François Scharffe and Thomas Deely



The Knowledge Graph Conference is one of the premier events in the semantic technology space.



François Scharffe and Thomas Deeley started the conference to bridge the gap between academic researchers and industry practitioners. The community they have built around the conference and the conference programming - a mix of workshops, classes, presentations, and demos - reflect this purpose.



They also intend to democratize knowledge graph use, and toward that end are participating in a number of efforts to develop education programs - both professional certifications and academic curricula.



We talked about:



the origins of the Knowledge Graph Conference, and its balanced inclusion of both academic and industry entities

how generative AI is propelling interest in knowledge graphs

their mission to broaden awareness of knowledge graph technology and practice

the importance of education and the need for a practical approach

the origins of the Open Knowledge Network, part of the National Science Foundation's Proto-Open Knowledge Network program, and KGC's role in it

their ambition to build an educational institute around KG technology

how to help enterprise executives understand the benefits of knowledge graphs

how modeling an enterprise's knowledge and capturing it in a knowledge graph can help organizations address complex challenges

the advantages of knowledge graphs over LLMs and GenAI, which have yet to prove their reliability

how LLMs can assist in the construction and use of knowledge graphs

how study of the human brain illustrates how GenAI and KGs can work together

the community that has arisen around the Knowledge Graph Conference



François' bio

François Scharffe is a hands-on technology executive with a track record of improving decision making in complex data environments. His career as a technical leader and entrepreneur has led him to perform engineering, product management and leadership roles in various organizations.



François has also worked as a lecturer and researcher, most recently at Columbia University (New York) and at the University of Montpellier (France). François is the founder and chief executive of The Data Chefs, a data management consulting firm, and the founder of the Knowledge Graph Conference, the leading event on knowledge-centric AI technologies.

Thomas' bio

Thomas Deely is co-founder of The Knowledge Graph Conference and Community, a global community bridging research and industry on Knowledge Graphs, AI, and related technologies. Thomas is also the Customer Community Manager at Box, the leading cloud content management platform.



Thomas started his career as an engineer at JPMorgan in London, before joining Goldman Sachs where he advanced to become a senior engineer in the NY office. Thomas launched an Applied Analytics program and executive education initiatives at Columbia University, before venturing into the customer experience, product, and community domain at companies such as Unqork, where he launched the Community, and Stack Overflow, where he helped grow and develop the StackOverflow for Teams product and business, as part of the customer success team, before joining Box.



Thomas has an electronic engineering undergraduate degree from University College, Dublin, and a Masters in Science in Technology Management from Columbia University, and lives in NY where he is married with two children.

Connect with François and Thomas online



François at LinkedIn

Thomas at LinkedIn



Video

Here’s the video version of our conversation:



https://youtu.be/gjtoPXY3Ka8

Podcast intro transcript

This is the Knowledge Graph Insights podcast,