Here is a marketing tip for semantic web businesses. Explain in layman’s terms your technologies and services and make those write-ups findable. Ontotext did this well and here they are getting a little press.

Here is how this came about. My editor asked me to take a look at a call for papers on the highly abstruse topic of semantic annotations in information retrieval:

As the saying goes, the semantic web is something we are all trying to get our respective heads around. And here I had to find out in a hurry what semantic annotations are. So one goes to Google and types in, “What are Semantic Annotations?” and the first result was this lucid, edifying, concise, life-saving mini-disquisition on this incredibly arcane topic:

Talk about great PR. It got me to their site. Just think of all the library school students, reporters and mid-level IT purchasing managers who may have been in my place—in need of a quick and dirty tutorial on semantic applications. Just as I harp on the crucial need for developers of Web 2.0 tools to always provide screencasts of their products and services on their homepages, now I will nag Semantic Web eggheads to include in their sites text tutorials. (And while you are at it, make them easy to email to other people and to print out.)

Being curious about the techies at Ontotext who so very helpfully provided the info I needed right on their site, I browsed through their site and read about their products, such as the KIM Platform:

Never hurts to attract the momentarily interested. Small investment of time and server space—write up a primer on difficult stuff and you will win gratitude and maybe even some press.

And a word to librarians who need a quick glance into the workings of these coming technologies. Take a look at the material on this workshop:

These are the kinds of things shaping the brave new world to come for librarians and other information professionals. We have to be ready.

By Hope Leman

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 4th, 2008 at 12:53 pm and is filed under Guest Authors, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.