Submitted by: Lambda on 31 May 2010
Comments: 0
Monday May 17 was a big day for Belgian Semanticians. Can you say big ‘evening’? In the early evening more than 20 people passionate about Semantic Web Technologies gathered at our offices. They chatted, they talked, they presented their latest work and exchanged thoughts. They got to know each other, outside the web 2.0. And they had a fresh Stella, as it was a Belgian meetup after all!
A what… a ‘meetup’?
A meetup is something more embodied than a meeting and somewhat less formal than a seminar. It’s an informal gathering of people interested in a common topic. Like beer in Brussels. Or hypnosis in Tokyo. Or Semantic Technology in the Benelux, of course!
You should have a look at meetup.com. See what crazy things people ‘meet up’ about. Or go straight to the most interesting one: www.meetup.com/Semantic-Technology-Benelux and feel free to join!
Why?
We want to push Semantic Technology forward. Push it over the Gartner curve hill, really. Simply because we believe it can bring solutions. Solutions to problems we have been struggling with for all too long. Take system integration for example. System integration is not only IT’s most expensive aspect, it is also the activity with the highest associated risk. Or as Stephen Lahanas puts it in his blog: we’re not talking about some Buck Rodgers new application that seems to think for us – we’re talking about how we solve the number 1 problem in IT today. And solve it now.
A meetup is a nice way to push things forward. You bring together all forces, only the strong ones will take the effort to attend. And we’ve known it for a long time, ‘Union is Strength!’ There, we said it…
How was it?
We didn’t make too much noise, just some LinkedIn posts and emailing around. So we were quite pleasantly surprised to welcome more than 20 people!
Five of them had a short talk on what they are doing:
PAUL HERMANS – Made you an offer you can’t refuse?
ELENA TSIPORKOVA (Sirris) – Standing on the shoulders of giants: Semantic research at Sirris
Paul Hermans – a gifted speaker when it comes to Semantics
At TenForce we’ve known for a long time that not all that shines is gold, and so it wasn’t merely a good-news show on the evening of the meetup. We heard some critical voices as well, but that is exactly what you need if you want to proceed pragmatically. Know the pitfalls, keep a clear view on what is realistic.
Join a Semantic Web Meetup!
The next Semantic Technology Benelux meetup will be in Amsterdam on the evening of Tuesday June 29, do feel free to come if you’re around! Stay informed about dates and locations at our Semantic Technology Benelux page. Registering can be done on this page or by sending me a short email.
Not exactly close to Brussels or Amsterdam? Find the meetup closest to you by clicking on the map...
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Thanks for the post. I saw my day-by-day in a lot of sentences. We always need to get better on this way.
For sure TenForce has a lot of benefits. The greatest one is that it helps to save time!