Re: Linked Data Business Models?

When reading through this list (not just this thread), where a naive
observer would locate LOD's most vocal enthusiasts, I get the impression
that LOD is in the midst of the Valley of Death. So before you sell your
fortune, note that clever investors are just waiting for the Valley of
Death to buy at lowest valuations...

More seriously: standardized, open, non-proprietary approaches for adding
value to data will win because interoperable and interchangeable methods
and parts significantly decrease the cost of production and the network
effects of new adopters make these approaches increasingly more valuable to
all. The question is not whether, but when (remember Keynes: in the
long-term we're all dead).

As to the when, when is the right time, NEVER listen to the majority of
existing customers when pursuing real innovations. In this (admittedly
rare) case, existing customers are the millstone around your neck. They
bother you with their reality, the status quo, and can get quite demanding.
But the reality of today can never be the reality of the future, it never
has been and it will never be that way.

As long-term observer of the Semantic Web world, I'm scratching my head
because more than 10 years in the internet age ARE very long-term. So
what's going on here? My impression is that the initial deep
mismatch/mistrust of business and open advocates (remember when open-source
was seen as something communist? ... remember Sun CEO O'Neilly?) has never
been resolved really in the semweb world, which it definitely has in
open-source software (oss).

So what went wrong? A single answer would not serve a complex problem but
one reason why semweb and oss developed differently regarding business
impact may be that the former was too reliant on academic institutions and
their funding, which made it possible to sustain a semweb world relatively
independent from business requirements.

Anyway, what is needed now are real business or societal use cases that
have a lasting impact, the ones that I read in the Sunday morning newspaper
about as I do about oss.

So, let's drop the demo, and another demo, and yet another demo of cool or
not-so-cool things and plan for real usage scenarios that offer a SOLUTION.

It's just a rainy Sunday afternoon...

Michael Kaschesky


On Thu, Jul 26, 2012 at 12:08 AM, Kingsley Idehen <kidehen@openlinksw.com>wrote:

> All,
>
> There is a tendency assume an eternal lack of functional and scalable
> business models with regards to Linked Data. I think its time for an open
> discussion about this matter.
>
> It's no secret, I've never seen business models as challenging Linked
> Data. Quite the contrary. That said, instead of a dump from me about my
> viewpoints on Linked Data models, how about starting this discussion by
> identifying any non "Advertising based business model" that have actually
> worked on the Web to date.
>
> As far as I know, "Advertising" and "Surreptitious Personal Profile Data
> Wholesale" are the only models that have made a difference to the bottom
> lines of: Google, Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo! and other non eCommerce
> oriented behemoths.
>
> Based on the above, let's have a serious and frank discussion about
> business models with the understanding agreement that one size will never
> fit all, ever, so this rule cannot be overlooked re. Linked Data. Also
> remember, Business models aren't silver bullets, they are typically aligned
> with markets (qualified and quantified pain points) and the evolving nature
> of tangible and monetizable value.
>
> Hopefully, the floor is now open to everyone that has a vested interest in
> this very important matter :-)
>
> --
>
> Regards,
>
> Kingsley Idehen
> Founder & CEO
> OpenLink Software
> Company Web: http://www.openlinksw.com
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>
>
>
>
>
>