Semantic Web Technologies and Open Data Innovation

With my colleagues Kevin Cabral and Justin Goldbach, I attended and greatly enjoyed the latest event of the  Lotico New York Semantic Web Meetup which was about open data innovation, especially with a focus on Data.gov and obviously, the role of Semantic Web Technologies in making open data more accessible, more useful, and more valuable to citizens and businesses.

The speakers were incredible:

1. Gale A. Brewer, New York City Council Member, who is clearly passionate and experienced in the benefits of applying technology and data innovation to benefit citizens, improve public services, and enable non-profits to help more people
2.  Jim Hendler, Tetherless World Senior Constellation Professor, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) -- a pioneer in the field and a fascinating speaker.
3. Deborah L. McGuinness, Tetherless World Senior Constellation Professor RPI -- gave a fascinating talk.  My favorite line:  "the government would like nothing better than to see private companies use public data to make money, create jobs...create value with this."
4. Peter Fox, Professor and Tetherless World Research Constellation Chair RPI. Wow.  A great presentation also, about "The eScience revolution: Semantic Web platform for massive scientific collaboration"
5.  

The implications of Semantic Web Technology, together with Open Data on the Web, including government data, creates incredible promise for innovation, transparency, and value creation.  The wheels are spinning.