Comments on: Law and the Semantic Web

By: Christian Barr

Christian Barr — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 22:15:03 +0000

Metatomix, as a semantic integration software provider, has taken a simple approach to the use of the "semantic web." Rather than recreating enterprise data as RDF, and then running it through application logic, we take the approach of combining real-time RDF transformation with a real-time business rules engine. Metatomix Policies (ontology-described rules), then, enable business event driven applications to quickly and easily integrate data through its context, for the purpose of creating dynamic insights and alerts. This is in fact how we've applied semantic technologies in the Justice and Public Safety space in states like Florida, Georgia, Ohio, as mentioned in the comment above.

While this doesn't achieve the objectives Joel writes about above, with respect to contextual tagging of legal documents, it does deliver real results in the criminal justice environment.

Great insights however, to where the broader legal industry can go with more powerful tools leveraging ontologies and RDF.

By: R. Mullen

R. Mullen — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 22:54:00 +0000

Thank you for this fantastic post! This is an area in which my company (Legal Data Services) is actively working, but taking it slowly to find out where agility and speed can make a difference (in other words, small systems, rather than large ones). I was working in XML back in 1998, but didn't have anything to do with it! 10 years later, XML is almost passe! It's a method, not The Answer.

One thing that I think lawyers haven't yet grasped is that the "semantic web" does NOT refer to the World Wide Web, but to ANY network. It could be something as simple as the files on your local computers. Hook the computers together and you have a "network." Hook many computers together and you have a "web." So, the key is the word "semantic," which means building relationships between concepts that can be extended to finding relationships between documents.

To add some resources, I can across several fantastic resources through the Earley & Associates JumpStart series. I would flag Keith Hawker of the UK, whose company Metatomix has already created a system to use disparate data across court systems in Florida, Georgia and I think, Ohio court systems. In his presentation, he really flagged the idea that the objective is to build relationships that lead to action, not just tagging for social purposes.

By: Dominic Jaar

Dominic Jaar — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 04:38:50 +0000

and Nstein.

By: Rafael Sidi

Rafael Sidi — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 23:10:51 +0000

Joel, one vendor that you may want to check is Siderean