Pull: The Power of the Semantic Web to Transform Your Business - Hardcover

Siegel, David

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1591842778 ISBN 13: 9781591842774

Publisher: Portfolio Hardcover, 2009

Synopsis

The first clear guide to the Semantic Web and its upcoming impact on the business world

Imagine that, in 1992, someone handed you a book about the future of something called the World Wide Web. This book claimed that through a piece of software called a "browser", which accesses "web sites", the world economy and our daily lives would change forever. Would you have believed even 10 percent of that book? Did you take advantage of the first Internet wave and get ahead of the curve?

Pull is the blueprint to the next disruptive wave. Some call it Web 3.0; others call it the semantic web. It's a fundamental transition from pushing information to pulling, using a new way of thinking and collaborating online. Using the principles of this book, you will slash 5-20 percent off your bottom line, make your customers happier, accelerate your industry, and prepare your company for the twenty-first century. It isn't going to be easy, and you don't have any choice. By 2015, your company will be more agile and your processes more flexible than you ever thought possible.

The semantic web leads to possibilities straight from science fiction, such as buildings that can order their own supplies, eliminating the IRS, and lawyers finally making sense. But it also leads to major changes in every field, from shipping and retail distribution to health care and financial reporting.

Through clear examples, case studies, principles, and scenarios, business strategist David Siegel takes you on a tour of this new world. You'll learn:

-Which industries are already ahead.
-Which industries are already dead.
-How to make the power shift from pushing to pulling information.
-How software, hardware, media, and marketing will all change.
-How to plan your own strategy for embracing the semantic web.

We are at the beginning of a new technology curve that will affect all areas of business. Right now, you have a choice. You can decide to start preparing for the exciting opportunities that lay ahead or you can leave this book on the shelf and get left in the dust like last time.

About this title

About the Author

David Siegel, is an entrepreneur and public speaker who has been writing and lecturing about the Internet and the semantic web since 1995. He started blogging in 1994, before the term was invented, and built some of the Internet's first sites. He is an active angel investor and advisor to startups and large corporations. He is the author of the bestselling Creating Killer Websites and Futurize Your Enterprise. He lives in New York City.

Reviews

According to Siegel (Futurize Your Enterprise), the semantic web, a more standardized version of today's Web where our data will be so precisely parsed as to make logical conclusions possible, will enable our online information to be stored in a personal online locker from birth, keeping all vital information such as addresses automatically updated and vastly streamlining how we do business. He posits that the semantic web will morph our current push oriented strategy, in which providers push products and services, to an individually customized pull economy. Using bowling as an example, Siegel explains that in the past, a bowler scored every game by hand; in the mid-1980s, many bowling alleys moved to pin-setting machines tied to computers that automatically calculated and displayed scores (pushing); in the future, he predicts, a bowler will enter any venue, bowl (possibly against players in other venues worldwide) and all the data will be collected and housed in a personal online locker along with statistics of past games (pulling). This thought-provoking read is sure to spark ideas about what it will take to succeed in tomorrow's marketplace. (Dec.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Siegel was an early proponent of the Internet and started blogging in 1994, before the term was invented. He built some of the first Web sites and has been writing and lecturing about the Web since 1997. Always ahead of the curve, Siegel envisions the future of “smart computing” which will unfold over the next 10 years, where your data “follows you around” and is accessible from anywhere through the Web, predicting that hardware and operating systems will become obsolete as the Web itself becomes the computer. We’re already seeing a move in this direction with cell-phone data and the introduction of the Netbook; “smart chips” embedded in products now allow for more efficient tracking from manufacturing to distribution and retail. Next, these smart chips will be able to relay data to customers and repair facilities about part numbers, manufacturing date of the product, and much more. Some of the trends Siegel portends have a bit of a “future shock” quality to them, but he seems to want to shrug off the anxieties and focus instead on the possibilities. --David Siegfried

Edition details

• Publisher: Portfolio Hardcover
• Publication date: 2009
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1591842778
• ISBN 13: 9781591842774
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288