CEO GUIDE TO THE WEB OF THE FUTURE
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Start small: Test the Semantic Web waters with a pilot project that will let you experiment with the technology before investing large sums of time and money.
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Check credentials: A lot of systems integrators don't really have the skills to deal with Symantec Web technologies. Get someone who's savvy in semantics.
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Expect training challenges: It often takes people a while to understand the technology. "We'll spend several years of people doing it and not doing it right," says Dave McComb, president of consulting firm Semantic Arts.
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Find an ally: It can be hard to articulate the potential benefits, so find someone with a problem that can be solved with the Semantic Web and make that person a partner.
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Go it alone: The Semantic Web is complex, and it's best to get help. "You can do a bad job really quickly with semantic technologies," says Dan Gruhl, a researcher at the IBM Almaden Research Center.
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Forget privacy: Just because you can gather and correlate data about employees doesn't mean you should. Set usage guidelines to safeguard employee privacy.
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Expect perfection: While these technologies will help you find and correlate information more quickly, they're far from perfect. Nothing can help if data are unreliable in the first place.
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Be impatient: One early adopter at NASA says that the potential benefits can justify the investments in time, money, and resources, but there must be a multi-year commitment to have any hope of success.
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The Future of the Web
The next big thing in data management takes skill, time, and experience. These tips should help you get the most out of the Semantic Web
By Rachael King
Companies looking for smarter ways to wade through seas of online data may have found a lifeline. It's called the Semantic Web and it provides a way to tag, describe, and provide context for individual bits of online information.
IT executives are turning to the Semantic Web to better understand the interrelationships among disparate pieces of data. But the technology is complicated and unproven.
If you're considering sampling Semantic Web technologies, here's a guide to help you avoid some of the pitfalls.
