Cambridge Semantic Web Monthly Meetup

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Agenda:

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From Data-analytics to Data-applications: How Applying Linked-Data Principles to Modular Software Development Enable a New Generation of Collaborative Applications

This talk proposes a new approach to solving one of the paramount challenges of gaining valuable insight from complex data environments – the integration of not only distributed and disparate data, but also the integration of diverse, specialized, and often siloed scientists and their analytical tools. Traditional tightly-coupled architectures, relying on data-warehousing and monolithic software, are ill-equipped to handle a diverse and dynamic landscape of data, users and tools. Fragmented data cannot be leveraged by equally fragmented software. A successful approach must dynamically link subject matter experts and their data and facilitate their cross-disciplinary collaboration. This talk will explore both the technical details for implementing architectures that accomplish this though linked-data and linked-visualization, and will show how this approach is being leveraged by The Accelerated Cure Project and the Orion Bionetworks Alliance in their efforts to lower the barriers to collaborative Multiple Sclerosis research. The combination of Object-Oriented and Flow-Based programming with Semantic Data standards and recent HTML5 Web advances creates the potential for a new breed of analytics applications. Applications built from this style of combinatorial architecture achieve a loosely-coupled modularity that allows them to leverage the wide variety of components present in complex data systems instead of being hindered by it. By using sematic-data abstractions and treating datasets more modularly, these applications give liquidity to otherwise frozen and siloed data. By treating algorithms and visualizations as data-agnostic modules, these applications lower the barriers to creative experimentation, a key component to hypothesis generation and insight. By leveraging recent advances in HTML5 Web capabilities, these techniques can launch in web-based, highly cohesive exploratory interfaces that can be rapidly deployed, evolved, and redeployed to a distributed and dynamic workforce of collaborating scientists, analysts, and subject matter experts.The technical details of this talk will be balanced by real-world use-cases, including how it is being applied by The Accelerated Cure Project as a next-generation interface to their unique biosample repository. A goal of the talk will be to strike a balance between the macro and micro views of modular data-application development to provide attendees with two sets of useful takeaways. At the macro level, the audience will be exposed to a generic architecture for combinatorial interactive interface development that can inform some of their future design decisions. At the micro level, the audience will be introduced to some specific linked-data and visualization techniques - exploratory interfaces that are both thought-provoking and inspiring for the attendees’ future work.

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David King, Founder and CEO of Exaptive, Inc., has over 15 years of experience in all aspects of software development, from large-scale database design to user interfaces to the management of software development teams. Mr. King has a BS in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT and helped to pioneer paperless manufacturing information systems during his 12 years at SynQor Inc, where he was Chief Software Architect and IT Director. At SynQor, Mr. King specialized in extensible systems for ad hoc visualization and analysis of terabyte databases, and developed an industry-leading component-level tracking system that received numerous accolades from customers like Cisco Systems, Intel, EMC, and Compaq, and was deemed best-in-class by Nortel Networks. In 2011, Mr. King saw a need for more generalizable and cross-disciplinary data application platforms and founded Exaptive, Inc to pursue ways to leverage linked-data and data-visualization. He has spoken at conferences world-wide including Health Datapalooza in Washington DC, StrataRX in Boston, MA, and the tranSMART Community Conference in Paris, France. He is also currently involved in the NSF EarthCube initiative, being invited to present at the recent EarthCube End-User Domain Workshop about ways that cyber-infrastructure can facilitate collaboration within the geosciences. His company, Exaptive, was recently invited to become a partner of the Orion Bioalliance Network, a consortium of cross-disciplinary organizations and companies using computational approaches to find a cure for Multiple Sclerosis.