Re: Enquire - WWW - Semantic Desktop/PersonalDataWiki? do you agree?

On 18 November 2010 08:27, Leo Sauermann <leo.sauermann@gnowsis.com> wrote:
> Dear Tim,
> SWIG
>
>
> My Current Task is somehow tricky:
>
> I am pitching our company Gnowsis to investors. It makes an Enquire-Like
> Semantic Desktop, a personal semantic web. It seems investors
> only understand anything on the level of "we do twitter for dogs" or "it
> sells crowdsourced clothes via mobile phones".

You are at a disadvantage.  Most investors cannot see further than a
two year horizon.  In fact, in many cases it is forbidden.

The attractive thing about The Web is that it will likely achieve
double digit growth for decades to come.  The great investors
understand this.  Warren Buffett, the richest man in the world, and
probably considered the best investor ever, has achieved 21% growth
for around 40 years.  The (Semantic) Web can easily match that.
Almost no other technology can.  That's the angle.

The concept that good investors understand, is the network effect, or
a better term the Web Effect.  This is the synergies created by
connecting a growing number of people using Web Standards, of which,
facebook is a microcosm.  Looking at Mark Z's latest talk he is
starting to get it.  A graph of People, a Graph of Things:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Czw-dtTP6oU&feature=player_embedded

Your business advantage is of 'first mover'.  This is a double edged
sword, on the one hand you start off further down the learning curve,
but on the other new entrants can use newer technologies.  However,
first mover has worked for google (web scale), and for amazon, ebay
etc.   I think those are the angles to pitch, it helps if you have
some good long term value investors in your network.  There are some
in Vienna.

>
>
> So Tim, as Elder of the Web, I turn to you for an expert opinion to
> reassure we do a useful thing.
>
>
> Here are the Statements I patch together from "weaving the web" etc.:
>
> Enquire - linking everything bidirectionally is an
> entire new way of writing.
> I guess you also realized that the system changes the way you look at
> things and your
> thinking.
>
> WWW - give everyone a tool (read/write) web that everyone
> can publish information. The links are first unidirectional and untyped
> and will be typed
> "later", once the RDF riddle was solved in 1999.
>
> SemanticDesktop/PersonalDataWikis/PersonalSemanticWeb - we finally give
> the peoples the
> Enquire that Tim already used in the distant and mysterious past.
> The first distributable results are NEPOMUK-KDE, PesonalDataWikis,
> Personal Data Lockers, and services around this idea of personal
> semantic web services for personal information management.

I think these will all be killer apps that will grow with the
ecosystem, and gaining from the law of 'unintended consequences' that
drove the Web of Documents.

The link is only one half of the Web (of any graph).  The "URI" is the
precious stone set in a silver sea.

I'd recommend reading 1 essay a week in

http://www.w3.org/DesignIssues/

I still do on an daily basis.  I am always learning.

The UDI (Universal Document Identifier) enables The Web of Documents.
The URI will enable the Web of Resources.

Remember one KEY point.  Universal does not mean Unique.  Universal
brings things together, seeks commonalities (we mathematicians call
them 'invariants', philosophers call them 'archetypes').  This idea
has always been one of the foundational building block of mathematics,
of science, of culture, and now of The Web.  More on this later.

Give things Universal Identifiers and use Web Standards, and watch
their usefulness grow and grow, relative to everything else.  As an
initial adopter you're able to create most value than your competitors
and hopefully receive most reward.

>
>
> The question:
> Tim,
> Is this THE idea?
>
> Do you agree this is a sensible thing to do?
>
>
>
> If yes, then my argumentation to investors and to myself is:
> "TimBl basically inventend blogging, wikipedia, and twitter with the
> idea of a read/write WWW, which it originally always included. You can
> trust that guy to be clever. You can also be assured this was around
> before, some ideas for millenia, some since Memex.
> Now Gnowsis works to realize the proto-idea - Enquire. There must be
> something going on here. Dear Investors, look at it, spend some time
> understanding what happens here with technology and then invest."

Think about long term sustained exponential growth of your ecosystem,
with your company defending a greater and greater share of that value.
 People always tend to think that they are either at the beginning or
the end of a journey.  But the Web Effect is in play and, continues
its march exponentially.  Simply look at 2009 (gov) and 2010 (facebook
ogp, google good relations, and so much more).  I think 2011 is going
to be the year of the apps.  Gnowsis hopefully will make some of the
best!

>
>
> Sometimes I feel like Frodo and together with Bernhard "Sam" Schandl we
> go alone to Mount Doom ("Microsoft Outlook") to finally throw the Ring
> of RDF into its center, to crack it open to the web. Then I see you guys
> over at the Minas Tirith of LinkedOpenData and data.gov and the battles
> Martin Hepp fights with GoodRelations and ... there is hope :-)

Regarding email, did you take a look at rapportive?

http://rapportive.com/

A nice semantic tool that enhances email using the social graph.  I'm
using it now, it's a cool UX.  Simple tool that makes things just a
little bit better.  Perhaps this is the kind of demo that will inspire
an investor.

I like the Lord of the Rings analogy.  There can be no doubt that Lord
of the Rings was influenced by the 'Universal' Story.  The idea of the
monomyth, articulated so well by Jung and Campbell.  This is a story
that has happened before, and it will happen again and again.  It
happens every day.  My favorite video on the web, recorded 1987
explains this quite well.  Universal does not mean Unique!

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1780052864372164593#

"Man does not weave this web of life. He is merely a strand of it.
Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself." was written in1854
and we are talking about weaving the web today!

I like your jest.  The Web may show a resemblance of Middle Earth, but
it is not a copy.

http://www.w3.org/2007/09/map/main.jpg

Understand that The Web is about Universality.  The Web i about
tolerance.  We are all Tolkien's characters traveling through The Web
on a great journey.  Some are the hobbits, some are the wizards, and
some are the Orcs created to mock the elves (I'll let you decide which
is which :)).

But the hero is the one who can make this journey decently, can make
it in a way that is respectful and tolerant.  Someone that can first
look to create value or those less fortunate with their work and toil.
 And maybe just manage to make the long hard journey to cast down the
One Ring, and allow us all to bask in the sunlight uplands of The Web
:)

Just my 2 cents (apologies in advance for the frivolity) :)

>
>
>
> ok, looking for interesting answers
> best
> Leo Sauermann, Dr.
> CEO and Founder
>
> mail: leo.sauermann@gnowsis.com
> mobile: +43 6991 gnowsis
> http://www.gnowsis.com
>
> helping people remember,
>
> so join our newsletter
> http://www.gnowsis.com/about/content/newsletter
> ____________________________________________________
>
>

Received on Thursday, 18 November 2010 16:32:25 UTC