revised/combined reannouncement for what was
originally posted on the Linking Open Data list.)

Last November, Chris Bizer wrote, “[T]he DBLP server increases the size
of the Semantic Web by around 10 percent ;-)” [1] Based on the same
logic, I have recently increased the size of the semantic web by 200%!
(in terms of the number of triples; and of course I’m also just joking
here w.r.t. size of the semantic web)

I’m announcing here a new U.S. 2000 Census dataset of 1 billion triples,
accessible over SPARQL and browsable by linked data [2] principles, and
re-announcing my U.S. Congress dataset which is newly browsable with
linked data principles. These two datasets are interconnected, and the
Census dataset is linked up via owl:sameAs to Geonames [3].

I like the Census data set a lot for three reasons— first, if you live
in the U.S. it has something for you, since it has detailed statistics
on geographic entities down to the level of small towns/villages, and
everyone lives somewhere; second, it meshes up with two other data sets;
and third, it’s rich enough on its own to support a wide array of
interesting and real-world useful queries (if, say, you were doing
research).

The OpenLink guys were kind enough to host the data set previously, but
I wanted to push the limits of my own semweb C# library [4] and I wanted
to be able to revise the data set as needed, so I’ve wanted to host it
myself, which only recently I was able to do (even though I’ve had the
triples laying around for nearly a year).

A complete description of the data set and how it was constructed and
exposed is here:

http://www.rdfabout.com/demo/census/

Some features of the data set:

Data on 3,200 U.S. counties, 36,000 “towns”, 16,000 “villages”, 33,000
ZCTAs (something like zip-codes), and 435 congressional districts.

Each of those locations contains around 10 thousand population
statistics, as well as a dc:title, a basic hierarchical structure
between regions, and latitude/longitude.

Very basic geographic/name/lat-lng data (1 million triples) can be
downloaded in N3.

All of the 1 billion triples are accessible via SPARQL. See:
http://www.rdfabout.com/demo/census/sparql.xpd which has a few sample
queries. An example query is “List the states in the United States that
have more students in dorms than prisoners.”

The URIs for the geographic regions are dereferencable http: URIs. (The
URIs for the predicates in the data set will be updated to be
dereferencable in the future.) For example, you can visit the URI for
New York State:

http://www.rdfabout.com/rdf/usgov/geo/us/ny

(Some URIs return very large pages that take Firefox quite a while to
render. That one’s OK.)

The dereferencable URIs return 303’s to SPARQL DESCRIBE pages describing
those URIs.

There is a sitemap.xml file based on the latest draft circulated [5],
referenced from robots.txt: http://rdfabout.com/robots.txt

And, source code to generate the triples from the Census download files
are posted. It’s too large for me to provide the whole RDF myself, for
now at least.

The U.S. Congress data set, which I originally made SPARQL-accessible in
December 2005 but is now revised to follow the new linked data
principles, has 12 million triples containing brief biographical data
for all members of Congress, and mainly data for federal legislation and
voting records going back a number of years. Here are two example
dereferencable URIs:

http://www.rdfabout.com/rdf/usgov/congress/people/M000303
(= Senator John McCain)

http://www.rdfabout.com/rdf/usgov/congress/109/bills/h867
(= a bill in Congress)

Some example Congress-related queries are posted here:
http://www.govtrack.us/sparql.xpd
And dump files are here:
http://www.govtrack.us/data/rdf/

An example I like to use is that one could fairly easily create a table
using SPARQL aligning votes on a particular bill by congressmen with,
for instance, the median commuting time to work of their constituents,
as reported by the Census.

Thanks to those who gave feedback on the LOD list — I haven’t been
able to address all of it yet (like how to deal with backlinks on the
dereferenced pages).

[1] http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/semantic-web/2006Nov/0008.html
[2] http://linkeddata.org/
[3] http://www.geonames.org/
[4] http://razor.occams.info/code/semweb
[5] http://sw.deri.org/2007/07/sitemapextension/


– Josh Tauberer

http://razor.occams.info

Foaf VS Walled Communities

The web 2.0 is getting richer based on the proprietary walls.
There is an often asked question: why is FOAF out there for years but nobody made a business model out of it? Easy: because when you open your service to be replaceable, you are replaceable. Imagine a world where you could switch your community website like you can already switch your newsreader today (thanks to OPML): Venture capitalists would sweat like a drunken grad student in final exam.

This post is partly inspired by this. There is a mix up of cause and effect: FOAF as a standard is making Web 2.0 services interoperable and standardized. Orkut, facebook, linkedin, studivz, (++) would all have the same API and an extensible data format if they used FOAF and RDF.

But wait – who is the venture capitalist behind these web 2.0 walls? Maybe you. So you suddenly realize that when your little nerds in the computer room switch the lever towards standards, your money may go down the well, because then your precious closed community of people, and that is what you sell and own: data about people, will be open for anyone else to copy. So you would do your best not going for standards but instead making the BEST social service EVER so that everyone DIGGS it and invites all HIS FRIENDS into closed walls. Capitalism is ok, but we have to name it what it is.

Like Dick Hardt from SXIP said in his well-known keynote: its your data, not theirs. FOAF and RDF is a way to get back your data from the web 2.0 companies that own you at the moment, make them give you back the data you have entered. Switching from Flickr to another photo community should be as easy as switching newsreader (thx to OPML) or Office Application (thx to OpenDocument).

Microsoft does not go crazy for a standardized OpenDocument format, which would help us get free from the monopoly that takes your money when buying a computer and invests it to sell XBoxes to your kid. Why should it be different with web 2.0? But thanks for pointing us to the VC view.