… and jogging is significantly reducing intelligence …and information really helps our customers.
I just went through a speech, which Neil Postman held back in 1990, where he cited people from even 50 more years back in time. And I find it hard to refute his central claims, including: “Information is not part of the solution, but instead creates new sorts of problems”.
A bigger part of the Netherlands is located under sea level, which gives me the association of living in a submarine. But this does not imply that the Dutch are hiding from anything, quite on the contrary!
Exquisite research is taking place here, which was very well illustrated during our LOD2 plenary meeting end of March in Amsterdam; after last year’s plenaries in Vienna and Cambridge.
Last summer, I was sitting in an impressive hall with thick walls and a gothic style ceiling in a European capital, which made me feel as if I was able to touch the centuries and traditions all around me. Read further >
The use of quantitative prediction continues to shake up numerous professional services industries by automating or semi-automating tasks previously performed by experts. Professor Daniel Katz (Michigan State University) has offered up an analysis of how quantitative prediction is already changing the legal services industry (Quantitative Legal Prediction – or – How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Start Preparing for the Data Driven Future of the Legal Services Industry, 62 Emory Law Journal ___ (2013) (working draft)). Although Katz’s analysis focuses on legal services, the trends discussed can be applied to other professional service industries, including tax planning and accounting services. Quantitative prediction promises to automate or semi-automate many core questions asked by professionals and their clients: Do I have a case? What is our likely exposure? How much is this going to cost? Are these documents relevant? What will happen if we leave this particular provision out of this contract? How can we best staff this particular legal matter? Read further >
I am not really sure, if this is a correct English sentence, but abbreviations show that meaning and semantics indeed have a lot to tell us. Looking at Wikipedia, you will find that “ISWC” has four different meanings – and I am pretty sure that there are even more around the globe. One is: “International Symposium on Wearable Computers”. There are also others, which are as meaningful like: “International Speed Windsurfing Class” or “International Semantic Web Conference”; the latter I will talk about today.
During this year’s Wolters Kluwer Technology Conference, we will present and discuss an important aspect of the change process the company as a whole is currently experiencing.
In addition to offering customers our content as textual information in any form and channel available, we more and more offer them knowledge as well. And the importance of this asset will be boosted in the coming years, due to new user requirements and new technologies coming from the market.
Companies continue to be excited about the possibilities of big data, including how data on their customers might reveal new patterns and insights. Although a lot of attention has focused on the benefits of big data, less attention has been paid to the new ethical complications big data presents. An upcoming book, Ethics of Big Data: Balancing Risk and Innovation (O’Reilly), will attempt to address these ethical issues. Howard Wen at O’Reilly Radar does a good job of highlighting some of the most prominent ethical issues which the book is expected to cover. The primary ethical issues involve the privacy expectations of those from whom the data is collected. Read further >
Last week, more than 300 experts and executives from German publishing houses met in Berlin near the famous Brandenburg Gate in order to talk about the current situation and the challenges within the publishing industry in Germany.
The conference widened the scope this year and invited quite a number of speakers from the US, Canada and the UK, which was very fruitful for the discussions going on.
I think that three different areas were in the center of the presentations and workshops:
During our regular LOD2 plenary meeting in Vienna, which was by the way very intense and enlightening, I had the privilege to join a workshop on Open Data and the OGD Business Day in the evening.
Big business as well as a killer application for Open Data are not yet there, but companies like Wolters Kluwer can and probably will play an important role in this new ecosystem. Why? Because the assets we already have are the assets that are needed: knowledge about content and data, knowlegde about the domain, sophisticated technological skills and direct access to the customers with elaborated products at the core of their professional key processes.
A quiet sunday morning, I’m channel surfing on my big screen when I come across an enticing teaser on the Wolters Kluwer Channel. I carrousel through the Health and Tax panels and select Legal. I start reading the news articles and a particular phrase intrigues me. I spread my arms to zoom in and make a left to right swiping gesture in the air to select it… Read further >
