Tuesday, 5/22/2007
3:15 PM - 3:45 PM
Level: Technical - Intermediate

Ten years ago, search technologies were on the brink of market explosion with companies such as Lycos and AltaVista beginning to make their mark while Google was still just an idea waiting to happen. Since then, the Internet has evolved tremendously and is now the sole source of information and knowledge retrieval around the world. The Web 2.0 generation requires us to take a harder look at consumer search engine technologies which bring back millions of results from knowledge resources scattered across the Net. For the knowledge worker or government intelligence analyst, query results based on popularity or advertising simply won’t work. Being able to access relevant, organized information in a timely manner is a priority for making informed, actionable decisions.
Semantic-based Internet search better understands the relationship between terms and context, producing much more efficient results to best meet the needs of knowledge workers. It does a more thorough job of breaking down highly complex search queries, thereby providing more precise information, through the use of taxonomies, ontologies and facets. Erik Schwartz, director of product management at Convera, is an expert in semantic search and will discuss in his presentation the need for this type of deep, search technology in the Web 2.0 era. He will give practical examples for building taxonomies, using ontologies and creating facets.

Erik Schwartz is Director of Product Management for Convera, a leading provider of search technologies for professional workers. Schwartz plays a lead role in the product strategy and development activities for a variety of Convera products and services. These include driving product positioning and pricing; internal and external training; and analyst and press presentations. Schwartz also creates and facilitates the next generation product and service roadmaps, working closely with R&D, partners, services, development and Convera senior executives. Mr. Schwartz began his career in 1994 at Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) in Washington, DC as junior systems analyst after earning a degree in Electrical Engineering at Trinity College, Cambridge MA. He is the recipient of the TORPEDO Ultra Design Partner, awarded by NRL in 2000 for Digital Document Delivery System architecture and design and well as the Theodore R. Blakesle II Award, Trinity College as Outstanding Engineering Teaching Assistant.