The upcoming release of NEPOMUK (Networked Environment for Personalized, Ontology-based Management of Unified Knowledge) for the KDE Linux desktop will help users organize the masses of information stored on their hard drives and perform intelligent, semantic searches. From the article:

“For example, a Semantic Desktop will store the relationship between a file saved on the computer and the e-mail it originates from.”

This is, in my opinion, a first and very important step in the right direction of the goal of an intelligent, semantic network. We are all getting overloaded with too much siloed data and it quickly loses context, and as such, much of its informational value. As desktop users everywhere (I imagine the boys in Redmond can’t be too far behind) get used to this kind of convenience, they will begin to demand it on a grander scale.

Transparency is the ultimate organizational tool. It gives us the ability to quickly make more accurate relationships and assess data in context allowing us to make more informed decisions. There are, of course, issues with assuring that the system can’t be “gamed”, where a spammer can somehow link a nice picture of your grandmother to an anarchist’s militant porn website… you get the idea.

This puts more responsibility upon the individual to manage their own data relationships. Or at least implement an intelligent system to do it on their behalf. In a way, these systems will be the next generation of virus scanners, but will actively accumulate knowledge as they go… hopefully with minimal human intervention.

Share This