Here on Nodalities we tend to focus upon discussion of the Semantic Web, with an emphasis on the Web bit.

In our writing, as in our coding work inside the company, we remain very conscious that the Linked Data mantra we have taken to heart is part of a broader social, economic and technological picture. The technologies of the Semantic Web stack, too, are just components in a broader toolkit that must be used in building real applications and services that will scale to meet genuine business requirements now and in the future.

Cloud Computing is receiving a lot of press at the moment, doubtless aided by Microsoft’s entry into the space with Azure. Interestingly, it is also possible to detect a shift in the language of Cloud Computing’s enthusiasts that resonates increasingly strongly with some of our own observations. No longer ‘just’ a cheap, responsive and scalable adjunct to the corporate data centre, Cloud Computing services are finally being perceived as key drivers toward the Web of Data; even champions of the old model such as Salesforce now see enabling third party access to corporate data as a core aspect of their value proposition.

In a post here, I’ve tried to explore this in a little more detail. The worlds of Cloud Computing and the Semantic Web are moving closer together, and some fusion of the two appears inevitable.

I’d welcome your thoughts.

In one of those weird coincidences that happen from time to time, Zach was sat at home yesterday writing his last post to this blog at almost exactly the same time that I was holed up in a quiet corner here at Talis, talking to Prof. Hans Rosling.

Hans is required viewing here, and I had a great time talking with him on and off-air about his attitudes toward making data work a whole lot harder.

Have a listen for yourselves, but I reckon there are a striking number of synergies between Hans’ ‘Semantic Web’-free discussion with me, and the issues alluded to in Zach’s post; issues that lie at the heart of the Semantic Web’s future.

Michael Hausenblas (mhausenblas on irc, has blog) works at Joanneum Research in the field of media semantics. But as you can see at a glance his homepage, his interest in, and contributions to the Semantic Web/Web of Data cover a considerably broader scope – especially around linked data (he’s one of the team behind riese, serving statistical data about 500 million Europeans).

Michael’s also an organizer of the upcoming Web of Data Practitioners Days meet-up (Vienna, Austria – Oct 22-23). As one of the aims of the event is to introduce newcomers – webmasters, developers, business folks – to the ideas and applications of the Web of Data, I quizzed Michael mostly from the newcomer point of view.

PS. The podcast audio link itself (as marked up by WordPress) appears to get filtered out by certain aggregators – it’s here: MichaelHausenblas.mp3. Incidentally I also I got a request for a transcript – on listening back I can understand why one might assume such a thing would pre-exist, but there wasn’t actually any preparation (although Michael and I aren’t exactly strangers). I was on sleep-deprived autopilot, firing whatever tricky questions came to mind at Michael, and he volleyed them with remarkable ease.