Well, that was the billing. It was meant to be an event to discuss Web 3.0 "What lies on the horizon? Will Web 3.0 usher in the long awaited vision of the semantic web, as proposed by “Father of the Web” Tim Berners-Lee more than ten years ago? ", etc. etc, etc…
The event featured a panel of entrepreneurs with proven track records who are also currently engaged in various implementations of semantic web related technologies in their new ventures.
And to top it off, a moderator who is a 'Technology Forecaster/Futurist" -- someone well known, respected and published.
All that set the stage for an exciting topic. At zAgile, technologies associated with semantic web have played an important role in our growth and evolution. They are also core to our vision and platform. So obviously, an event like this with such high profile billing would be enticing. A great opportunity to learn about how others are applying these technologies and their perspectives and experiences with it.
Earlier in the week, I discussed this event with my team in Vitória, Brazil. Outside of the various international conferences on semantic web-related technologies (many of which are still very academic and research focused), I told them that this would be the event that profiles how people are leveraging these technologies in their ventures. They are well aware of some of the activities and contributions that have emerged out of Stanford (ex: Protégé from Stanford Center for Biomedical Informatics Research) so they were quite excited for this as well.
Alas, it didn't quite turn out as we had hoped or expected. On the contrary, it was downright pathetic. What started with some light-hearted humor quickly became an exhibition of some very smart people seemingly mumbling, fumbling, stumbling and bumbling their way through the key concepts. Their version of this "Improv" was to decide on the spot whether or not to discuss RDF (could one of you at least spell it?) OWL or talk about ontologies. No one seemed prepared to articulate the basic concepts or why they are relevant to the discussion. Even worse, their idea of the semantic web seemed stuck on making search work better than Google. I am sure this isn't all they think of the semantic web (at least I hope it isn't). There appeared to be total confusion about how to even define what constitutes an application as a Web 3.0! Wow! Before we get into the semantic web stuff, guys, let's first define the semantics of this forum. Does it have a purpose, an agenda, a theme, an organization, an audience, etc. etc.? It would have been a good start. Turning an expected discussion on an emerging technology into an Improv comedy routine -- NOT a good idea. Sorry. I didn't pay for that.
Whether the moderator had a hidden agenda, or there was a moral to the story to be revealed at the end or the whole show was just an improvised display to prove that semantic web is far from being realized as a practical vision -- I don't really know. I guess I got fed up way too early and felt compelled to make my exit. I had made an hour long trip to get to this event and with another hour looming ahead, I could not afford to waste any more time here. This truly was such a pathetic display of conducting or moderating a discussion related to some very promising technology.
I have been to VLAB events before (see my earlier blog titled Zimbra and AJAX at Vlab's Feb Event) and have appreciated the topics and the presentations. But this unfortunately left a very bad taste. This event is not supposed to be a crapshoot. While VLAB just got SUN and Morganthaler as their latest sponsors, they lost one member of their audience.
-Sanjiva
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