A while back, I wrote about how useful it would be to be able to combine collaborative information and structured data. While Wikis and other collaborative information sources are great, I would argue that they aren’t useful until they can be used in aggregated or statistical form for strategic decision making or automation. Until then, they are too “abstract” to be useful (at least in the mechanical sense of the word).

Recently, ran across DBPedia, an organization that is turning Wikipedia entries into RDF, the language used for the semantic web. DBPedia has actually has downloadable datasets based on Wikipedia that are available today. These are datasets that can be queried with existing tools and linked to other datasets. Wow!

Even if you aren’t a Wikipedia fan, this is really a big step forward for the enterprise. Think about the amount of knowledge that exists in your organization that isn’t captured, but is critical to your operations. It has always been a big pain to try and sit down and do formal knowledge engineering. However, most people are comfortable enough with a Wiki to sit down and start typing. For a small organization this might not be such a big deal, but for a larger enterprise this could provide some very useful information.

The first time your Director or CXO can make a financial decision based exclusively on the information from your company wiki, it will have proved its worth. Until then, it is just another trendy tool. The work that DBPedia is doing is an important step in making this a reality.

I have been working with Google Docs and Sheets lately, in order to avoid the portability problem when working at different machines and locations. While it isn’t as fully featured as Excel, it does just about everything I need it to do, and then some. Plus, it adds in the collaboration features that are almost more useful to an internet-oriented business.

It would be incredibly boring for Google simply to replicate Excel and Word in a web format, unless you are an HTML groupie. However, there are some very, very interesting features that I think really turn the traditional office application on its ear. The first thing that caught my eye was the Google Lookup function, which allows one to incorporate search information dynamically into documents. The second thing was the Google Finance function, which allows financial information to be leveraged as well.  The third thing was the ability to embed portions or entire spreadsheets into a blog or web page.
Very cool stuff, and very interesting results. One could imagine this type of thing being leveraged with Froogle, Maps, or other service, within a document, presentation, or spreadsheet. Low cost, high reward stuff. However, there are some ramifications with using this type of information. For example, the spiffy new spreadsheet you put together for your boss could be modified by outside influences (like a Google Bomb).

Worth a look, at least.

Mitch Ratcliffe writes about Swivel, a Web 2.0 site that combines YouTube with Microsoft Excel. Well, not exactly, but sort of.

It is an interesting idea, where you …

1. Upload your dataset to Swivel.
2. Share your data with other users.
3. Chart your data, making it available on the web.
4. Compare your data with the datasets from other users.

Interested? Here is a reasonable example and a not-so-reasonable example of what Swivel can do.

It was a little bid odd to me, at first. Why would I want to provide my data to a web site so that I could look at it the same way that I can on my own computer? Well, I can think of a couple of reasons …

Some Analysis

First, you can share your data with anyone who wants it. This sharing takes two parts, display and anaysis. You can display your data on the web, for everyone to see. Second, you can combine your data with the data that other people have uploaded and perhaps learn something that you didn’t already know.

Now, sharing might be good, and it might not be, depending on your point of view. An enterprise might want to keep it’s information secret, and that makes sense. However, an interesting thing about most data is that it is subject to the network effect, big time. Two unconnected data points might mean something, but you can’t really be sure. However, a hundred data points indicate a trend or a correlation.

Second, you can use a community to learn more about your own data, as well as your correlations. At the bottom of each page, there is a rating that gives a group evaluation of how related and comments about how useful the comparison actually is.

Overall

A site like this could be useful, especially if there could be a concerted effort to provide good information, such as the census, demographic, and geographic information from the US government. It is still in its very rough stages, and it hard to say how much value will come out of combining disparate data sets. Also, I security, information quality, and analysis will be a huge issue here. Still, an interesting idea.

This month’s Wired has an interesting article about the artist Beck and the release (and re-release) of Guero. Unlike traditional music release cycle, this body of work was released:

a) online as an unfinished mix that was leaked in late 2004; (b) as the official 2005 Interscope CD release, which contained most of the tracks on the leaked version plus a few new songs; (c) as the deluxe CD/DVD edition, complete with seven bonus tracks, a surround sound mix, and interactive video art to accompany every song; (d) in one of the many unauthorized fan mashups floating around the Net; (e) not as Guero at all, but as Guerolito, a commercially released companion piece featuring remixes by Diplo, Adrock, and Boards of Canada.

While I am a fan, you might be wondering why I am writing about Beck here. The thing that captivated me about the article was the way that the artist described his relationship with “the suits” at his label:

Does your label, Interscope, ever balk at your ideas?

Actually they’ve been great about everything. The labels are trying to figure all this stuff out just like everyone else, and I feel fortunate that I’ve been able to do so much experimenting to see what works. I’ve also been lucky because I signed a unique record deal back when I started that allowed me to try out a lot of weird things and even record different types of albums for different labels. I think that set me up nicely for where things are currently headed.

Isn’t all that repackaging just about making ways to sell more product?

I guess that’s part of it, but for me it’s more about giving the music legs, giving people new ways to experience it. There are so many ways to integrate technology into music; I can’t wait to see how the opportunities end up being put to use.

Why This Is Interesting

Recently, I talked about the culture wars that I see over the horizon as demographics begin to take over the workplace. In this context, think about the relationship between Beck and Interscope that I mentioned above. It is a creative partnership between an artist, his audience, and a business that is mutually beneficial. This is the face of innovation, smiling at us from just a bit down the road.