Internet Alchemy

We’re looking for Senior Developers in our platform division

I added a few new blogs to my Talisians aggregator. Say hi to Rhys Wilkins, Karen Reece, Tim Hodson, Simon Burrows and John Hardy.

Last Friday I gave a presentation on the Talis Platform to the SWIG meeting, kindly hosted by HP Labs Bristol. I’ve posted the slides up at our n² developer community site. They’re not much to look at but I wrote them to be informative rather than suggestive. Although I love seeing beautifully spare presentations being given, they frustrate me when I want to go back and see what the speaker said and find a picture of a butterfly on a flower

Nad’s written a good summary over on his blog and managed to capture the questions I was asked at the end too, which is nice to see after the event. The whole day was brilliant with lots of chances to natter and catch up with everyone. I met lots of new people too and everyone seemed to be doing something interesting. I even managed to harangue Stuart Williams off of the W3C TAG on my recent Web architecture posts. Andy said about 50 people were attending despite there being no marketing of the event at all which is a good indicator of the rising popularity of the Semantic Web. Talis are planning to host a SWIG meeting like this in the middle of next year – hopefully we can get more people from the Midlands interested.

There were plenty of other cool presentations on the day too. Nad and Rob were blogging but couldn’t post them live for some reason so check out their sites and Nodalities too in the coming days. I particularly enjoyed Leigh’s talk on Facet, another templating framework for RDF, this time in bog-standard Java allowing the use of JSP and/or Velocity; Richard’s talk on Sindice (which I didn’t get to see at ISWC and for us ignorant Brits is pronounced “sin-dee-chee”); and Graham’s talk on image publication. All great stuff!

I’m attending the Talis Insight conference, our bi-annual conference for our Library and Education sector customers. It’s a two day event and a phenomenal undertaking for a company the size of Talis. I’m sure that companies ten times our size would struggle to put on an event of this quality. Every detail seems just right, even the fact that the name badges are double sided so that when they inevitably turn over you can still see who you’re talking to!

It’s great to attend an event as an insider and, because I’m not presenting this year, I have some headspace to observe, talk to and think about the participants. My over-arching impression is that there’s a buzz about the place and a sense that Talis are delivering on what we said we’d do. And people are engaged with the Web 2.0 ideas of social participation via blogs, wikis, social networks and instant messaging. Three years ago Talis were regarded as somewhat delusional that this Web 2.0 thing would have any significance for libraries but we stuck to our convictions and kept on with the Web 2.0 and Library 2.0 themes. Now we have people attending the conference purely to find out how Web 2.0 ideas can be used in reader development or information literacy and speakers like Euan Semple keynoting. Of course we think that the principles of Web 2.0 are here to stay. It’s arrived but it’s only one stop on the journey. We’re looking to the next wave: call it Web 3.0, Semantic Web, Semantic Wave or the Semantic Edge. The precise name we agree on as a community doesn’t matter, it’s the underlying changes that do. It’s the introduction of richer semantics and metadata into and around content, the interpretation of that and, most importantly, the art of making that usable by the ordinary person on the street. When it arrives it is going to have huge social, economic and technical impacts in the same way that the orginal Web did as did the recent wave of social participation we label Web 2.0. And of course, Talis are going to be there to coax, evangelise and persuade the industry to face these changes. It’s still very early days, but there are exciting times ahead!

Blog coverage over at Panlibus naturally and Overdue Ideas (good to see someone blogging us in the depth we blog other people)

A few special guests turned up. I was lucky enough to grab some shots:

And finally a word from our sponsor. I asked him what he thought of all the people who had put so much effort into recreating the worst fashions of the past 100 years:

“Crackers!”

We were entertained by a great band that did a fantastic job of covering the best of the seventies, even dipping into the eighties for a bit when they exhausted all the good stuff from the decade fashion forgot. However, at midnight, the band we’d all been waiting for took the stage: our very own Talis house band! These pictures are a little low on light, but then it was a dark and moody set.

Here they are setting up:

The lead singer kept dashing offstage for, what we suspect, was special “musician’s refreshment”

Finally back together:

Terry Willan on rhythm guitar:

Dave Whitehouse on lead guitar:

Dave Robinson on bass and vocals:

Ian Malpass on vocals:

And finally, a rare treat: a never-before heard recording of this elusive band!

(If you’re reading this via the RSS feed, the videos might not show up, so open this page in your web browser)

We had a bunch of party games at the Ball. My favourite was the surfing, a test of nerve, balance and sheer stupidity. Luke led the way with a massive one minute and 22 seconds!

Dan, for all his posturing, fell short of the mark:

Ken was subjected to a ferocious shark attack:

A valiant effort from Lee:

Take those boots off Malcolm!

It’s all in the technique:

As these photos show anyone can surf, even if you’re dressed like a gay biker!

Or a pimp!

Evangelists too:

They come in pairs!

It’s trickier than it looks, see that concentration:

Some are just naturals:

I took more videos but the light was so poor that it’s hard to recognise anyone!

I’ll let these pass without comment…

The theme was the 70’s in the Carribbean so we got an eclectic mix of custumes. We had Saturday night fever…

…Leo Sayer…

…pimps…

…hippies…

…and dancing queens!

Even our esteemed CEO got into the spirit…

…down to the last detail…

Yes, and me too…

Just packing a bag for tonight’s Talis party. This is our annual staff and friends event and an opportunity to let our hair down. This year especially because the theme is the 70’s in the Caribbean!! No, I’m not entirely sure what that means either. But everyone has been busy pulling together costumes by scouring ebay, charity shops and raiding parents’ wardrobes. I’m taking my camera…!