The Semantic Data Conference

I was honored to be accepted to speak at the first “Semantic Data” conference in New York, a one-day event held on October 23, following the inaugural event held in London on June 27. Semantic Data, organized by Henry Stewart (HS) Events, is co-located with its better-known DAM (Digital Asset Management) conference, which has been running for over 20 years in New York, London, and Los Angeles.

The full name of the conference was “Semantic Data: Taxonomy, Ontology, and Knowledge Graphs,” so the conference was less focused on data then on what you can do with data and content when combined with the semantics of taxonomies and ontologies. There was no presentation dedicated to knowledge graphs this time, with only sessions in the single-day one-track event. Less of a focus on knowledge graphs was fine, since the Knowledge Graph Conference, held in New York in May covers that topic very thoroughly over multiple days. The emphasis on “semantics,” though, is welcome, since there is no conference dedicated to that subject in the United States. (There is the SEMANTiCS conference in Europe, but it is semi-academic.)

Presentations at Semantic Data, New York

The topics of the sessions for the “Semantic Data” included: securing taxonomy and ontology strategy buy-in, why and how to connect taxonomies and ontologies, use of MS Copilot in taxonomy development, a use case in leveraging an LLM-based for content integration and a consumer-based semantic layer, and how to apply semantic models (taxonomies and ontologies) that reduce biases, especially for machine learning models. The opening keynote by Lulit Tesfaye was on realizing the semantic layer keynote, and the closing keynote by Gary Carlison and Bramm Wessel of the lead sponsor, Factor, was on building an organization semantic mindset. Additional sponsored talks were on how ontologies accelerate innovation in the life sciences, as done by the sponsor SciBite, and how semantics enhances modern data platforms, such as the sponsor Datavid.

I presented “Taxonomies to Ontologies: How When and Why to Connect or Extend.” I summarized the benefits of taxonomies and ontologies, including what you could or could not do with each alone, but what you could do with both combined. The fact that both taxonomies and ontologies are now based on compatible Semantic Web standards, which are supported by many tools, makes it easy to combine or extend them. Whether you are “combining” a taxonomy with an ontology or “extending” a taxonomy into an ontology depends merely on your starting point and definition of ontology. Now that I am again vendor neutral, I included screenshots from four different commercial tools for combined taxonomy/ontology management.

About the Semantic Data Conference 2024

Semantic Data New York was similar to Semantic Data Europe (London) in its format and organization. Both provided a combination of session types: instructional talks, industry use cases, round table participant discussions, and thought leadership panels. Both events were chaired by Madi Weland Solomon and featured the same keynote presentation by Lulit Tesfaye on the subject of the semantic layer. The rest of the speakers were different at both events, and each event had different sponsors, based on geographic location. While there were only three sponsors of Semantic Data in New York and only two in London, they shared the same exhibit hall with the main DAM (digital asset management) and thus reached a wider audience.

Attendees of both the London and New York events had a similar number of registrants, about 50. Although the larger co-located DAM conference had separate registration, some registrants of the DAM conference were also seen in Semantic Data sessions. Registrants of Semantic Data represented diverse industries, including financial services, healthcare, software/technology, media, entertainment, publishing, travel and tourism, education, government, and consulting. Roles were also diverse, including company leadership, project and program managers, IT, and content/DAM/taxonomy/information architecture practitioner roles.

I find that the distinction between the roles and activities of taxonomists, ontologists, information architects, digital asset managers, etc. overlaps, so a conference dedicated to semantics brings them together for shared knowledge sharing. This way, their projects can also be broadened and shared within their organizations. I hope the Semantic Data conference can grow in the future to fill this need, and I look forward to next year.

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