Semantic Web Company

As journalist and communications-professional I came acoss an article that I – although in German – have to recommend from the depth of my heart to everybody who is somehow concerned with communication. It´s an article on propaganda in the prestigious brandeins-magazine. Here´s a german commentary on it.

Communications and public relations are at least as complex as the Semantic Web is and it´s not accidental that both of them deal with language. Ludwig Wittgenstein had claimed comprehension by talking about truth tables and anybody who deals with communication should act more explicit in terms of getting more understanding.

Earlier this month, my colleague Marion Fugléwicz-Bren talked about the current state of semantic technologies in the public relations business in an interview with Markus Pirchner, who runs a Vienna-based company (future.bytes) focusing on online PR and PR 2.0. While Pirchner himself (who is also a blogger) appeared pretty clued about the Semantic Web, he conceded that the PR industry rather relies on “the tried and tested”:

PR industry mainstream has never been at the forefront of developments (neither has mainstream media), and it is not expected to be. It’s simply not its job; it has always relied on the tried and tested. The PR industry will adopt anything that makes its job easier or more effective and successful; that’s why the Semantic Web will find its way into PR in the end.

Another not quite so recent development which he mentioned – and which nonetheless was new to me – is XPRL, an extensible mark-up language for the PR industry. XPRL emerged from a project started in 2001 and currently chaired by Anne Gregory (Leeds Metropolitan University). So far they have developed three process standards for media relations: document release, clippings briefing and coverage report. Learn more at www.XPRL.org (and don’t forget the www in the future, or else you’ll be directed to a cyber squatter’s page).

Read the interview with Markus Pirchner here.