By Marc Stephenson |
June 28, 2024
The rise of semantic data in the modern world
It was great to meet to so many of you at the inaugural conference of Semantic Data 2024: Taxonomy, Ontology, and Knowledge Graphs, held in London on 27 June.
As part of this one-day event, our very own Marc Stephenson, Director and Information Architect, was on stage as part of a compelling panel discussion, centred around the role of data in the world of generative AI.
Read his experience of this inaugural, one day event:
I’d been approached by the Conference Chair, Madi Weland Soloman, Head of Client Solutions and Services at Graphifi, to participate in the “end of day” panel session at the conference. The panel theme, “What will be the Hot Topic in 2024 and Why it Matters” was a good choice, but also a challenging choice as a panel member! More on this later.
The event was one of the best ones I’ve attended in many years. Conferences themselves, and the speakers who attend, are often of variable quality and relevance. This wasn’t the case for Semantic Data 2024. Every speaker had something new and interesting to say and delivered the content in a confident and engaging manner. I learnt so much about the real-world issues and solutions using semantic data.
The speakers were from a range of sectors and presented some interesting use cases. Semantic data as a concept has been around for many years, and in my view, has had very little traction outside academia. However, it was clear from the conference that this is changing. Finance, life sciences, pharmaceuticals, and even politics are all starting to use it in anger to solve some difficult information and data management issues. I got a real sense that semantic data had “come of age” and I look forward to using it to help Metataxis clients deliver value and solutions to their information and data management problems.
As for the panel that I was on, it was great fun! Madi quizzed the panel members on a range of topics ranging from the Metaverse, to copyright law, to neural implants. All panellists gave their (sometimes contentious!) opinions on these topics. As did the delegates. It was a great way to end the conference.
There is a USA Semantic Data conference in October 2024, which I’m sure will be equally interesting. I’ll be very much looking forward to attending Semantic Data 2025 in the UK. Hope to see you there!
