European Semantic Technology revisited

I mentioned the European Semantic Technology Conference (ESTC) in my previous post, just before going off on holiday. Since then, I've been asked to moderate a panel at the event. The topic is clearly directly relevant to readers of this blog, hence the plug.

The conference organisers have assembled a great set of participants for me, and describe the panel thus;

"Semantic Technology: Encouraging Industrial Uptake

Based upon Project10X's Semantic Wave 2008 Report: Industry Roadmap to Web 3.0 & Multibillion Dollar Market Opportunities the markets for semantic technology in ICT are predicted to exceed $10 billion by 2010. The same report list over 350 companies and organizations which provide and develop semantic technologies. Other estimates based on semantisize, a site that gathers and categorizes online content related to semantic technology, show a collection of approximately 150 companies and organizations involved in this field. Talis has provided a vision of how the interface of the Semantic Web might differ from how the everyday user interacts with the current Web of documents, and what this might mean for both users and producers of Web content. This panel session will take a look at both of these perspectives: how to encourage the adoption of semantic technologies into the solutions and products currently offered by leaders of ICT industrial market, as well as inviting vertical domains; and how to acquire a customer base of end users looking to directly benefit from semantic technologies.

Michael Brodie | Verizon Richard Benjamins | Telefonica Peter F Brown | Pensive S.A. John Davies | British Telecom Mark Greaves | Vulcan Marta Nagy-Rothengass | European Commission Moderation: Paul Miller | Talis"

Having moderated a similar gathering at the World Wide Web Conference in Beijing, I look forward to seeing how the views of this panel affirm or differ from those we heard in China.

Disclosure: the conference organisers are paying my travel costs to Vienna