Knowledge Graph Insights

Mara Inglezakis Owens, an enterprise architect at Delta Air Lines, blends her humanities background with digital anthropology to shape user-focused architecture. She discusses how mentoring shaped her approach and emphasizes the need for understanding actual stakeholder behaviors over self-reports. Mara also shares insights on justifying financial investments in her work, the significance of documentation in knowledge engineering, and lessons learned about embracing imperfection in digital systems design. Her human-centered focus exemplifies the evolution of enterprise architecture in modern businesses.

Frank van Harmelen, a leading AI professor at Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam, discusses the integration of human and machine intelligence. He emphasizes the importance of hybrid collaboration, advocating for AI systems that enhance rather than replace human capabilities. Topics include the emergence of neuro-symbolic systems, the evolution of conversational interfaces, and the challenges of managing interdisciplinary research teams. He also highlights innovative applications of AI in healthcare and the need for a shared worldview to foster effective collaboration.

Join Denny Vrandečić, Head of Special Projects at the Wikimedia Foundation and founder of Wikidata, as he discusses the groundbreaking Abstract Wikipedia initiative. He shares insights on how it aims to democratize knowledge sharing by allowing contributions in any language. Denny reflects on his journey from the creation of Wikidata to exploring how Abstract Wikipedia can enhance multilingual knowledge accessibility. He also dives into the potential of community collaboration and the use of language models to create structured knowledge representations.

Charles Ivie, a Senior Graph Architect at Amazon Web Services with over 15 years in the knowledge graph community, debunks the myth that the semantic web has failed. He argues it's a 'catastrophically successful failure' with over half of the web utilizing RDF annotations. The discussion explores how RDF serves as a Rosetta Stone for knowledge representation, enabling better communication and innovative solutions. Ivie emphasizes the importance of domain-specific ontologies and the growing adoption of knowledge graphs in enterprises, showcasing their transformative potential.

Andrea Gioia In recent years, data products have emerged as a solution to the enterprise problem of siloed data and knowledge. Andrea Gioia helps his clients build composable, reusable data products so they can capitalize on the value in their data assets. Built around collaboratively developed ontologies, these data products evolve into something that might also be called a knowledge product. We talked about: his work as CTO at Quantyca, a data and metadata management consultancy his description of data products and their lifecycle how the lack of reusability in most data products inspired his current approach to modular, composable data products - and brought him into the world of ontology how focusing on specific data assets facilitates the creation of reusable data products his take on the role of data as a valuable enterprise asset how he accounts for technical metadata and conceptual metadata in his modeling work his preference for a federated model in the development of enterprise ontologies the evolution of his data architecture thinking from a central-governance model to a federated model the importance of including the right variety business stakeholders in the design of the ontology for a knowledge product his observation that semantic model is mostly about people, and working with them to come to agreements about how they each see their domain Andrea's bio Andrea Gioia is a Partner and CTO at Quantyca, a consulting company specializing in data management. He is also a co-founder of blindata.io, a SaaS platform focused on data governance and compliance. With over two decades of experience in the field, Andrea has led cross-functional teams in the successful execution of complex data projects across diverse market sectors, ranging from banking and utilities to retail and industry. In his current role as CTO at Quantyca, Andrea primarily focuses on advisory, helping clients define and execute their data strategy with a strong emphasis on organizational and change management issues. Actively involved in the data community, Andrea is a regular speaker, writer, and author of 'Managing Data as a Product'. Currently, he is the main organizer of the Data Engineering Italian Meetup and leads the Open Data Mesh Initiative. Within this initiative, Andrea has published the data product descriptor open specification and is guiding the development of the open-source ODM Platform to support the automation of the data product lifecycle. Andrea is an active member of DAMA and, since 2023, has been part of the scientific committee of the DAMA Italian Chapter. Connect with Andrea online LinkedIn (#TheDataJoy) Github Video Here’s the video version of our conversation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g34K_kJGZMc Podcast intro transcript This is the Knowledge Graph Insights podcast, episode number 30. In the world of enterprise architectures, data products are emerging as a solution to the problem of siloed data and knowledge. As a data and metadata management consultant, Andrea Gioia helps his clients realize the value in their data assets by assembling them into composable, reusable data products. Built around collaboratively developed ontologies, these data products evolve into something that might also be called a knowledge product. Interview transcript Larry: Hi, everyone. Welcome to episode number 30 of the Knowledge Graph Insights podcast. I'm really happy today to welcome to the show Andrea Gioia. Andrea's, he does a lot of stuff. He's a busy guy. He's a partner and the chief technical officer at Quantyca, a consulting firm that works on data and metadata management. He's the founder of Blindata, a SaaS product that goes with his consultancy. I let him talk a little bit more about that. He's the author of the book Managing Data as a Product, and he's also, he comes out of the data heritage but he's now one of these knowledge people like us.

Dave McComb During the course of his 25-year consulting career, Dave McComb has discovered both a foundational problem in enterprise architectures and the solution to it. The problem lies in application-focused software engineering that results in an inefficient explosion of redundant solutions that draw on overlapping data sources. The solution that Dave has introduced is a data-centric architecture approach that treats data like the precious business asset that it is. We talked about: his work as the CEO of Semantic Arts, a prominent semantic technology and knowledge graph consultancy based in the US the application-centric quagmire that most modern enterprises find themselves trapped in data centricity, the antidote to application centricity his early work in semantic modeling how the discovery of the "core model" in an enterprise facilitates modeling and building data-centric enterprise systems the importance of "baby step" approaches and working with actual customer data in enterprise data projects how building to "enduring business themes" rather than to the needs of individual applications creates a more solid foundation for enterprise architectures his current interest in developing a semantic model for the accounting field, drawing on his history in the field and on Semantic Arts' gist upper ontology the importance of the concept of a "commitment" in an accounting model how his approach to financial modeling permits near-real-time reporting his Data-Centric Architecture Forum, a practitioner-focused event held each June in Ft. Collins, Colorado Dave's bio Dave McComb is the CEO of Semantic Arts. In 2000 he co-founded Semantic Arts with the aim of bringing semantic technology to Enterprises. From 2000- 2010 Semantic Arts focused on ways to improve enterprise architecture through ontology modeling and design. Around 2010 Semantic Arts began helping clients more directly with implementation, which led to the use of Knowledge Graphs in Enterprises. Semantic Arts has conducted over 100 successful projects with a number of well know firms including Morgan Stanley, Electronic Arts, Amgen, Standard & Poors, Schneider-Electric, MD Anderson, the International Monetary Fund, Procter & Gamble, Goldman Sachs as well as a number of government agencies. Dave is the author of Semantics in Business Systems (2003), which made the case for using Semantics to improve the design of information systems, Software Wasteland (2018) which points out how application-centric thinking has led to the deplorable state of enterprise systems and The Data-Centric Revolution (2019) which outlines a alternative to the application-centric quagmire. Prior to founding Semantic Arts he was VP of Engineering for Velocity Healthcare, a dot com startup that pioneered the model driven approach to software development. He was granted three patents on the architecture developed at Velocity. Prior to that he was with a small consulting firm: First Principles Consulting. Prior to that he was part of the problem. Connect with Dave online LinkedIn email: mccomb at semanticarts dot com Semantic Arts Resources mentioned in this interview Dave's books: The Data-Centric Revolution: Restoring Sanity to Enterprise Information Systems Software Wasteland: How the Application-Centric Quagmire is Hobbling Our Enterprises Semantics in Business Systems: The Savvy Manager's Guide gist ontology Data-Centric Architecture Forum Video Here’s the video version of our conversation: https://youtu.be/X_hZG7cFOCE Podcast intro transcript This is the Knowledge Graph Insights podcast, episode number 29. Every modern enterprise wrestles with its data, trying to get the most out of it. The smartest businesses have figured out that it isn't just "the new oil" - data is the very bedrock of their enterprise architecture. For the past 25 years, Dave McComb has helped companies understand the...

Ole Olesen-Bagneux, a globally recognized authority in metadata management and Chief Evangelist at Actian, discusses the concept of the Meta Grid—a framework that simplifies enterprise metadata management. He explains that metadata exists everywhere in an organization and outlines how the Meta Grid can connect this scattered data. Ole compares the Meta Grid to complex architectures like microservices and Data Mesh, emphasizing its practicality. He also shares insights about his forthcoming book, advocating for a collaborative approach to effective data management.

Andrea Volpini Your organization's brand is what people say about you after you've left the room. It's the memories you create that determine how people think about you later. Andrea Volpini says that the same dynamic applies in marketing to AI systems. Modern brand managers, he argues, need to understand how both human and machine memory work and then use that knowledge to create digital memories that align with how AI systems understand the world. We talked about: his work as CEO at WordLift, a company that builds knowledge graphs to help companies automate SEO and other marketing activities a recent experiment he did during a talk at an AI conference that illustrates the ability of applications like Grok and ChatGPT to build and share information in real time the role of memory in marketing to current AI architectures his discovery of how the agentic approach he was taking to automating marketing tasks was actually creating valuable context for AI systems the mechanisms of memory in AI systems and an analogy to human short- and long-term memory the similarities he sees in how the human neocortex forms memories and how the knowledge about memory is represented in AI systems his practice of representing entities as both triples and vectors in his knowledge graph how he leverages his understanding of the differences in AI models in his work the different types of memory frameworks to account for in both the consumption and creation of AI systems: semantic, episodic, and procedural his new way of thinking about marketing: as a memory-creation process the shift in focus that he thinks marketers need to make, "creating good memories for AI in order to protect their brand values" Andrea's bio Andrea Volpini is the CEO of WordLift and co-founder of Insideout10. With 25 years of experience in semantic web technologies, SEO, and artificial intelligence, he specializes in marketing strategies. He is a regular speaker at international conferences, including SXSW, TNW Conference, BrightonSEO, The Knowledge Graph Conference, G50, Connected Data and AI Festival. Andrea has contributed to industry publications, including the Web Almanac by HTTP Archive. In 2013, he co-founded RedLink GmbH, a commercial spin-off focused on semantic content enrichment, natural language processing, and information extraction. Connect with Andrea online LinkedIn X Bluesky WordLift Video Here’s the video version of our conversation: https://youtu.be/do-Y7w47CZc Podcast intro transcript This is the Knowledge Graph Insights podcast, episode number 27. Some experts describe the marketing concept of branding as, What people say about you after you’ve left the room. It's the memories they form of your company that define your brand. Andrea Volpini sees this same dynamic unfolding as companies turn their attention to AI. To build a memorable brand online, modern marketers need to understand how both human and machine memory work and then focus on creating memories that align with how AI systems understand the world. Interview transcript Larry: Hi, everyone. Welcome to episode number 27 of the Knowledge Graph Insights podcast. I am really delighted today to welcome to the show Andrea Volpini. Andrea is the CEO and the founder at WordLift, a company based in Rome. Tell the folks a little bit more about WordLift and what you're up to these days, Andrea. Andrea: Yep. So we build knowledge graphs and to help brands automate their SEO and marketing efforts using large language model and AI in general. Larry: Nice. Yeah, and you're pretty good at this. You've been doing this a while and you had a recent success story, I think that shows, that really highlights some of your current interests in your current work. Tell me about your talk in Milan and the little demonstration you did with that. Andrea: Yeah, yeah, so it was last week at AI Festival,

Jacobus Geluk, CEO of agnos.ai and a leading figure in GraphAI, shares his expertise rooted in over 20 years in data management. He discusses the urgent need for standards in the data-product marketplace, emphasizing the DPROD specification he developed. Geluk illustrates how 'use-case trees' bridge the gap between technical capabilities and business needs, enhancing LLM-driven architectures. He highlights issues of compliance and governance for AI agents while advocating for a strong connection between knowledge graphs and emerging AI technologies.

Rebecca Schneider, Co-founder of AvenueCX, dives into the intersection of library science and modern content strategy. She uncovers how traditional skills like taxonomy and metadata are invaluable in today’s AI landscape. Schneider stresses the importance of user-centered approaches in organizing information while discussing how structured content enhances both human and AI discovery. She highlights the synergy between domain modeling and content strategy, advocating for a tech-agnostic approach in navigating the complexities of knowledge graphs and efficient content management.