UsabilityNJ
The New Jersey UPA Chapter

Special Seminar on the Semantic Web – December 1, 2007

UsabilityNJ, New Jersey Manufacturers Insurance Company, and PhillyCHI will be hosting a special seminar on Saturday, December 1, 2007 at the New Jersey Manufacturers Insurance Company in West Trenton, NJ.

Registration for the seminar is limited to 25 participants on a first come first served basis.

Seminar Description

A one-day clinic looking at new interaction concepts and capabilities arising from Semantic Web research, including a "guided tour" demonstrating existing sites that illustrate the opportunities, issues, and implications for people who actually use the Semantic Web. What makes this clinic most valuable is that the afternoon is dedicated to discussing your projects and sites, to identify where simple design/implementation opportunities may exist now.

Are you being asked to get involved in Semantic Web projects? Or are you involved in exploratory discussions, where everyone is seeking to identify the value? Just curious?

For many of us, we hear about the Semantic Web in three ways: the excited, "golden future of the web" vision in popular articles and sites, the pessimistic "it will never happen" critiques, and the very complex technical information in the academic journals. You may be surprised to discover that you can use Semantic Web techniques and technologies now - and it's both practical and useful.

We will take a task-based approach to exploring the subject. We will cover:

• Navigating information sites and distributed collections
• Creating and sharing information
• Interacting using natural language
• Identifying terminology to optimize search and navigation
• Managing/creating vocabulary and relationships
• Personal and social issues: provenance, transparency, shared data and privacy

While the Semantic Web presents opportunities, it also presents challenges for user interaction. Throughout the day, we will raise these challenges and discuss what concepts from user-centered design and usability could help address them.

There is a rapidly growing community of Semantic Web researchers who are dedicated to user interaction. More information and usable code is becoming available all the time. 2006 was a turning point, when User Interaction became part of the W3C's architectural concept for the Semantic Web. The subject has gained an active presence at Semantic Web technical conferences, and there will be a workshop at CHI 2008. Many Semantic Web projects are also integrating elements of Rich Internet Applications and Web 2.0, so it will become a greater part of the fabric of the web over the next few years.

Note: The December 1st seminar is a special preview of a new one day clinic. It is provided free, in return for feedback on how it can be refined and improved.

Seminar Presenter