Unlocking the intellectual capital trapped inside organizations that deal with enormous amounts of text is a major challenge. To accelerate the development of new semantic business applications tackling this problem, TextWise LLC, a pioneer in semantic application development, today announced the SemanticHacker Innovators’ Challenge (SHIC). TextWise is offering a $1 million incentive for each useful and inventive implementation of the firm’s open API for semantic discovery.

“Organizations need to cut through the noise and see what really matters both in their information archives and on the Web. They need systems that can help them process masses of information and understand what it all means,” said Connie Kenneally, Textwise CEO. With a system that can automatically discern the meaning of text, it becomes easy to bring relevant, related information to the surface from huge volumes of text, with little or no prior organization and no keyword search.

“We get paralyzed by the scale of what we find online and in our corporate networks,” stated Ms. Kenneally. The TextWise SemanticHacker open API uses patented technology to decode and distill the meaning of any piece of text by creating a Semantic Signature®. A Semantic Signature® can be thought of as a representation of the ‘DNA’ of that text.

TextWise’s multi-million dollar challenge is designed to showcase the power of the firm’s patented Semantic Signature® technology and to accelerate the development of breakthrough applications for Semantic Discovery. The overall goal of the SemanticHacker Innovators’ Challenge is to encourage the development of software prototypes and/or business plans that demonstrate commercial viability in specific industries. Information-intensive businesses in the legal, pharmaceutical, and financial markets are all good candidates for Semantic Discovery applications, but other industries are also of interest.

TextWise is making its open API available for immediate use, at www.semantichacker.com, and inviting developers and business innovators throughout the U.S. to submit software prototypes and/or business plan ideas. The new site also includes a simple demonstration of the use of Semantic Signatures. “We know that there are brilliant minds out there, looking for ways to crack the infoglut epidemic, and we’re ready to fund the best and most inspiring solutions with up to a million dollars each,” said Ms. Kenneally.

An expert judging panel composed of industry experts, venture capitalists and representatives from TextWise and its advisory board will assess all entries to the TextWise SHIC program. Once selected, the winner or winners of the Challenge will each receive $100,000 immediately, with the potential for revenue share up to an additional $900,000 over the first year after the chosen application reaches the market.

The SemanticHacker Innovators’ Challenge is open to Individuals who are legal U.S. residents and over the age of 18 at the time the entry is submitted. Full details on SHIC including rules, entry requirements and judging criteria are available online at www.semantichacker.com.

TextWise is busy extending its application reach beyond its successful beta in contextual advertising to other semantic applications including an ad replacement plug-in using semantic matching, a discovery tool for eBay auctions, a blog organization service that uses semantic bookmarks, and a Facebook application for sharing conversation and organizing links among users.