Keeping the technology in the background

May 15, 2008

Companies, especially those with an advanced technology infrastructure, often struggle with this question. Should we push our applications or the underlying technology. That’s one of the questions that Paul Miller takes on in a summary of a panel on commercializing the semantic web. The following section summarizes my own feelings

Neither users nor investors are particularly interested in being pitched with ‘the Semantic Web’ or ‘RDF’ or ‘triples’; they want applications and solutions. The fact that the Semantic Web is at work behind the scenes to make those applications and solutions ‘better’, cheaper, more scalable or whatever is clearly important, but shouldn’t be the opening gambit in conversation.

If you don’t understand the applications you are always leaving yourself open to the “so what” question. This philosophy is not exclusive to the Semantic Web, but in cases where the technology gets overhyped, you have to be even more cautious. However, depending on your audience, don’t forget the technology either, especially if that is your core competency, just remember that technology solves problems and without a problem the coolest tech is not worth much.

Technorati Tags: Semantic Web, Commercialization