The phrase sounds intriguing: the semantic Web. But really it just means an online world in which everything is consistently tagged so that it can be better sorted, arranged, linked, related and presented.
I missed the first part of this, in which a Thompson-Reuters exec unveiled the company's new Calais content integration program, a tagging initiative it's offering free for most users. I need to do more research on what this is, but it didn't sound like something we'd be needing and we'll never use Reuters as much as we use AP.
But I was extremely impressed with the other product discussed, Apture, which was the creation of this innovative software engineer Tristan Harris. This very cool application inserts just a line of code in a story page. But that line of code enables a non-techy user to very easily embed links to definitions, more information, documents, photos, audio, video, a PowerPoint, what have you, inside the text of the story, displayed by a small icon in the text.
Unlike a link in a sidebar, which then opens up a separate full window, this app opens up a small pop-up window that you could use to, in his example, tell readers more about the bonobo chimpanzee with an encyclopedia entry; or add a video from YouTube showing downtown Rangoon to a story about Burma.
It's really great for maps but could be used to add just about any context or auxiliary material in an extremely easy-to-use interface. This keeps people on your site rather than sending them elsewhere for more information.
It's set up to search a wide range of video sites. It lives on the company's servers and really serves as a second CMS in tying together related material and embedding it in stories.
The best part: It's largely free. You pay for it by sharing revenue from an ad you'd sell on the pop-ups.
We have to get this. It's very, very cool.
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