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

On 7/19/12 10:58 AM, Harish Kumar M. wrote:
> 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.

That isn't really what Linked Data is about.
Using your MS Access and MS Excel analogies, when we talk about Linked 
Data, it's all about:

1. Excel Cell Names (in the form of hyperlinks) that resolve to data 
across networks
2. MS Access keys (in the form of hyperlinks) that resolve to data 
across networks .

Here is an example of a Spreadsheet and RDBMS combo doing Linked Data, 
as per  my comments above:

1. http://bit.ly/NkVEzD -- sparql describe against the 'Facebook' entity URI
2. http://bit.ly/Qc2GXX -- sparql select scoped to a named graph that 
holds the triples that describe the 'Facebook' entity .

Follow the links above and you get the combined effects of Excel and MS 
Access, as per my comments above.

Linked Data is about this form of fine grained data representation and 
access that scales to networks while also enabling the use of semantics 
to drive disparate data source integration and/or virtualization.

I would encourage you to add a Linked Data dimension to your service. 
Nothing about Linked Data makes it incompatible with functional and 
scalable business models. You just have to take that first step :-)

-- 

Regards,

Kingsley Idehen	
Founder & CEO
OpenLink Software
Company Web: http://www.openlinksw.com
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