Semantics in Business Systems: The Savvy Manager's Guide (The Savvy Manager's Guides) [Paperback]

Dave McComb (Author)

Book Description

Series: The Savvy Manager's Guides | Publication Date: September 24, 2003

Semantics in Business Systems begins with a description of what semantics are and how they affect business systems. It examines four main aspects of the application of semantics to systems, specifically: How do we infer meaning from unstructured information, how do application systems make meaning as they operate, how do practitioners uncover meaning in business settings, and how do we understand and communicate what we have deduced? This book illustrates how this applies to the future of application system development, especially how it informs and affects Web services and business rule- based approaches, and how semantics will play out with XML and the semantic Web. The book also contains a quick reference guide to related terms and technologies. It is part of Morgan Kaufmann's series of Savvy Manager's Guides.

* Presents an easy and enjoyable introduction to semantics in the context of business IT systems.
* Articulates the business value of semantics, while providing relevant introductory technical background.
* Describes the semantic underpinnings of data modeling, business rules, enterprise integration, and Web services.
* Contains a handy quick-reference guide to technologies and terminology.
* For more information, links, and discussions, go to www.savvymanagers.com.

Editorial Reviews

Book Description

Interesting, timely, and above all, useful, Savvy Guides give IT managers the information they need to effectively manage their technologists, as well as conscientiously inform business decision makers, in the midst of technological revolution.

From the Back Cover

...Great book! It clearly explains the background and practical application of semantics that managers, architects and software developers will need to understand how new technologies will impact the next generation of business systems.
-Dave Hollander, CTO; Contivo Inc., Co-chair W3C XML Schema Working Group

This book will help you navigate through the current batch of alphabet soup: XML, SOAP, WSDL, UDDI, and the rest. It gives a clear overview of the territory punctuated by examples...
-Peter Norvig, Google.com

What does semantics have to do with information systems, databases, enterprise integration, and Web services? Though sometimes misunderstood as an arcane liberal art, semantics is at the core of these and other emerging technologies. Semantics is a powerful and intuitive philosophy, methodology, and framework that can be used to leverage existing knowledge, data, and resources, ensuring your systems will be able to evolve with your business and keep pace with technology in the years to come.

Well-written and engaging, Semantics in Business Systems: The Savvy Manager's Guide contains the knowledge you need to understand and assess how semantics can help your information systems. It begins with a clear explanation of what semantics is and then describes, using real-world examples, how semantics currently affects business systems. The book then explores future applications of semantics, illustrating its connection to XML and the Semantic Web.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 397 pages
• Publisher: Morgan Kaufmann; 1 edition (September 24, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1558609172
• ISBN-13: 978-1558609174
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,228,311 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I'm a software consultant in Fort Collins, but not the CSU professor of the same name.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Impressive, inspiring, and distressing, June 8, 2004

By 

David C. Hay "Dave" (Houston, Texas, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Semantics in Business Systems: The Savvy Manager's Guide (The Savvy Manager's Guides) (Paperback)

As a professional data modeller, I found this book impressive, inspiring, and distressing.

It is impressive because the author has done a good job of encapsulating a broad set of what on the surface appear to be completely unrelated topics--metadata, business rules, data modeling, XML, etc. Except that I am interested in all of them, which should already have told me that they were related. He managed to balance the level of detail for each of the areas, not getting either intimidating with detail or too superficial to be useful.

I found it inspiring because I really have been interested in this subject for many years and just didn't know it. In my data modeling practice I have always focused more on the meaning of concepts than on how they might be physically represented in databases. The author's admonition to companies to spend more time (and money) considering semantics could be in my marketing materials.

My current problem is that data modeling has become passé and it is tricky to market my services. I like to distinguish myself from other data modelers in that I think I am better than most in understanding semantics, but I never described it that way. Semantics now gives me a way to rework my marketing message.

I found this book distressing for the same reasons I found it inspiring. It points out that far from being a closed issue, this field is just beginning. The amount of stuff I still don't know is really troubling. The bibliography seriously scared me. Part of the problem is that my undergraduate degree was in philosophy, but in addition to the fact that I really have trouble after all these years remembering who said what, I now realize that my education in that subject was seriously superficial. Now I am going to have to take a refresher course!

While I often see myself as an old curmudgeon who hates new ideas, I see this book as a challenge to me to get my intellectual act together. I welcome that and I am glad to see that there are still exciting things to be done.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliantly readable overview of a crucial subject, February 27, 2004

By 

T. D. Welsh (Basingstoke, Hampshire UK) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Semantics in Business Systems: The Savvy Manager's Guide (The Savvy Manager's Guides) (Paperback)

Dave McComb's book is about semantics, and it is a terrific advertisement for his understanding of meaning and communication. Drawing on a lifetime of experience, he explains the basic ideas in simple, unpretentious language, introducing semantics as the branch of philosophy that deals with meaning. Then he motors on through classification, vocabularies, taxonomies, ontologies; data and object-oriented modeling; state machines, schemas, metadata, natural language processing, business rules, document and knowledge management and much more. McComb ties everything together logically, and proves that it is possible to describe some of the core ideas of software in words that anyone can understand. The last few chapters present some of the latest buzzwords, such as XML, Web services, Service Oriented Architecture, Business Process Management, Enterprise Application Integration and the Semantic Web.

This book is very well written, and can be read in a single sitting - its 300 pages took me about five hours, making the occasional note and skipping nothing. When you have finished, there is still more value at the end: a reference section, where all the concepts mentioned in the book are summarised in logical order; an excellent glossary; a "resources" section 30 pages long stuffed with book references, URLs and the like; and a professionally compiled index. The book is well produced, too. Its binding is suitable for frequent use, there are no typos or other careless errors, and the many diagrams are attractive and easy to understand.

Anyone who is involved with producing or maintaining software stands to learn something new and useful from reading this book. Even if not, it would still be a fascinating read.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Relevant to any size business, June 20, 2004

By 

Andrew J. Barkett (Emeryville, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Semantics in Business Systems: The Savvy Manager's Guide (The Savvy Manager's Guides) (Paperback)

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I was skeptical that the book would be relevant to a small company's projects, but I got lots of good ideas that we can start implementing right away. Because the world of the semantic web is still so new, even our small company has a chance to contribute to a lot of the ontologies that will be used in our industry for years to come.