SemTech Conference and the Personal Data Locker
June 28, 2010
Last week I went to freezing San Francisco to speak at the SemTech conference. I had a great time and met most of the movers and shakers in the world of the semantic web at this incredibly well run conference. It was gratifying to see so many people speaking enthusiastically about my book. In fact, the bookstore sold more than 50 copies and I signed dozens of books. I even signed 3 iPhones! My keynote talk was very well received, and thanks to the people at Atigeo, the panel on the Personal Data Locker was said to be one of the best of the conference. I met several people from big companies and had interesting discussions with many entrepreneurs. So after 3 days and 3 nights, I was full of semantics and very energized about the prospects of my book and the ideas it contains.
My panel went so well that I’d love to show the video of it here. But I can’t, because I don’t think we got it on video. I thought I’d highlight the people who were on the panel and some of their accomplishments. I’d like you to look at their web sites, follow them on Twitter, and be aware of what they are working on. We all are trying to make parts of the personal data locker come together, and I think we all agree that a) the current mishmash of web sites and logins, and the current practice of leaving our information scattered all over the physical world and the web has to end, and b) the pieces of the puzzle really are starting to emerge, so we can actually start to see some of the vision taking shape. I asked people to speak in order of the number of followers they have on Twitter …
Chris Messina, Google Open Web Advocate
FactoryJoe.com
@chrismessina – 22,538 followers
Chris Messina is a well-known advocate of the open web, starting as a leader of the community marketing of the launch of the popular Firefox web browser in 2004. He is a board member of the OpenID and Open Web Foundations, and plays an instrumental role in advancing OAuth and safer online computing. A frequent speaker at technology conferences such as Web 2.0 Expo and SXSW, he has been quoted in The New York Times, Business Week, LA Times, Washington Post, ReadWriteWeb, and Wired. In 2008, Chris received the Google Open Source Award recognizing his community work on initiatives like microformats. He also co-founded the coworking and BarCamp communities, and is credited with introducing hashtags on Twitter. He currently resides in San Francisco.
Phil Wolff, Managing Editor, Skype Journal
Skypejournal.com
@evanwolff – 2,431 followers
Phil is the editor of Skype Journal and sits on the board and steering committee of DataPortability.org. Phil and others have worked hard to establish new legal frameworks for people using web sites, services, data, and social networks. DataPortability just launched Portabilitypolicy.org, a program that guides you in constructing your own data portability policy for your web site. Don’t have one? Get one!
Marc Davis, Chief Scientist, Invention Arts
InventionArts.com
@marcedavis – 1,139 followers
Marc Davis is Chief Scientist of Invention Arts where he invents mobile, social media, and personal data technologies that connect people, the Web, and the world. With a twenty year career of technology research and development spanning the MIT Media Lab, Interval Research, UC Berkeley, and Yahoo!, Marc has done pioneering research and development in digital video databases and remixing, automated media production, context-aware computing, mobile media metadata, social media, mobile and social advertising, and personal data technologies and applications. He has transformed his ideas into over 150 patent applications, as well as numerous research prototypes, products, and publications.
Drummond Reed, Director, Information Card Foundation
Informationcard.net
@drummondreed – 249 followers
Drummond Reed is Executive Director of the Information Card Foundation and the Open Identity Exchange. He is also co-chair of two OASIS Technical Committees: XRI (Extensible Resource Identifier) and XDI (XRI Data Interchange). He was a founding board member in 1999 of the International Security, Trust, and Privacy Alliance and in 2006 of the OpenID Foundation. He currently serves as a director of DataPortability.org, secretary of XDI.ORG and a steward of Identity Commons. He is also a founder and director of Seattle-based Cordance Corporation. A recipient of the 2002 Digital Identity Pioneer Award from DigitalIDWorld, Drummond blogs on identifiers, identity, and data sharing at www.equalsdrummond.name.
David Boardman, Atigeo xPatterns Product Strategy
Atigeo.com
David Boardman is passionate about building the world’s first true Smart Phone. The phone that will present the right information as soon as it is pulled from a pocket or purse based on preferences, spatial information, social connections, role, and intent. At Atigeo David is responsible for the xPatterns product vision and strategy.
My thanks to Atigeo for asking me to put this panel together. If you want to see it turn into a track next year, please email Dave McComb at Semantic Arts.
