“As Service Oriented Architecture gradually takes op acceptance in the market, organisations are more and more faced with the realities of semantics. One of our next challenges in ICT will be to harness meaning as the essential part of the overwhelming richness of information around ”

Arnold brings over 33 years’ experience in architecture and design of international telecommunications and information interchange infrastructures and transformational issues to his role as Global Architect in the Sector Products of Capgemini Netherlands. Before taking up this role in July 2001, Arnold had a similar role in the Sector Finance of Capgemini Netherlands.

During his tenure with the firm Arnold has focused on information interchange in all its facets both for international and domestic clients. He is a senior member of the international architecture community in Capgemini and a member of The Open Group UDEF Forum, and has been working in banking, insurance, automotive industry, chemical industry, high-tech industry, retail, logistics, public services an telecom industry in roles varying from consulting to interim management. He is an expert on infrastructure architecture and has been instrumental in setting up infrastructures both at commercial and governmental organisations. His roles cover strategic, technical, organisational and security aspects. He also is a qualified trainer in Capgemini's corporate architecture training program at the Capgemini International training centre in Les Fontaines (France).

Before joining Capgemini, Arnold was ICT-consultant and project manager at the NMB-bank, one of the founding organisations of the ING-group. At NMB-bank he contributed to the creation of the online payment and telebanking infrastructure in the Netherlands.

Born in the Netherlands, Arnold graduated in chemistry and numerical mathematics from the Leiden University in 1974. He is married, has three children, is a member of the UDEF Forum of The Open Group and board member of a public foundation that operates a group of (primary and secondary) schools in the Netherlands.

Presentation
Semantic Interoperability across Language and Cultural Environments

In 2001 the European Council adopted the so-called Lisbon agenda which aimes to make the EU a leading area in the world regarding explotation of information technology for the benefit of citizens and businesses by 2010. At the time the EU where 15 countries with a lot of differences in background, culture, language, history and challenges. Meanwhile the EU has grown to 27 countries, and a first effort to adapt its instutions and its inner working to the increased scale has been rejected by popular vote in two of its originating countries. Based on a few examples this presentation analyses these differences and how architecture can help to overcome technical, semantic and procedural mismatches. We will explore to what extent technology can facilitate politicians to unite what could not be united before. It is already 2007 and lots of work still has to be done in order to achieve the 2010 ambition of the Lisbon agenda, but recent progress in various areas has shown that significant steps towards this ambition can almost be taken.

return to program