Archives for Software

Jim Wissner's Latest Semantic Web Creation Rocks

I met today with Jim Wissner, Chief Architect and co-founder of my company, Radar Networks. Jim started the company along with me and Kris Thorisson several years ago when we were just a few guys doing futuristic R&D. Jim has been working for a few months on a "secret project" in his spare time, and today I finally got to see it.… Read More “Jim Wissner's Latest Semantic Web Creation Rocks”

Scoble Gets the Semantic Web

Robert Scoble spent 2 hours with us looking at our app yesterday. We had a great conversation and he had many terrific ideas and suggestions for us. We are still in stealth, so we asked him to agree not say much about what we showed him yet.… Read More “Scoble Gets the Semantic Web”

Listen to this Discussion on the Future of the Web

If you are interested in the future of the Web, you might enjoy listening to this interview with me, moderated by Dr. Paul Miller of Talis. We discuss, in-depth: the Semantic Web, Web 3.0, SPARQL, collective intelligence, knowledge management, the future of search, triplestores, and Radar Networks.

Excellent Overview of Benefits of RDF and SPARQL

This article on XML.com is a very good summary of the benefits of RDF and SPARQL — two of the key technologies of the emerging Semantic Web.

Metaweb and Radar Networks

This is just a brief post because I am actually slammed with VC meetings right now. But I wanted to congratulate our friends at Metaweb for their pre-launch announcement. My company, Radar Networks, is the only other major venture-funded play working on the Semantic Web for consumers so we are thrilled to see more action in this sector.… Read More “Metaweb and Radar Networks”

Is it Only Wednesday?

Is it only Wednesday? It feels like a whole week already! I’ve been in back-to-back VC meetings, board discussions and strategy meetings since last week. I think this must be related to the heating-up of the "Web 3.0" meme and the semantic sector in general.… Read More “Is it Only Wednesday?”

Breaking the Collective IQ Barrier — Making Groups Smarter

I’ve been thinking since 1994 about how to get past a fundamental barrier to human social progress, which I call “The Collective IQ Barrier.” Most recently I have been approaching this challenge in the products we are developing at my stealth venture, Radar Networks.… Read More “Breaking the Collective IQ Barrier — Making Groups Smarter”

Doing for Data What HTML Did for Documents

I’ve been saying for quite some time that the first thing the Semantic Web will accomplish is “doing for data what HTML did for documents.” HTML made it possible for everyone to publish, access and connect documents on the Internet. RDF and OWL — the languages of the Semantic Web — make it possible to do the same thing for data records — structured fragments or collections of data.… Read More “Doing for Data What HTML Did for Documents”

Capturing Your Digital Life

Nice article in Scientific American about Gordon Bell’s work at Microsoft Research on the MyLifeBits project. MyLifeBits provides one perspective on the not-too-far-off future in which all our information, and even some of our memories and experiences, are recorded and made available to us (and possibly to others) for posterity.… Read More “Capturing Your Digital Life”

Intelligence is in the Connections

Google’s Larry Page recently gave a talk to the AAAS about how Google is looking towards a future in which they hope to implement AI on a massive scale. Larry’s idea is that intelligence is a function of massive computation, not of “fancy whiteboard algorithms.”Read More “Intelligence is in the Connections”

Web 3.0 Roundup: Radar Networks, Powerset, Metaweb and Others…

It’s been a while since I posted about what my stealth venture, Radar Networks, is working on. Lately I’ve been seeing growing buzz in the industry around the “semantics” meme — for example at the recent DEMO conference, several companies used the word “semantics” in their pitches.… Read More “Web 3.0 Roundup: Radar Networks, Powerset, Metaweb and Others…”

Wow! Watch this Multi-Touch UI Demo Video

If you are interested on what computer user-interfaces are going to feel like in the future — you must see this video of a demo of a new multi-touch computer monitor. This is amazing technology — and the various demos themselves are interactive artworks in their own right.… Read More “Wow! Watch this Multi-Touch UI Demo Video”

How the WebOS Evolves?

Here is my timeline of the past, present and future of the Web. Feel free to put this meme on your own site, but please link back to the master image at this site (the URL that the thumbnail below points to) because I’ll be updating the image from time to time.… Read More “How the WebOS Evolves?”

The Semantic Web is About Helping People Use the Web More Productively

I’ve been reading some of the further posts on various blogs in reaction to the Markoff article in the New York Times last Sunday. There is a tremendous amount of misconception about the Semantic Web– as evidenced for example by Ross Mayfield’s post recently.… Read More “The Semantic Web is About Helping People Use the Web More Productively”

Article about the Semantic Web by Dan Farber

ZDnet’s Dan Farber, just blogged about the Semantic Web meme —

Dan says:

Back to Web 3.0. There will be one, and it has been associated at this point with concepts of the semantic Web,
derived from the primordial soup of Web technologies.

Read More “Article about the Semantic Web by Dan Farber”

What is the Semantic Web, Actually?

I’ve read several blog posts reacting to John Markoff’s article today. There seem to be some misconceptions in those posts about what the Semantic Web is and is not. Here I will try to  succinctly correct a few of the larger misconceptions I’ve run into:

  • The Semantic Web is not just a single Web.
Read More “What is the Semantic Web, Actually?”

New York Times Article About the Emerging Semantic Web

A New York Times article came out today about the Semantic Web — in which I was quoted, speaking about my company Radar Networks. Here’s an excerpt:

Referred to as Web 3.0, the effort is in its infancy, and the very
idea has given rise to skeptics who have called it an unobtainable
vision.

Read More “New York Times Article About the Emerging Semantic Web”

Danny and Henry Respond

Danny Ayers and Henry Story both posted thoughtful replies to my Meaning and Future of the Semantic Web essay. A few comments to their points below…

Minding The Planet — The Meaning and Future of the Semantic Web

NOTES

  • Master Copy can be found at this URL or http://tinyurl.com/yynb93
  • Last Update: Tuesday, November 7, 2006, 10:17AM PST
  • License — This article is distributed under the Creative Commons Deed. If you would like to distribute a version of thisarticle, please link back to http://www.mindingtheplanet.net
Read More “Minding The Planet — The Meaning and Future of the Semantic Web”

Hassleware — A New Strategy To Make Users Not Close Your Software

This post is not to be taken too seriously. I’m not actually advocating for the strategy outlined below. Just pointing out that it is taking place already, at least in iTunes.

One thing I’ve noticed about iTunes on Windows XP is that it is a massive resource hog — especially when starting the application, but even worse, when exiting it.… Read More “Hassleware — A New Strategy To Make Users Not Close Your Software”

Scrybe — A Beautiful Ajax Organizer App

This online video preview of the upcoming Web-based organizer, Scrybe. The app has an unusually elegant and innovative AJAX interface. It’s beautifully designed. Watch the video.

Sign of the Times – View from the Top of World of Warcraft

This critical article by an ex-World of Warcraft player is a real sign of the times — the kind of article that people will read in a few hundred years as a window into our particular moment in history. The author reached the highest levels of the game and found that it was ruining his life as well as the lives of other players.… Read More “Sign of the Times – View from the Top of World of Warcraft”

Excellent Feedback from Om Malik

Today A-List blogger and emerging "media 2.0" mogul, Om Malik, dropped by our offices to get a confidential demo of what we are building. We’ve asked Om to keep a tight lid on what we showed him, but he may be releasing at least a few hints in the near future.… Read More “Excellent Feedback from Om Malik”

The Ontology Integration Problem

The OWL language, and tools such as Protege and TopBraid Composer make it easy to design ontologies. But what about the problem of integrating disparate ontologies? I haven’t really found a good solution for this yet.

In my own experience designing a number of OWL ontologies (500 classes – 3000 classes on average) it has often been easier to create my own custom ontology branches to cover various concepts than to try to integrate other ontologies of those concepts into my own.… Read More “The Ontology Integration Problem”

Workin Hard and Making Progress

Sorry I didn’t post much today. I pulled an all-nighter last night working on Web-mining algorithms and today we had back to back meetings all day.

I just came back from a really good product team meeting facilitaed by Chris Jones on our product messaging.… Read More “Workin Hard and Making Progress”

Good Meeting With Shel Israel

Today our product team met with Shel Isreal to show him the alpha version of what we are building here at Radar Networks and get his feedback. Shel had a lot of good insights. We showed him our full product and explained the vision, and gave him a tour of the new dimension of the Web that we are building.… Read More “Good Meeting With Shel Israel”

Radar Networks is Seeking Search Engineers for Large-Scale Web Mining Initiative

My company, Radar Networks, is building a very large dataset by crawling and mining the Web. We then apply a range of new algorithms to the data (part of our secret sauce) to generate some very interesting and useful new information about the Web.… Read More “Radar Networks is Seeking Search Engineers for Large-Scale Web Mining Initiative”

Great News for Radar Networks

I’m very pleased to announce that two distinguished Silicon Valley veterans, Lew Tucker Ph.D. and Mike Clary, have joined Radar Networks (http://www.radarnetworks.com).

In addition, we have just launched a new version of the Radar Networks corporate website
with these details and more.… Read More “Great News for Radar Networks”

I'm Going to Start Blogging About Radar Networks Here

I
haven’t blogged very much about my stealth startup, Radar Networks,
yet. At the most, I’ve made a few cryptic posts and announcements in the past, but we’ve been keeping things pretty quiet. That’s been a conscious  decision because we have been working
intensively on R&D  and we just weren’t ready to say much yet.
Read More “I'm Going to Start Blogging About Radar Networks Here”

Microsoft Photosynth is Incredible

Check out this video demo of Microsoft Photosynth — an experimental technology that combines multiple photos of the same thing into a 3-D model that can then be navigated and explored — it’s beautiful, visionary and well… just awesome.