The Semantic Web Austin group was founded by Juan Sequeda and John De Oliveira in early 2008. Since then, the group has bootstrapped its way close to 100 members, hosted numerous events including the first US Linked Data Tutorial by Tom Heath from Talis, the first US VoCamp, a Yahoo Search Monkey tutorial by Peter Mika and attracted international attention. In 2009, SWA partnered with the Austin Technology Incubator and Yahoo! to catalyze the Austin community around this emerging technology space. At the moment we are in the process of becoming a 501(c) Non-profit. Specifically, Semantic Web Austin's goals are to:
- Create and apply leading edge knowledge
- Position Austin as the leader in the semantic web technology space
- Be recognized as the go-to-place for technology breakthroughs
- Bellwether for start ups and business applications
- Retain, attract, and home-grow leading semantic web talent -both technical and business
- Create a sustaining, self managing community of semantic web technical, business and investment professionals
The long term vision for the group is to build an ecosystem where members, industry, academia, and start ups work collaboratively to achieve the goals. At the core of the ecosystem are Semantic Web Austin's members who will be provided with constant opportunities to gain new knowledge, apply their skills to solve real-world problems, participate in cutting edge research, and to create or work with early stage companies. These interactions will also be supported by a marketing and PR capability and through close interaction with investment professionals (e.g., angels, VCs and corporate investment groups).