Radar Networks
Encyclopedia
Radar Networks is a San Francisco based company developing semantic web applications for the general public. The company was founded in 2003 by Nova Spivack
and Kristinn R. Thórisson
(co-founder).
Nova Spivack
, grandson of Peter Drucker
, and AI
researcher Kristinn R. Thórisson
. They were soon joined by Jim Wissner, who is now the company's Chief Architect. Thórisson was CTO of Radar Networks until 2004 when he joined Reykjavik University
.
In February 2008 it was announced that the company raised a Series B venture round
led by Velocity Interactive Group, Vulcan Capital and Draper Fisher Jurvetson.
The company's first product, Twine
, is an online, social web service that was opened to the public on October 21, 2008.
, online applications intended for the general public. Semantic web technologies are intended to extend the World Wide Web
by adding a new, machine processable layer of data. Semantic web technologies have been used by several large organizations in private intranets, such as Citigroup and Eastman Kodak Co. to handle their data to increase efficiency.
Semantic web services involve metadata markup of information (often text on webpages, documents or media such as images), using a markup language like RDF
. An ontology
is used to describe what the tags represent and how these things are related. An example of this is marking the text John with the tag person, and an ontology that describes that a person is a type of human. Such a contextual framework is intended to enable computers to understand and reason with data, thus making way for more intelligent
data handling methods.
Other companies working on semantic web technologies are, for example, AskMeNow
, Garlik, Metaweb
and Powerset
. These types of technologies are often described as an evolution of Web 2.0
services that use non-semantic tag systems, such as Flickr
and Technorati
.
is an online, social web
service that combines features of forum
s, wiki
s, online database
s and newsgroup
s. It was announced on October 19, 2007 and remained in private status, offering limited invitations only for beta testing, until October 21, 2008 when it was opened to the public. Twine is Radar Networks' first consumer product
.
Twine services information storage, authoring and discovery through its website and browser-based tools. The service, intended for regular web users, attempts to automate certain processes related to data
categorization and keyword-association (tagging)
. The system employs natural language processing
and machine learning
to extract concepts
from written text in user data and express it using RDF triples
tied to a semantic taxonomy based on concepts mined from Wikipedia. This makes it easier for machines to process the data and enables specifying types of information to search for on the Twine website, such as "person" or "location". Twine can be classified as a social network
as it also has features such as adding contacts, sending private messages and sharing information.
Nova Spivack
Nova Spivack is a technology entrepreneur named as one of the top thought-leaders on the future of the Web.Spivack is presently CEO of Bottlenose, a new realtime personalization startup...
and Kristinn R. Thórisson
Kristinn R. Thórisson
Dr. Kristinn R. Thórisson is an Icelandic artificial intelligence researcher, and co-founder of and . Thórisson is one of the leading proponents of artificial intelligence systems integration. Other proponents of this approach are researchers such as Marvin Minsky, Aaron Sloman and Michael A....
(co-founder).
History
The company was founded in 2003 by web entrepreneurEntrepreneur
An entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative.The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to...
Nova Spivack
Nova Spivack
Nova Spivack is a technology entrepreneur named as one of the top thought-leaders on the future of the Web.Spivack is presently CEO of Bottlenose, a new realtime personalization startup...
, grandson of Peter Drucker
Peter Drucker
Peter Ferdinand Drucker was an influential writer, management consultant, and self-described “social ecologist.”-Introduction:...
, and AI
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
researcher Kristinn R. Thórisson
Kristinn R. Thórisson
Dr. Kristinn R. Thórisson is an Icelandic artificial intelligence researcher, and co-founder of and . Thórisson is one of the leading proponents of artificial intelligence systems integration. Other proponents of this approach are researchers such as Marvin Minsky, Aaron Sloman and Michael A....
. They were soon joined by Jim Wissner, who is now the company's Chief Architect. Thórisson was CTO of Radar Networks until 2004 when he joined Reykjavik University
Reykjavík University
Reykjavík University is a private university in Reykjavík, Iceland, and is chartered by the Chamber of Commerce, the Federation of Icelandic Industries, and the Confederation of Icelandic Employers....
.
In February 2008 it was announced that the company raised a Series B venture round
Venture round
A venture round is a type of funding round used for venture capital financing, by which startup companies obtain investment, generally from venture capitalists and other institutional investors. The availability of venture funding is among the primary stimuli for the development of new companies...
led by Velocity Interactive Group, Vulcan Capital and Draper Fisher Jurvetson.
The company's first product, Twine
Twine (website)
Twine is an online, social web service for information storage, authoring and discovery. Created by Radar Networks, the service was announced on October 19, 2007 and made open to the public on October 21, 2008. On March 11, 2010, Radar Networks was acquired by Evri Inc...
, is an online, social web service that was opened to the public on October 21, 2008.
Technology
Radar Networks works on semantic webSemantic Web
The Semantic Web is a collaborative movement led by the World Wide Web Consortium that promotes common formats for data on the World Wide Web. By encouraging the inclusion of semantic content in web pages, the Semantic Web aims at converting the current web of unstructured documents into a "web of...
, online applications intended for the general public. Semantic web technologies are intended to extend the World Wide Web
World Wide Web
The World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet...
by adding a new, machine processable layer of data. Semantic web technologies have been used by several large organizations in private intranets, such as Citigroup and Eastman Kodak Co. to handle their data to increase efficiency.
Semantic web services involve metadata markup of information (often text on webpages, documents or media such as images), using a markup language like RDF
Resource Description Framework
The Resource Description Framework is a family of World Wide Web Consortium specifications originally designed as a metadata data model...
. An ontology
Ontology
Ontology is the philosophical study of the nature of being, existence or reality as such, as well as the basic categories of being and their relations...
is used to describe what the tags represent and how these things are related. An example of this is marking the text John with the tag person, and an ontology that describes that a person is a type of human. Such a contextual framework is intended to enable computers to understand and reason with data, thus making way for more intelligent
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it. AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its...
data handling methods.
Other companies working on semantic web technologies are, for example, AskMeNow
AskMeNow
AskMeNow Inc. was an American public corporation, specializing in mobile search and mobile advertising. The Irvine, California based company officially launched in November 2005 and ceased operations in late 2008...
, Garlik, Metaweb
Metaweb
Metaweb Technologies, Inc. was a United States company based in San Francisco that developed Freebase, described as an "open, shared database of the world's knowledge". The company was founded by Danny Hillis in July, 2005, and operated in stealth mode until 2007. Metaweb was acquired by Google in...
and Powerset
Powerset (company)
Powerset is a Microsoft owned company based in San Francisco, California that, in 2006, was developing a natural language search engine for the Internet....
. These types of technologies are often described as an evolution of Web 2.0
Web 2.0
The term Web 2.0 is associated with web applications that facilitate participatory information sharing, interoperability, user-centered design, and collaboration on the World Wide Web...
services that use non-semantic tag systems, such as Flickr
Flickr
Flickr is an image hosting and video hosting website, web services suite, and online community that was created by Ludicorp in 2004 and acquired by Yahoo! in 2005. In addition to being a popular website for users to share and embed personal photographs, the service is widely used by bloggers to...
and Technorati
Technorati
Technorati is an Internet search engine for searching blogs. By June 2008, Technorati was indexing 112.8 million blogs and over 250 million pieces of tagged social media...
.
Products
TwineTwine (website)
Twine is an online, social web service for information storage, authoring and discovery. Created by Radar Networks, the service was announced on October 19, 2007 and made open to the public on October 21, 2008. On March 11, 2010, Radar Networks was acquired by Evri Inc...
is an online, social web
Social Web
The social Web is a set of social relations that link people through the World Wide Web. The Social web encompasses how websites and software are designed and developed in order to support and foster social interaction. These online social interactions form the basis of much online activity...
service that combines features of forum
Internet forum
An Internet forum, or message board, is an online discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages. They differ from chat rooms in that messages are at least temporarily archived...
s, wiki
Wiki
A wiki is a website that allows the creation and editing of any number of interlinked web pages via a web browser using a simplified markup language or a WYSIWYG text editor. Wikis are typically powered by wiki software and are often used collaboratively by multiple users. Examples include...
s, online database
Online database
An online database is a database accessible from a network, including from the Internet.It differs from a local database, held in an individual computer or its attached storage, such as a CD....
s and newsgroup
Newsgroup
A usenet newsgroup is a repository usually within the Usenet system, for messages posted from many users in different locations. The term may be confusing to some, because it is usually a discussion group. Newsgroups are technically distinct from, but functionally similar to, discussion forums on...
s. It was announced on October 19, 2007 and remained in private status, offering limited invitations only for beta testing, until October 21, 2008 when it was opened to the public. Twine is Radar Networks' first consumer product
Consumer product
A consumer product is generally any tangible personal property for sale and that is used for personal, family, or household for non-business purposes. The determination whether a good is a consumer product requires a factual finding, on a case-by-case basis...
.
Twine services information storage, authoring and discovery through its website and browser-based tools. The service, intended for regular web users, attempts to automate certain processes related to data
Data
The term data refers to qualitative or quantitative attributes of a variable or set of variables. Data are typically the results of measurements and can be the basis of graphs, images, or observations of a set of variables. Data are often viewed as the lowest level of abstraction from which...
categorization and keyword-association (tagging)
Tag (metadata)
In online computer systems terminology, a tag is a non-hierarchical keyword or term assigned to a piece of information . This kind of metadata helps describe an item and allows it to be found again by browsing or searching...
. The system employs natural language processing
Natural language processing
Natural language processing is a field of computer science and linguistics concerned with the interactions between computers and human languages; it began as a branch of artificial intelligence....
and machine learning
Machine learning
Machine learning, a branch of artificial intelligence, is a scientific discipline concerned with the design and development of algorithms that allow computers to evolve behaviors based on empirical data, such as from sensor data or databases...
to extract concepts
Text mining
Text mining, sometimes alternately referred to as text data mining, roughly equivalent to text analytics, refers to the process of deriving high-quality information from text. High-quality information is typically derived through the devising of patterns and trends through means such as...
from written text in user data and express it using RDF triples
Resource Description Framework
The Resource Description Framework is a family of World Wide Web Consortium specifications originally designed as a metadata data model...
tied to a semantic taxonomy based on concepts mined from Wikipedia. This makes it easier for machines to process the data and enables specifying types of information to search for on the Twine website, such as "person" or "location". Twine can be classified as a social network
Social network
A social network is a social structure made up of individuals called "nodes", which are tied by one or more specific types of interdependency, such as friendship, kinship, common interest, financial exchange, dislike, sexual relationships, or relationships of beliefs, knowledge or prestige.Social...
as it also has features such as adding contacts, sending private messages and sharing information.
See also
- EarthwebEarthWebEarthWeb is a science fiction novel written by author Marc Stiegler, and released in May, 1999 by publisher Baen Books.-Plot summary:EarthWeb is set in a future where Earth is attacked roughly every five years by spaceships from an unknown extraterrestrial society. Named Shivas, after the Hindu...
— company founded by Nova Spivack in 1994 - MetawebMetawebMetaweb Technologies, Inc. was a United States company based in San Francisco that developed Freebase, described as an "open, shared database of the world's knowledge". The company was founded by Danny Hillis in July, 2005, and operated in stealth mode until 2007. Metaweb was acquired by Google in...
— developers of the online semantic database Freebase - Resource Description FrameworkResource Description FrameworkThe Resource Description Framework is a family of World Wide Web Consortium specifications originally designed as a metadata data model...
(RDF) - Semantic WebSemantic WebThe Semantic Web is a collaborative movement led by the World Wide Web Consortium that promotes common formats for data on the World Wide Web. By encouraging the inclusion of semantic content in web pages, the Semantic Web aims at converting the current web of unstructured documents into a "web of...
- Web 2.0Web 2.0The term Web 2.0 is associated with web applications that facilitate participatory information sharing, interoperability, user-centered design, and collaboration on the World Wide Web...
- Web Ontology LanguageWeb Ontology LanguageThe Web Ontology Language is a family of knowledge representation languages for authoring ontologies.The languages are characterised by formal semantics and RDF/XML-based serializations for the Semantic Web...
(OWL)
External links
- Minding the Planet — Nova Spivack's personal blog, CEO of Radar Networks
- Twine — online service of Radar Networks