Presentation by Duane Degler: Getting Our Hands on the Semantic Web

Date and time:
February 21, 2007 (Wednesday)
Program is 7:00-8:30 pm
Dinner is 6:00 pm at Straits of Malaya for those who would like to join us.

Location:
American Geophysical Union (AGU)
2000 Florida Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20009-1277
202-462-6900
Directions

Description:
You may have heard about the semantic web — promoted as the “next generation web” — but you probably don't have much direct experience. However, that is likely to change over the next few years. As with the early World Wide Web, the sooner we get some direct experience with it, the sooner we can shape the experience for the people who will use what we design!

This joint meeting with the XML/SGML Users Group focuses on current tangible examples of semantic applications and sites (elegance and warts), and offers a guided tour of user interaction issues for the semantic web. We'll also look at some trends from the Web 2.0 world that hint at how we may be interacting with the web in the future, as these two big movements inch towards each other.

Academics and researchers from the semantic web community want the involvement of usability professionals and practitioner developers as they explore what might be possible. Progress is very active and this past year has produced a much greater focus on the subject of user interaction. W3C leaders talk about the importance and grand challenges of user interaction, and it is now officially part of the “layer cake” conceptual model for ongoing semantic web development. What are the questions we need to be thinking about to get it right for our users and ourselves?

Biography:
Duane Degler focuses on organizational performance improvement through user-centered design, knowledge/content strategy and semantic technologies. His recent activities include supporting the Social Security Administration, developing innovative policy content management and ontology management applications as part of a team from Lockheed Martin. He is a co-organizer of the Semantic Web User Interaction workshops and a participant in the UPA Body of Knowledge activity. He has worked with government agencies and commercial firms in the US and internationally. His background in system development, organizational communication, technology, multimedia and training contribute to his multi-disciplinary approach to design.

Registration:
Registration is now closed.

Cost:
Free for members of UPA-DC and the XML/SGML Users Group
$15 for non-members

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