Semantic intelligence is the ability to gather the necessary information to allow to identify, detect and solve

semantic gap The semantic gap characterizes the difference between two descriptions of an object by different linguistic representations, for instance languages or symbols. According to Andreas M. Hein, the semantic gap can be defined as "the difference in me ...

s on all level of the organization. Similar to

Operational intelligence An operational definition specifies concrete, replicable procedures designed to represent a construct. In the words of American psychologist S.S. Stevens (1935), "An operation is the performance which we execute in order to make known a concept." F ...

or Business Process intelligence, which aims to identify, detect and then optimize business processes, semantic intelligence targets information instead of processes. It aims to enable better understanding and insight in data by all stakeholders. This will support better information sharing, reuse and governance and support better business decision-making.

Semantic Gap

Several types of semantic gaps can be identified: # The semantic gap between different data sources - structured or unstructured # The semantic gap between the operational data and the human interpretation of this data # The semantic gap between people communicating about a certain information concept. One application of semantic intelligence is the management of

unstructured information Unstructured data (or unstructured information) is information that either does not have a pre-defined data model or is not organized in a pre-defined manner. Unstructured information is typically text-heavy, but may contain data such as dates, nu ...

, leveraging

semantic technology The ultimate goal of semantic technology is to help machines understand data. To enable the encoding of semantics with the data, well-known technologies are RDF (Resource Description Framework) and OWL (Web Ontology Language). These technologies ...

. These applications tackle R&D, sales, marketing and security for activities that include

Knowledge Management Knowledge management (KM) is the set of procedures for producing, disseminating, utilizing, and overseeing an organization's knowledge and data. It alludes to a multidisciplinary strategy that maximizes knowledge utilization to accomplish organ ...

Customer Care Customer service is the assistance and advice provided by a company to those who buy or use its products or services, either in person or remotely. Customer service is often practiced in a way that reflects the strategies and values of a firm, and ...

and

Corporate Intelligence Competitive intelligence (CI) is the process and forward-looking practices used in producing knowledge about the competitive environment to improve organizational performance. Competitive intelligence involves systematically collecting and anal ...

. Several applications aim to detect and solve different types of semantic gaps. They range from

search engine A search engine is a software system that provides hyperlinks to web pages, and other relevant information on World Wide Web, the Web in response to a user's web query, query. The user enters a query in a web browser or a mobile app, and the sea ...

s to automatic categorizers, from ETL systems to

natural language A natural language or ordinary language is a language that occurs naturally in a human community by a process of use, repetition, and change. It can take different forms, typically either a spoken language or a sign language. Natural languages ...

interfaces, special functionality include

dashboard A dashboard (also called dash, instrument panel or IP, or fascia) is a control panel (engineering), control panel set within the central console of a vehicle, boat, or cockpit of an aircraft or spacecraft. Usually located directly ahead of the ...

s and

text mining Text mining, text data mining (TDM) or text analytics is the process of deriving high-quality information from text. It involves "the discovery by computer of new, previously unknown information, by automatically extracting information from differe ...

. One approach that aims to provide a holistic solution to achieve semantic intelligence is Business semantics management. Instead of focusing on very specific type of semantic gap (i.e.

unstructured data Unstructured data (or unstructured information) is information that either does not have a pre-defined data model or is not organized in a pre-defined manner. Unstructured information is typically plain text, text-heavy, but may contain data such ...

), it aims to provide a whole solution to align business and it to share the understanding and semantics of information concepts.

History

In 2002, the software company Expert System S.p.A. started to popularize Semantic Intelligence as a term to describe a new generation of information access technology applications based on semantic analysis. In opposition to standard systems to process unstructured information (such as keyword based systems), semantic intelligence applications focus on the meaning of the texts. In 2008, the software company Collibra started commercializing years of academic research on semantic technology. It has positioned its Business semantics management approach as a way to achieve Semantic Intelligence.

References

{{reflist Business intelligence terms