Quad Connect

Note: This is part 1 in a series of posts on Quad Connect’s interest in the Semantic Web and Linked Data.  Stay tuned for future updates on how we believe these exciting new technologies can help us build a better experience for the Wash U community!

Hey Wash U!

I have some exciting news to report.  In one week I will be headed off to MIT to participate in a Semantic Web and Linked Data workshop with Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web! Now, you may be thinking “Micah, you’re just bragging, it’s not like this semantic whozawhatzit has anything to do with Quad Connect or Wash U.” But that’s not entirely true.  I mean, I may be bragging, but, honestly, that can’t be helped. However, this workshop may indeed hold exciting things for QC and for WU. Listen up…

To begin with, the Semantic Web and Linked Data are part of this newfangled conglomeration of technologies that we’ll just go ahead and call “Web 3.0″.  Basically, the idea is that Web 1.0 got us all to throw our information online – it allowed us to find any movie on IMDB, the ins and outs of every video game at GameFAQs, and the best price for Native American arrowheads at eBay. Then Web 2.0 came around and on top of all this information about the world, we added “people” information.  On Facebook, you can find out what and who people “like.”  On Geni, you can find out Brad Pitt’s family history (or post your own). And of course over at Twitter, you can take “the pulse of the planet.”  Not to mention the thousands of blogs, niche papers, and rumor sites, that have allowed people to turn down careers as doctors in order to make money uploading their thoughts on everything under the sun.

The one thing missing in all of this, though, is some sort of meaning and organization.  Sure we have Google, but while Google is helpful for many things, it’s still not very smart.  Have you tried asking it “what’s the weather”?  I just did. It told me:

Web definitions for weather
	face and withstand with courage; “She braved the elements” wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn - Definition in context

Not exactly what I was going for.  You could almost say, it’s not “semantically” what you’d expect from such a question.  Surely we can do better.  And in fact, you may have heard of a little engine called WolframAlpha.  Enter the same query there, and you get:

Now we’re talking. WolframAlpha’s got this “Semantic” thing down to a T.  Let’s see how it does with the “Web” part.  Let’s say I’ve heard lots of people talking about Tiger Woods lately, and I want to know what all the hubub is about.  Let’s compare these two sites again:

Not bad… now let’s try Google:

Just from scanning these two pages alone, there’s not really even a competition, is there?  Now of course you’re saying “Ok, Micah, I get it, Semantics can do cool things, and the Web, obviously, can do cool things, but this is getting boring and you still haven’t said why this is relevant to ME.”  Well, hold your horses, alright? I’m ready to tell you.

What if we put these two technologies together? What if we made something that understood your Semantics, and was built with the power of the Web? Not only would we get to make a cool new phrase – Semantic Web – we’d get to make really smart, powerful programs that helped you live your life more simply and more efficiently.  This new world of smart and connected information is what Quad Connect is all about; and this is exactly what I’ll be working to build at this workshop.  Not only will I get advice from some of the top people in this field, I’ll have the chance to get some VCs on board to help Quad Connect be the smartest and most connectedest place on the net (good thing Manny, Morgan, Justin, Josh, and the rest are here to work on the smartestness part).

And here’s where WU comes in.  Ever heard about some cool party, speaker, game, or meeting after the fact?  Ever wanted to organize your friends in LK basement to watch a movie but worried that maybe someone else had reserved the room? Ever needed to meet with a professor or TA but didn’t know when their office hours were and, for the life of you, couldn’t find their website? (Some profs don’t even post hours on their website!)  Ever get interested in a job or internship but all the deadlines for the cool ones had passed?  So many frustrating college experiences occur simply because we aren’t given the relevant information at convenient times.  At Quad Connect, using the Semantic Web and Linked Data, we aim to solve these problems.  In the process, we think we can build a foundation for a better college experience by connecting you to the parts of the campus community you didn’t even know that you didn’t know about.

Sound a bit lofty and high-fallutin’?  So sue us.¹
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¹Lawyer’s Note: Micah does not actually recommend suing Quad Connect, any of its subsidiaries, or any of its co-founders. Happy Manny?

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