Re: Introducing Semgel, a semantic database app for gathering & analyzing data from websites

On Thu, Jul 19, 2012 at 8:07 PM, Kingsley Idehen <kidehen@openlinksw.com>wrote:

>  On 7/19/12 9:18 AM, Harish Kumar M. wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
>  I would like to introduce Semgel (http://semgel.com), an web app that we
> are building for gathering and analyzing data from websites. The
> application is based on semweb technologies (rdf, owl, triple stores etc)
> and as such might of interest to this group.
>
>  The core application is generic - it can consume any kind of rdf/owl
> data. However, to show case the technology, we dicided to pick one source
> (crunchbase) to demo the capabilities of the product.
>
>  Semgel allows you to search crunchbase.com for companies, investors and
> people and instantly create databases by grabbing one or more of these
> entities. Grabbing corresponds to adding all the data present on the
> crunchbase page for that entity into the database.
>
>  Users can then explore and analyze this data in a intuitive manner. We
> support filtering, drilling (parallax style), visualization and even simple
> expressions. We have tried to innovate and make the most the fact that we
> have a graph-model backing all of this instead of the traditional
> relational-model.
>
>  Do take a look at the app. I would be delighted if you can offer us any
> kind of feedback on the application. I would also be very happy to hear
> from you if you see a opportunity to partner with us in this context.
>
>  Thanks,
> Harish
>
>  *Links*
> site : http://semgel.com
> videos & documentation : http://semgel.com/help.jsp
> quick start : http://semgel.com/data/segment/sg11100-product-search- scroll down and click on "Analyze Now" to get started straight away.
>
>
> Nice visualization .
>
> A few questions:
>
> 1. do you expose Linked Data or is this an service that using Linked Data
> processing as part of an HTML page/report product pipeline?
> 2. If you do expose Linked Data, how do I discover the Linked Data URIs
> for the entities that constitute your Linked Data space?
>
> Here is an example of what I am seeking re., the questions above, using
> Facebook:
>
> 1. http://www.crunchbase.com/company/facebook -- crunchbase URL
> 2.
> http://linkeddata.uriburner.com/about/id/http/www.crunchbase.com/company/facebook-- URI for document about Facebook
> 3.
> http://linkeddata.uriburner.com/about/id/entity/http/www.crunchbase.com/company/facebook-- URI for Entity: 'Facebook'
> 4. http://bit.ly/Pm2ALV -- a faceted browser pages providing an
> alternative document that describes the entity 'Facebook'
> 5. http://bit.ly/Pm3590 -- URI Debugger page that shows how <head/> +
> <link/> and/or HTTP response header aid URI discovery.
>
> I am not posting to knock your effort, the visualization you deliver is
> very nice and useful. I just want to encourage you to publish linked data
> (if not doing so already) in a manner that makes discovery easy for other
> Linked Data oriented users and user agents. Once in place,  your
> contributions simply enhance (by contributions that increase link density)
> follow-your-nose navigation across the burgeoning Web of Linked Data.
>
>
> --
>
> Regards,
>
> Kingsley Idehen	
> Founder & CEO
> OpenLink Software
> Company Web: http://www.openlinksw.com
> Personal Weblog: http://www.openlinksw.com/blog/~kidehen
> Twitter/Identi.ca handle: @kidehen
> Google+ Profile: https://plus.google.com/112399767740508618350/about
> LinkedIn Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/kidehen
>
>
>
>
Thanks Kingsley!

Just to clarify
- Our current focus is on allowing users to *consume* data. Letting users *
publish* data would be part of the roadmap. For now, we want to get the
average user to consume semweb data and let the professionals take care of
publishing data.
- Publishing would be relevant if users were modifying or creating their
own data within Semgel. We do not have those capabilities now. And the
crunchbase data we consume is available from sources like URI Burner.
- The application allows you to search crunchbase and add specific pages to
the database. It's not just about visualization - its a self contained
database for the user to explore, query and visualize in a flexible way
(think MS Access or MS Excel)
- The product segment pages (like this one - http://bit.ly/NkNtTQ) are
simply there to provide some ready-made collections of companies for users
to play with. The visualization on these pages are not part of the core
application.

Hope that answers you question. Happy to elaborate if necessary.

Thanks again!
Harish.