There is a sign up schedule for this event:

http://www

.cs.utexas.edu/department/webevent/utcs/events/cgi/eidshow.cgi?person=TomHe

ath

Type of Talk:  UTCS Colloquium

Speaker/Affiliation:

Tom Heath/Talis Information Ltd.

Date/Time:  Thursday, Februar

y 12, 2009  2:00 p.m.

Location:  ACES 2.402

Host:&

nbsp; Daniel Miranker

Talk Title:  "Linking Distributed

Data across the Web"

Talk Abstract:

The Web significantly
lowers the barriers to publishing and disseminating information. The abili

ty to connect related documents has enabled the evolution of a global infor

mation space, with profound repercussions for society. In this talk I will
describe how the principles and technologies of the Web are now being used
by a growing
number of companies, universities and individuals to li

nk not just distributed documents, but also distributed data. I will set t

he concept of Linked Data in the broader context of the Web, outline its k

ey principles, and describe some of the applications being built on this b

urgeoning Web of Data. The talk will conclude with an introduction to some

of the outstanding research challenges in the field of Linked Data, such a

s algorithms for automatically linking related items and interfaces for int

eracting with distributed and heterogeneous data.

Speaker Bio:

Tom is a Researcher in the Platform Division at Talis, a UK-based softwar

e company and global leader in the research, development and application o

f Semantic Web technologies. At Talis he leads research into recommender sy

stems, collective intelligence and user interaction in a Linked Data/Seman

tic Web context. Tom has a first degree in Psychology from the University o

f Liverpool and a PhD in Computer Science from The Open University''s Knowl

edge Media Institute. His doctoral research examined how a richer understan

ding of trust decisions in word of mouth recommendation can be combined wit

h Semantic Web technologies and social networks to improve information-seek

ing processes on the Web. In the course of his PhD Tom created the Linked D

ata reviewing and rating site Revyu.com, winner of the 2007 Semantic Web C

hallenge at the International Semantic Web Conference. He has been active i

n the Linked Data community since its inception in early 2007. In 2009 he w

ill co-chair the Semantic Web In Use tracks at the European and Internation

al Semantic Web conferences and the 2nd International Workshop on Linked Da

ta on the
Web at WWW2009.