What is Semantics and Why Does it Matter?

This white paper will unpack what semantics is, and walk through the benefits of a semantic approach to your organization’s data across search, usability, and standardization. As a knowledge and information management consultancy, EK works closely with clients to help them reorganize and transform their organization’s knowledge structure and culture. One habit that we’ve noticed in working with clients is a hesitancy on their part to engage with the meaning and semantics of their data, summed up in the question “Why semantics?” This can come from a few places: An unfamiliarity with the concept; The fear that semantics is too advanced for a lower data-maturity organization; or The assumption that problems of semantics can be engineered away with the right codebase  These are all reasons we’ve seen for semantic hesitancy. And to be fair, between the semantic layer, semantic web, semantic search, and other applications, it can be easy to lose track of what semantics means and what the benefits are.    What is Semantics? The term semantics originally comes from philosophy, where it refers to the study of how we construct and transmit meaning through concepts and language.