I was on a briefing today with TopQuadrant, a small vendor focused on semantic modeling technology that I wrote up in last years Cool Vendors for MDM note, when I decided to search on Google the term “semantics MDM”. It created a long list – but was not one of the “common” searches that Google populates its search field. That was interesting to me – why is the link between MDM and semantics not that obvious or frequent?
As I searched I came across the following article, “MDM is Not Enough – Semantic Enterprise is Needed” – which, once you read it, repeats (an updates) an idea I published back in 2001 and 2002, and wrote up on my blog a short while ago: The Semantic Enterprise. Its a good article that connects MDM and semantic (web) technology.
But it is odd that the link between MDM and semantics is not yet firmly established. Given that MDM is focused on assuring consistency in a particular type of data across a business, it seems pretty clear to me that MDM and semantic modeling, managing and reconciliation go hand in hand. I guess it’s to do with maturity – maybe the connection will evolve. Certainly, as more users established send and third generation MDM initiatives (with different MDM technology) the need for something to manage the pieces between MDM data stores, and all the stores where the data resides, will only increase.
