Paul Miller

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For real-world applications of Linked Data and the Semantic Web, the long-running Semantic Technology Conference is hard to beat. For getting a real handle on the Cloud Computing landscape, GigaOM‘s Structure Conference is also a leading light.

Working across both areas as I do, these events tend to figure prominently in my calendar for the year*. Last year, both took place in San Francisco during the same week. I tried to attend both, and therefore succeeded in spending most of my week in cabs, shuttling between meetings at the two venues. I saw very few sessions that I wasn’t personally involved in, and the experience wasn’t a huge success.

This year the conference organisers have taken pity on me, and moved their events to opposite ends of June. The Semantic Technology Conference is up first, back at the Hilton Union Square from 5-9 June. Structure follows, returning to the Mission Bay Conference Centre on 22 and 23 June.

I’ll be attending both, and probably doing various official things during each event. At the moment, the only thing we’ve definitely nailed down is a special live appearance by The Semantic Link crew on the evening of 5 June; we’ll be taking a look at the highlights expected for the conference, offering some tips for those new to the event and its multitude of parallel sessions, and generally bringing our usual podcast chatter to the stage.

So if you’re in town around the time of either event, do get in touch; it promises to be an interesting month.

* Disclosure: WebMediaBrands pay me to host the monthly Semantic Link podcast, and to write a monthly column on SemanticWeb.com. GigaOM pay me to curate the Infrastructure/ Cloud Computing channel on their Pro site. I attended and participated in both of these events before that was the case, and still would today without the contractual relationship.

Related articles

• GigaOM Structure 2011 (datacenterknowledge.com)
• Semantic Technology Conference (fakeiitian.com)