Synaptica is mentioned in a couple of spots in Jeffery Pollock's "Semantic Web for Dummies" (2009). We are excited to see this and congratulate Mr. Pollock on a great overview of the Semantic Web. Pick up your copy today here!

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

Synaptica's CEO, Dave Clarke was proud to join ProQuest's Paula McCoy for a presenation at Taxonomy Boot Camp this year. Their topic was one that often strikes a chord with anyone dealing with the management and indexing of content: "Taxonomies: Tools or People".

It discusses some of the pros and cons of the machine indexing of content versus manual indexing. The presentation was well attended and well received and we are happy to be able to share it with you here.

Should you have any questions on this topic or anything else having to do with the creation, management and dissemination of various types of controlled vocabularies for your organization, please don't hesitate to contact us for more information. We look forward to hearing from you.

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

I looked at the calendar yesterday and the realization that November is upon us hit me pretty hard. With November comes a lot of pumpkin (here is my new pumpkin addiction recipe for this year) and a few speaking spots before i go out on maternity leave (yeah yeah i can't believe it's already time either!).

Just like last year and the year before i will be attending and presenting at Enterprise Search Summit and Taxonomy Bootcamp which i am really looking forward to. At Enterprise Search Summit West i have been asked to participate on a panel titled "Is Semantic Technology Real?" moderated by Rob Gonzalez from Endeca.

At Taxonomy Bootcamp, i have been asked to be part of a panel that Wendi Pohs is running titled "From the Lighthouse: Visioneering Taxonomies’ Future which promises to be an engaging panel on the future of taxonomies. I have been in forward looking mode for the last few months so i have been thinking about this subject quite a bit.

It is not too late to register and you can use these codes for some discounts- Enterprise Search Registration with SPK5 code and Taxonomy Bootcamp registration with SPK5 code.

My sessions last year featured a Synaptica Case Study at Taxonomy Bootcamp titled "Proquest: Finding a Common Language: Bringing Complex and Disparate Vocabularies" (video available here) and at Enterprise Search Summit a presentation on Centralized Taxonomy Management for Enterprise Information Systems (video available here)

Looking forward to seeing everyone there including the Dow Jones Taxonomy Team (Dow Jones is a KMWorld sponsor- note: my speaking spots are not sponsored spots but by invintation of the moderators) and the Synaptica team who are exhibiting and sponsoring Taxonomy Bootcamp!

Image|Flickr| minipixel

Longtime customer ProQuest has a little celebration in honor of their installation of Synaptica's version 7.1.

Let's get a better look at that cake!

Thank you Paula McCoy (not pictured) for providing these great shots. And be sure to catch Paula and Dave Clarke's presentation on Autoclassification vs. Human Indexing at Taxonomy Boot Camp next month.