Richard Wallis

Technology Evangelist, Talis

Jon Udell's Interviews with Innovators
30 minutes, 14.1mb, recorded 2007-12-17
Richard Wallis

Richard Wallis is a technology evangelist for Talis, a UK-based provider of library systems which has chosen to base its next-generation platform on semantic web technologies. The company doesn't talk about its mission in those terms, though. In a white paper, it describes the mission of the new platform as: "Harnessing mass collaboration on a global scale." As Richard Wallis explains:

"The people who are building real applications, and deriving real benefit, don't give two hoots about RDF and triple stores. They just want the effects."

For Talis, a key desired effect is the ability to mix data from a variety of sources, including those within the traditional purview of library vendors and those emerging elsewhere around the web.


Richard Wallis has a thirty year plus career in the computer information industry, the last fifteen of which has been with the UK’s leading Library Systems Vendor, Talis, coupled with his passion for and involvement with new and emerging technology trends. This gives Wallis a unique perspective of the issues challenging Libraries today. Wallis has been ‘in at the birth’ of several major Library System Developments, as architect, research and technical lead. More recently as Technology Evangelist he has been at the forefront in promoting, explaining, and applying new and emerging Web and Semantic Web technologies in the library and information domain. Wallis is an active blogger on both Panlibus & Talis Developer Network and a regular podcaster in the Talking with Talis series.

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