Benjamin Nowack

I am a (Semantic) Web developer, working from Düsseldorf in Germany, where I'm running a small Web agency called semsol. My focus is on utilizing SemWeb technology such as RDF and SPARQL as productivity boosters in everyday web development.

I'm an active RDF community member (my main contribution is ARC, an open-source, easy-to-use RDF toolkit for PHP practitioners), and also an "Invited Expert" in the W3C Semantic Web Education and Outreach Interest Group (SWEO IG).

When I'm not coding, I'm alleviating my Work/Life Imbalance with Locking, a funk-style Hip Hop Dance from the 70s.

I'm usually available for web development work, talks, or training (please see the experience section below, or have a look at my blog for examples of what I'm doing), you can contact me best by email (bnowacksemsol.combnowack at semsol.com), or catch me on IRC (my nick is bengee).

Core Web Development Skills and Experience

• HTML (since 1995. Hmmm, OS/2 WebExplorer...)
• JavaScript (since 1997 IIRC)
• PHP/MySQL (since around 1999. Took the usual Perl -> ASP -> ColdFusion -> PHP road)
• CSS-based layouting (since 2004, was a little late to the game)
• Web Design (mostly user interfaces, a tiny bit of logo creation. I'm not a general designer/artist, but I know my way around Photoshop and Inkscape)
• RDF (since 2003)
• RDF Schema, OWL (since 2003/2004, I'm not so much into logics and reasoning. I wrote a simple web-based RDFS/OWL editor in 2004, though)
• SPARQL (since 2005)
• eRDF, RDFa, microformats (more recently)

I'm fine with SVN and can re-start Apache via the CLI, but apart from that, I consider myself a Web-spoiled front-end developer ;-) I usually shy away from things that need to be compiled or don't have a mouse-friendly installation procedure. Deliberately. It's simply not how I think we should interact with machines. (Well, ok, hacking code into a text editor isn't too progressive either, but at least it doesn't have to be done by the application users.)

Current Projects

• ARC - "Easy RDF and SPARQL for LAMP Developers"
• Trice - A Semantic Web Application Framework
• knowee - An "Online Social Graph Manager"
• SPARQLBot - "Your Semantic Web Command Line"

Memberships

Talks and Slides

Spec Work and Contributions

• SPARQLScript - SPARQL-based scripting (2008)
• SPARQL+ - LOAD, INSERT, DELETE, and aggregates for SPARQL (2007)
• w3photo image regions vocabulary (A collaborative RDF IG project from 2004)

Awards

• International Semantic Web Challenge: 1st Prize (2005)

Education

• 2004/2005: Visiting Web Developer at the Digital Enterprise Research Institute (DERI), Galway, Ireland
• 2004: Dipl.-Betriebswirt (FH) graduation with major in Media and Information Management, overall grade 1.7, Würzburg University of Applied Sciences, Germany
• 1994 - 2004: Studies of Mathematics, Computer Science and Business Administration (area specialisation New Media) at Würzburg University and Würzburg University of Applied Sciences, Germany