Re: Upcoming Articles on SW

Brandon,
You introduce the term semantic after point 2. But you don't explain
anywhere what it might mean. I think this is the problem with tips and
advice pieces. If you explain it begins to get complex and detracts from the
idea that this is a tip or advice that can be followed. The same can be said
of a few other of the ideas you introduce including open source.
Perhaps your emphasis should be more on the subject of your title to the
piece. Less catch phrase and more facts and trends to emphasis benefits?

Adam

On 16 December 2010 22:12, Brandon Schwartz <brandon@boomajoom.com> wrote:

> All,
>
> I'm in the process of writing a series of articles for my site on the
> semantic web.  The goal of the articles is to raise awareness of the
> importance that the semantic web will play in businesses and internet
> advertising.  So far I have it broken down into 5 articles:
>
> 1. Interoperability as a Business Model
> 2. SEO
> 3. Linked Data in E-Stores
> 4. Understanding Trust
> 5. Knowledge for the Future Marketing Professional
>
> I'd really be honored if someone took the time to provide input - either on
> the structure of the series or in the individual articles.  I'll be sure to
> give credit when things go public.  Below is the first article,
> Interoperability as a Business Model.  If I've made any mistakes, overlooked
> any tools that you feel are important, or you feel driven to make any kind
> of emotional outburst, I'm open to it.  I'm still very new to this stuff, so
> I expect there to be some issues with the article.
>
> <<
> I want to start with your business model, since without it you won't get
> very far.  Marketing, contrary to being just liquor and guessing, is about
> making the truth interesting.  That presupposes a truth to advertise.
>
> No matter what business you're in, you're going to have a stack of
> information you need to process.  Even individuals are likely to be
> overwhelmed keeping up with relevant online data.  Businesses, on the other
> hand, can spend millions of dollars trying to come to a consensus on
> information within a single program; the resources required to get <a href="
> http://semanticarts.com/articles/a-semantic-enterprise-architecture">"dark<http://semanticarts.com/articles/a-semantic-enterprise-architecture%22%3E%22dark>matter" programs</a> to communicate with each other is simply staggering.
> If you were to honestly ask yourself how easily you could transfer your
> business data to every computer operating system or every business
> application software available, I doubt you'd be happy with the answer.  At
> it's heart, interoperability is the ability of your information to be moved
> between programs with ease.
>
> Some might be wondering what the point of such a transfer would be.  For
> folks who have spent 15 years working with Microsoft Access as their primary
> database management software and who expect to be doing it another 20, being
> able to communicate with other systems won't seem as important.
> Unfortunately, sticking with the tried and true might not be a viable
> strategy over the long term.
>
> Consider this: your company sticks with the tried and true methods of
> database management.  You spend money buying old fashioned proprietary
> software, hours setting up simple commands, and a huge amount of time
> piecing together simple reports.  Informing your manager about the day to
> day operations of your job involve running extensive queries and spending
> hours piecing the information into a spreadsheet.  This was, at some point,
> an effective way of doing business.  However, your competitor stores
> information in a format that allows it to be transferred to free,
> open-source systems in the blink of an eye.  When their database becomes
> ineffective, they switch to a better program with little downtime.  When
> informing their bosses about projects, they can examine data across the
> entire enterprise quickly.
>
> Interoperability should be both a business strategy and a philosophy.  It's
> more than just cutting reporting time, it's about having access to customer
> data before other people do and seeing relationships in that data that
> aren't immediately apparent.  It saves you time, money, and a big headache.
> Granted, it extends beyond marketing and many marketers will feel that this
> is too technical for them to be concerned with.
>
> But consider these two facts:
>
> 1. The more you know about your customer, the better position you'll be in
> to sell a product that interests them.  If you know what they like to do,
> where they like to go, and who they like to spend time with, placing
> targeted advertisements becomes easy.
>
> 2. The flow of information about the product is the marketer's domain.
> Whether its referrals, advertisements, or conversations on the street, the
> marketing professional is always looking to direct that information in a way
> that leads to sales.
>
> Software interoperability is key for both of these.  First, being able to
> quickly access data in your CRM and incorporate it with survey responses,
> inventory counts, and feedback from your marketing campaigns will allow you
> to target your customers better.  Second, if (as this series will show is
> the case) the internet is becoming more semantic, it will unleash a wave of
> information sharing that's simply never been seen before.  Taking advantage
> of that, internally and externally, will naturally lead to more sales.  But
> it will also free up time for you to focus on the parts of your job that are
> more rewarding than filling in spreadsheet cells.
>
> So how do you do it?
>
> When writing about the semantic web, sometimes it's a little too easy to
> make the whole thing sound like a magic pill that solves all your business
> problems.  Let me be clear: it's not, but it does make certain things
> easier.  Here are some tools to help you take advantage of interoperability.
> <ul>
> <li>SAP.  This software is absolutely fantastic when it comes to
> interoperability and searchability.  SAP has extensive features for
> inventory management, finance, human resources, and more.  The fact that the
> software can be used in so many departments makes computer communication
> easy.  <a href="
> http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/weblogs?blog=/pub/wlg/21313">This<http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/weblogs?blog=/pub/wlg/21313%22%3EThis>article</a> demonstrates how SAP is working to provide a semantic framework
> for data.  Their approach is to develop standards within the bounds of what
> people need, and not from a removed academic standpoint.  SAP's approach
> will take what is useful for businesses from academia and grow these
> standards in a commercial environment.  <a href="
> http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn/index?rid=/webcontent/uuid/e091c215-de48-2a10-51b5-ca6a08c81a1a">SAP's<http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn/index?rid=/webcontent/uuid/e091c215-de48-2a10-51b5-ca6a08c81a1a%22%3ESAP%27s>NetWeaver</a> really takes this to the next level.  <a href="
> http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn/nw-businessclient">This<http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/sdn/nw-businessclient%22%3EThis>program allows users to interact with any SAP program without hassle.</a>
> The ability to access your enterprise software from a central point and get
> different programs to communicate with each other easily is key to operating
> your business effectively and serving your customer efficiently.
>
> <li>Cloud computing.  Cloud computing is simply the practice of doing work
> online.  Software companies provide the programs, data, and resources online
> rather than on your hardrive.  Because of the expansion of cloud software,
> companies have begun making their software interoperable.  Google can save
> documents in RTF, PDF, XLS, and more, meaning you can use the documents in
> other programs you might have.  Zoho has plugins that interact with Google
> and Microsoft.  Cloud companies often provide ways for developers to
> contribute and have been been open to efforts to interact with competitors'
> software.  Not to mention <em>hardware</em> compatibility.  Cloud computing
> lets you go to any computer, even if it's your cell phone, and access your
> data.
>
> <li>Open source vs. controlled programming languages.  Again, a bit techy,
> but it's something you need to know.  Proprietary website and database
> management systems cost money, require corporate technical support, and are
> painful to upgrade.  They're also written in programming languages that are
> exclusive to that company, which means that developing applications to
> disect data can be difficult.  Open source software is different.  You can
> build an entire website and run a database for free while a support
> community develops new applications that can be put to use almost
> immediately.  Many open source programs, such as Mediawiki (the software
> that powers Wikipedia) allow you to export and import to XML, a
> machine-readable format that marketing folks are likely to have experience
> with in SEO work (sitemaps) and social media marketing (RSS feeds).  As more
> content management systems begin supporting XML, migrating data between
> sites becomes easy.  Have no control over using a controlled language?  <a
> href="
> http://www.theserverside.net/news/thread.tss?thread_id=27636">Fear</a<http://www.theserverside.net/news/thread.tss?thread_id=27636%22%3EFear%3C/a>>
> <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/interop/">not.</a<http://www.microsoft.com/windowsazure/interop/%22%3Enot.%3C/a>>
> Using open source but still want to pay?  <a href="
> http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/options/semantic-tech/index.html">Oracle<http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/options/semantic-tech/index.html%22%3EOracle>can help.</a>
> </ul>
>
> Interoperability is essential, but it's more than just about software and
> information; it's about departmental interoperability and human connections.
> >>
>
>
> ---
> Brandon | http://www.boomajoom.com
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>
>