Emeka Okoye

Semantic technologies permit powerful connections across a variety of linked data resources across the web. Until recently, developers had to learn the RDF language to discover and use these resources.

Leveraging the new Model Context Protocol (MCP) and LLM-powered natural-language interfaces, Emeka Okoye has created the RDF Explorer, an MCP service that lets any developer surf the semantic web without having to learn its specialized language.

We talked about:

his long history in knowledge engineering and AI agents

his deep involvement in the business and technology communities in Nigeria, including founding the country's first internet startup

how he was building knowledge graphs before Google coined the term

an overview of MCP, the Model Context Protocol, and its benefits

the RDF Explorer MCP server he has developed

how the MCP protocol and helps ease some of the challenges that semantic web developers have traditionally faced

the capabilities of his RDF Explorer:

facilitating communication between AI applications, language models, and RDF data

enabling graph exploration and graph data analysis via SPARQL queries

browsing, accessing, and evaluating linked-open-data RDF resources

the origins of RDF Explorer in his attempt to improve ontology engineering tooling

his objections to "vibe ontology" creation

the ability of RDF Explorer to let non-RDF developers users access knowledge graph data

how accessing knowledge graph data addresses the problem of the static nature of the data in language models

the natural connections he sees between neural network AI and symbolic AI like knowledge graphs, and the tech tribalism he sees in the broader AI world that prevents others from seeing them

how the ability of LLMs to predict likely language isn't true intelligence or actual knowledge

some of the lessons he learned by building the RDF Explorer, e.g., how the MCP protocol removes a lot of the complexity in building hybrid AI solutions

how MCP helps him validate the ontologies he creates

Emeka's bio

Emeka is a Knowledge Engineer, Semantic Architect, and Generative AI Engineer who leverages his over two decades of expertise in ontology and knowledge engineering and software development to architect, develop, and deploy innovative, data-centric AI products and intelligent cognitive systems to enable organizations in their Digital Transformation journey to enhance their data infrastructure, harness their data assets for high-level cognitive tasks and decision-making processes, and drive innovation and efficiency enroute to achieving their organizational goals.

Emeka’s experience has embraced a breadth of technologies his primary focus being solution design, engineering and product development while working with a cross section of professionals across various cultures in Africa and Europe in solving problems at a complex level. Emeka can understand and explain technologies from deep diving under the hood to the value proposition level.

Connect with Emeka online

LinkedIn

Making Knowledge Graphs Accessible: My Journey with MCP and RDF Explorer

RDF Explorer (GitHub)

Video

Here’s the video version of our conversation:

https://youtu.be/GK4cqtgYRfA

Podcast intro transcript

This is the Knowledge Graph Insights podcast, episode number 36. The widespread adoption of semantic technologies has created a variety of linked data resources on the web. Until recently, you had to learn semantic tools to access that data. The arrival of LLMs, with their conversational interfaces and ability to translate natural language into knowledge graph queries, combined with the new Model Context Protocol, has empowered semantic web experts like Emeka Okoye to build tools that let any developer surf the semantic web.

Interview transcript

Larry:

Hi, everyone. Welcome to episode number 36 of the Knowledge Graph Insights podcast.