Introductions: Eric Neumann, HCLSIG co-chair

Hi, 

I'm Eric Neumann, one of the HCLSIG co-chairs along with Dr. Tonya Hongsermeier, and someone who is very happy to see such early interest in HCLSIG. Many of us have been working together towards this event for a few years now, convinced that the inclusion of semantics into data sets will enable greater information integration and scientific/medical knowledge sharing. Last year, we began a demonstration called 'BioDash' to illustrate what is possible using the semantic aggregation capabilities of SW technologies. I have continued to work on this focusing now on pre-clinical and clinical development challenges.

Previously, I have also been active in other initiatives, such as OMG-LSR, bio-ontologies, biopathways,  i3c, and biopax. Many of the same themes regarding how to handle the complexity of data and data types have been discussed by each of these groups, but I now feel strongly that specifications such as RDF/OWL will greatly aid in the discussion and definition of new, powerful information structures and ontologies (I'm always careful to not abuse the term 'standards'). 

When I first had heard about the Semantic Web, I was also not sure what it meant for life sciences informatics or how to apply it. I can say from my own experience, that the best way to begin understanding its potential is simply to begin working with it directly (I had a few good pointers as well :-) ). It then becomes important to be part of a community where one can share and discuss individual experiences, to see what works best, and to identify the central issues that are relevant to our multi-disciplinary community. This is one of the reasons we decided to form HCLSIG, since a good technology still needs to be driven by real-world challenges and applications. 

I am looking forwards to working with all of you, some who are familiar faces and some who are new faces to me. I hope to meet many of you at the Januray 25-26 F2F meeting!

cheers,
Eric Neumann

W3C Semantic Web for HealthCare and Life Sciences, co-chair

p.s. Please pardon my unintentional email broadcast to the list from a few days ago.