[swug] Thur Meeting @ 2.30p

[Kendall Clark]

Folks,

The purpose of this email is to do four things:

0. announce our first meeting
1. talk a bit about what this group is for
2. give an agenda for our upcoming meeting
3. discuss my expectations

(0) The first meeting of the SWUG (Semantic Web Users Group, where
"Users" means "hackers") will be this Thursday, 18 March, at 2.30p qat
the Mindlab building.

Everyone on this list is invited to attend; undergrads are expected to
attend or send me (or the list) regrets before the meeting.

(1) Plans

So what the hell are we up to? We have a pretty interesting and
relatively unique opportunity here. The Semantic Web is poised to take
off in a big way. Jim Hendler (plus some others in our lab, like Bijan
Parsia, Jen Golbeck, Evrin Sirin, Daniel Krech) is a big player in the
SW effort, which means he has resources that he can make available to
us.

Jim wants a group of UMD undergrads -- mostly CS, but not exclusively
-- to form a kind of skunkworks team of hackers. Why skunkworks?
Because he wants some people in his lab doing high-risk, high-reward,
low-responsibility work. 

What do you guys get out of it? First, the chance to work in an
interesting, important laboratory of the Semantic Web. Second, the
chance to get in on the ground floor of a new field. We're getting to
the point, in the next 15 months or so, that if you understand RDF,
OWL, the Web, a bit of logic programming, and you're a good software
engineer, then you can write yr own ticket when it comes to
post-school employment. Last, it's fun to hack on someone else's
dollar, and it's a relatively rare opportunity not to be missed.

(2) Meeting Agenda

* Welcome and introductions -- 5 min
* Overview of SWUG -- 5 min
* Discussion of potential projects:
  * Resource Annotations[1] and Research Communities -- 10 min
  * Geospatial Annotations[2] and WIFI Walking Tours of DC -- 10 min
  * Rules and RDF[3] -- 10 min
* Open Space[4] -- 20 min 

If 2.30p on Thursdays works for everyone, and it seems to, then I'd
like to have regular meetings each week at that time. If we need to
meet less or more often, we can make that adjustment later on.

(3) Expectations

My role in SWUG is to help you guys build interesting stuff that makes
Jim Hendler -- and others in our lab -- say "shit, that's cool!"
That's going to mean kibbitzing with you about technologies, project
designs, writing some code, and shaking loose resources when we need
them.

What I expect in return is a willingness to work hard, participate
regularly, and have fun. Not terribly complicated, but then this
really is a great opportunity.

See ya on Thursday.

Kendall Clark

Notes: 
[1] See http://bombadil.mindlab.umd.edu/semantichimp and 
http://usefulinc.com/chump

[2] See http://www.mindswap.org/2004/geo/geoStuff.shtml

[3] See http://bombadil.mindlab.umd.edu/pychinko and 
http://www.w3.org/2000/10/swap/doc/cwm.html and http://infomesh.net/2001/cwm

[4] "Open Space" means a freeform slot in the agenda where we talk
about whatever issues seem most appropriate at the time.