W3C Semantic Tour - 12 June to 24 June 2002

Project acronym: QUESTION-HOW
Project Full Title:Quality Engineering Solutions via Tools, Information and Outreach for the New Highly-enriched Offerings from W3C: Evolving the Web in Europe
Project/Contract No. IST-2000-28767
Workpackage 6, Deliverable D6.2

Project Manager: Daniel Dardailler <danield@w3.org>
Author of this document: Marie-Claire Forgue <marie@w3.org>

Created: July 2003. Last updated: September 2003


Introduction

The W3C has organized a second series of one day events across Europe, in 2003, which purpose was to promote the W3C Semantic Web technologies. Representatives of W3C Member organizations and the W3C Team explained how Semantic Web technologies help to create richer, more usable data on the existing Web.

The schedule of the events was the following:

All events were open to the public and free of charge.

A public Web page was published in March 2003 presenting the tour.

The tour was advertised on the W3C home page in the first days of April, and stayed as a top news for 2 weeks. Again, it made the top news during the period covering all the events. Moreover, in each country, Offices were able to announce their own local event many on-line publications' agendas.

A press release was issued on 10 June 2003, and translated into 5 languages (Dutch, English, French, German, Greek, Italian and Japanese).

European press reported on the tour, specifically in each visited country (see below), but it is worth noted that this tour was also advertised in other publications, such as this Japanese one:

@IT: XML & Web Services [20 May]
"W3C/XML Watch - May 2003", Emie Kayama, W3C, MathML 2.0, XKMS, VoiceXML, I18N, SVG 1.2, WCAG 2.0, WSCI, Amaya 8.0, W3C Semantic Tour (in Japanese)
E-Marketing [13 June]
"Le W3C organise une tournée européenne sur le Web sémantique" , W3C, Semantic Web, HTML, Semantic Web, RDF, OWL, XML, W3C Semantic Tour
ZDNet UK - CNET [8 April]
"W3C advances Semantic Web drafts" , Paul Festa, W3C, OWL, RDF, Semantic Tour, Eric Miller
Démocratie Electronique [10 June]
"Tournée sémantique du W3C" , W3C Semantic Tour
Sophianet.com [10 June]
"W3C : une tournée européenne pour le Web Sémantique" , Jean-Pierre Largillet, W3C, Semantic Tour, RDF, OWL, XML, Daniel Dardailler, Philipp Hoschka

The Semantic Web Extends the Current Web

The goal of the Semantic Tour was not only to present current Semantic Web technologies developed at W3C, but also to allow the Web community, industries, and public at large to interact with all the speakers. The tour was in that sense very successful as there has been a better understanding of the Semantic Web itself: not a new Web to build, but simply an extension of the current one.

For the Web to reach its full potential, it must evolve into a Semantic Web, providing a universally accessible platform that allows data to be shared and processed by automated tools as well as by people. The Semantic Web, first a vision expressed by Tim Berners-Lee at the Web's inception, is now best known as an initiative of the World Wide Web Consortium. Berners-Lee wrote an early Roadmap for the Semantic Web in 1998, and it continues to be a good place to learn the architecture on which the W3C Semantic Web Activity is based.

The W3C Semantic Web Activity, launched in 2001, brings together experts and leaders in areas such as metadata, ontologies, and the Web, and encourages both the design of specifications and the open, collaborative development of technology.

The Semantic Web is an extension of the current Web that will allow you to find, share, and combine information more easily. It is designed to be a universal medium for the exchange of data, and allows vocabulary semantics to be defined and reused by any interested person or user community, making it cost-effective for people to record their knowledge, and share with others.

Deliverables

W3C Semantic Tour in ITALY, Rome - 10 June 2003 - Pontificia Università Gregoriana

Nearly all the talks were delivered in Italian and audio/video recordings of each of those are available on the public accessible Web page (in Italian). Oreste Signore, W3C Italian Office Manager, chaired the day.

Speakers & Talks
Panelists
Massimo Marchiori, Jeremy J. Carroll, Michele Missikoff, Nicola Guarino, Guido Vetere

The panel discussion was chaired by Oreste Signore

Attendance
Participants could register on line. 223 people registered and 108 people attended the conference.
Press Attendance and/or Interviews
Press Articles
Web News [10 April]
"W3C: avanti con il nuovo Web" , Francesco Caccavella, W3C, Semantic Tour, Semantic Web, Web Ontology, Eric Miller (in Italian)
FullPress.it [28 May]
"Il W3C Semantic Tour debutta a Roma" , Luisa Brigatti, W3C, Semantic Tour, Tim Berners-Lee (in Italian)
FullPress.it [10 June]
"Il World Wide Web Consortium lancia il W3C European Semantic Tour" , Luisa Brigatti, W3C, Semantic Tour (in Italian)
Libero [June]
"Ue e USA, il Web Semantico è roba da PMI" , W3C, Semantic Tour (in Italian)
Lithium [10 June]
"Il World Wide Web Consortium Lancia il W3C European Semantic Tour" , W3C Semantic Tour (in Italian)
AetnaNet [1 May]
"Web semantico, il linguaggio del mondo" , Antonio Volpon, W3C, Semantic Web, RDF, XML, Tim Berners-Lee (in Italian)
DataManager [June]
"Il W3C Semantic Tour debutta a ROMA" , W3C, Semantic Tour (in Italian)
Italia Oggi [12 July]
"Si rivoluzionano le ricerche in rete" , Mila Fiordalisi, W3C, RDF, XML, Semantic Web, Massimo Marchiori (in Italian)
La Repubblica [14 July]
"Web Semantico, chi o costui? Il futuro" , Ernesto Assante, W3C Semantic Tour, Tim Berners-Lee (in Italian)
Blogs
Fed's Bolsoblog [3 April]
"W3C Semantic Tour, Europe 10-24 June" , W3C Semantic Tour

W3C Semantic Tour in UK, London - 12 June 2003 - Regents Park

Public accessible Web page. Michael Wilson, W3C UK & Ireland Office Manager, chaired the day.

Speakers & Talks

Panelists
Steve Ross-Talbot, Ivan Herman, Dan Brickley, Andy Seaborne.

The panel discussion, chaired by Michael Wilson, was rated as (4.1)

Attendance
109 people attended the event. Among those:
Evaluation Forms Results
Participants were given an evaluation form to fill out via e-mail. They were asked to rate each talk from 1 to 5 where 1 was poor and 5 was excellent. There were a total of 19 reports returned.

- Regarding talks, the average marks of each of them are indicated in ( ) above.

- 17 people out of 19 thought that the event was at a correct technical level.

- They found that the most useful parts of the day were: Morning plus panel, Andy Seaborne, Ora Lassila, meeting people, All of it, Ivan and Ora, Morning, Presentations and the pub, HP’s perspective.

- The overall evaluation of the day answers are: Best self-funded development day I have attended, very good, more enthusiasm needed, morning was excellent, well organised, very interesting, 4, good, some breack-out sessions would have been useful, excellent, needed more coffee.

Press Attendance and/or Interviews
Press Articles
Client Server News [15 June]
"Semantic Web hits the Road" , W3C, Semantic Web, W3C Semantic Tour
UsabilityNews [June]
"W3C Semantic Tour - Europe" , W3C, Semantic Tour
EI.pub [19 June]
"W3C semantic web tour" , W3C Semantic Tour, Ora Lassila
Blogs
Earle Martin's blog [14 June]
"Notes on the W3C Semantic Web Tour London" , Earle Martin, W3C Semantic Tour, Ora Lassila, Ivan Herman, Brian Matthews
Seb Schmoller's mailing [15 April]
"W3C European Semantic Web Tour" , W3C Semantic Tour, Tim Berners-Lee, James Hendler, Ora Lassila

W3C Semantic Tour in GERMANY, Munich - 17 June 2003 - Astron Hotel Muenchen Deutscher Kaiser

The event was chaired by Klaus Birkenbihl, W3C Germany & Austria Office Manager. Nearly all the talks were delivered in German. The full agenda is available at this detailed public accessible Web page (in German).

Speakers & Talks
Panelists
Ivan Herman, Philipp Hoschka, Mario Jeckle, Jürgen Angele

Panel session chaired by Klaus Birkenbihl.

Attendance
Press Attendance and/or Interviews
Press Articles
Der Spiegel [17 June]
"Tidying up the Data Chaos" , Peter Zschunke, W3C, Semantic Web, HTML, Web Services, XML, Eric Miller, Tim Berners-Lee (in German)
Basler Zeitung [17 June]
"Departure into a more intelligent Web" , W3C Semantic Tour, XML, Web Services, XML, RDF, HTML, Berners-Lee, Eric Miller (in German)
Oberosterreich.com [20 June]
"The Semantic Web" , W3C Semantic Tour, HTML, XML, RDF (in German)
Tiroler Tageszeitung [22 June]
"The Future of the World Wide Web" , W3C Semantic Tour (in German)
ORF ON FutureZone [22 June]
"Web inventor for Semantic Web" , W3C Semantic Tour, XML, RDF, Tim Berners-Lee (in German)
Freie Presse [24 June]
"Raid into a new Surf age", W3C Semantic Tour, HTML, XML, RDF (in German)

W3C Semantic Tour in GREECE, Athens - 19 June 2003 - Hotel Divani Caravel

Evangelos Markatos, W3C Greek Office Manager, chaired the event. A detailed agenda is available in the following public accessible Web pages: in Greek and English. The talks were delivered either in English or in Greek. Greek to English real-time translation has been provided.

Speakers & Talks

Panelists
Daniel Dardailler, Grigoris Antoniou, Dominique Hazaël-Massieux ; panel chaired by Evangelos Markatos.

Attendance
135 people registered and 66 attended the event.
The categorie of participants is as follows:
Press Attendance and/or Interviews

Press Articles
Nautemporiki [30 June]
"For a broader and more useful network" , Vicky Vamiedaki, W3C, Semantic Tour, Semantic Web, Tim Berners-Lee (in Greek)
Imerissia [5 July]
"Automatic content translation from W3C" , W3C, Semantic Tour (in Greek)
ne.o [July]
"Semantic Web" , Nick Makrymanolakis, W3C, Semantic Web, Semantic Tour(in Greek)
NetFax [17 July]
"A semantic Web day in Athens", W3C, Semantic Tour (in Greek)
EKT [29 May]
"The Presentation of Semantic Web in Greece" , W3C, Semantic Tour (in Greek)

W3C Semantic Tour in BELGIUM, Brussels - 24 June 2003 - Diamant Building Congress Centre

The event was organized and chaired by Frank Roos, W3C Benelux Office Manager. The detailed agenda is available at the following three public accessible Web pages: in English, Dutch and French. Some pictures of the event are made available (thanks to Miente Baker).

Speakers & Talks

Panelists
Ivan Herman, Daniel Dardailler, Peter Brown, Frank van Harmelen

The panel discussion was driven by Frank Roos.

Attendance
Press Interviews and/or Attendance
Press Articles
01 Informatique [23 May]
"W3C Semantic Tour : le 24 juin à Bruxelles" , W3C, Semantic Web
Europa News [2 July]
"Commission backs semantic web tour across Europe" , W3C, Semantic Tour, Semantic Wev, Tim Berners-Lee
EEdesign [10 June]
"World Wide Web Consortium Launches W3C European Semantic Tour" , W3C, Semantic Tour
AIfIA News [11 June]
"W3C Semantic Tour in Brussels" , W3C, Semantic Tour (in Dutch)
Blogs
Namreh's blog [11 June]
"W3C Semantic Tour" , W3C, Semantic Tour (in Dutch)

Conclusion

The overall tour has been extremely well received, the attendance in all stops was very good and quite enthusiastic. The panels were very successful and fully attended, even if scheduled at the end of each day. We had nearly 500 people over the whole tour.

Most of the attendees were already acknowledgeable of W3C work, at all levels of understanding. A good number of industrials were present, and judging by the quality of numerous questions, all the attendants were satisfied with the level of interaction provided. At the London event, a participant expressed its great satisfaction by rating the event as the best self-funded development day he ever attended.

Finally, the theme of this tour was very attractive, as it is regarded as a new short term challenge in the IT sector. Last year's Interop Tour was less successful in respect. The press attendance was remarkably high in average, thus leading to a very good presence of W3C's work in either the public press or the technical one.

At last, W3C would like to thank Franco Mastroddi and all government and European representatives for their participation in the W3C Semantic Tour.


Marie-Claire Forgue, W3C European Communications Officer (marie@w3.org)
Last revised: $Date: 2003/09/30 12:59:43 $