October 13, 2010 – With the term “ontology” being heard more often in data management forums and discussions, it is no surprise to see it as the topic of Malcolm Chisholm’s latest post on Expert Channel. Despite the frequency of the term’s use, it is not easy to find out precisely what it means and what significance it might have for the data management community. Is it just a buzzword for marketing purposes or is it real?

Malcolm Chisholm, Ph.D., has over 25 years of experience in enterprise information management and has worked in a wide range of sectors. To get some answers to this and other questions, he interviewed someone who is relying heavily on ontology—Felix Van de Maele, CEO of the semantic start-up Collibra. This interesting article was found on BeyeNETWORK in their article, “The Rise of Ontology: A Conversation with Felix Van de Maele.” Take time to read this interesting interview, but remember that for effective taxonomy development, you need a professional with extensive experience in helping clients generate ANSI/ISO/W3C-compliant taxonomies.

Melody K. Smith

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