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Home / Sessions / Semiotics of Knowledge Graphs: Fixing Meaning in an Unfixed World

Semiotics of Knowledge Graphs: Fixing Meaning in an Unfixed World

IAC 2020

Time(s)

April 10, 2020

Description

Knowledge Graphs are very hot in the information world right now; when articles from this fairly esoteric space in the information industry show up in Forbes and the Wall Street Journal, something is clearly afoot.

Why is this? How do Knowledge Graphs purport to help us (and, apparently, large corporations) make sense of things?

Naturally, this requires some firming up of definitions: What is a Knowledge Graph? Is it an ontology? A specific kind of ontology, with specific features? Or an ontology with a specific purpose? Or: Does a Knowledge Graph have to include Linked Data? Or: Does it have to be query-able?

Having sussed out some of these taxonomic outlines, it is then time to ask: how do Knowledge Graphs (or their advocates) purport to help with sense-making?

Key takeaways from the session:

  • What are Knowledge Graphs? And what are they useful — and not useful — for?
  • Can we really model the sum of human understanding using Knowledge Graphs? (Because that would be cool!)
  • Well, no.
  • But we *can* do lots of useful sense-making using this set of technologies and techniques, including (importantly) pointing (electronically) to sense already made by others.

About the speakers

Bob Kasenchak
Bob Kasenchak

Bob is an information architect at Factor. As taxonomist and ontologist with an interest in knowledge graphs and Linked Data, he has worked for over a decade building and implementing taxonomy projects for publishing, enterprise, technology, and e-commerce clients. He brings experience with information modeling and semantic software to client-focused metadata and vocabulary projects.

A frequent writer and presenter on semantic topics in conferences and journals, Bob’s current research interests include ontologies, knowledge graphs, and text classification. Still active teaching and playing music, Bob has been a member of the local ensemble Gamelan Encantada for the past several years. He lives in Albuquerque with his wife.

Sponsor IAC

We’re looking for organizations who share our commitment to building and sustaining programs that drive a more inclusive industry. Learn more on the Sponsor IAC23 page or contact us directly at info@theiaconference.com for more information.

Thanks to this year’s sponsors!

Logo for sponsor Optimal Workshop
Platinum sponsor
Optimal Workshop
Logo for sponsor Factor Firm
Gold sponsor
Factor Firm
Logo for sponsor Last Call Media
Silver sponsor
Last Call Media
Logo for sponsor Design for Context
Scholarship sponsor
Design for Context

Logo for sponsor A Book Apart
In-Kind sponsor
A Book Apart
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In-Kind sponsor
Balsamiq
Logo for sponsor MURAL
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MURAL
Logo for sponsor Rosenfeld Media
In-Kind sponsor
Rosenfeld Media
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Community sponsor
UX Camp DC
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Community sponsor
World IA Day

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