2Paths Team Blog

the defense industry uses your technology. The funny thing about the semantic web conference was the vendor showcases. I went to a few, where a given semantic technology toolkit vendor would showcase how one can make use of their tool or tools. The thing that struck me was that each and every one that I attended focused on how they were helping the US department of defense catch terrorists or extract evidence of links to terrorism.

There was one vendor showcase in particular that I got a great laugh out of. I was sitting in the very front row, right in front of the presenter who was about 4 feet in front of me. Before I go on I should give you some information about myself, I am a Muslim who looks very Muslim…ie the full beard, middle eastern looking, etc… I, like all the other attendees has a name tag on with my full name written in large print which is visible from several feel away. So he starts his talk about the tool that they are selling. Mid way through the presentation he starts a demonstration on how the tool was used to prove that two people who claimed to not know each other did in fact know each other and that they were smuggling funds between them.

As he went through this presentation, he paused, saw me and my name and became really uncomfortable. You see, the names of the people he was talking about had the exact same last name as me and I don’t think he really saw me sitting there until that point. At that point he tried really really hard to come up with another example to demonstrate the tool but for the life of him he could not. I had to fight the urge not to stir the pot to see how much more uncomfortable I could make him feel.

Regardless, you know this technology is going to take off when the US department of defense is interested in it. It seems that they are dumping large sums of money into it’s development and use.

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