% abstract for SemTech-2009 talk SILK: Semantic Rules Take the Next Big Step in Power Benjamin Grosof Senior Research Program Manager, Knowledge Systems Vulcan Inc. (alternative titles: - The Frontier of Semantic Rules Power: Hyper Logic Programs in SILK - SILK: Where Semantic Rules Are Going ) We overview the technical approach and business motivations of the SILK system for semantic rules and ontologies, that radically extends the knowledge representation (KR) power of W3C Rule Interchange Format (RIF) and the coherence basis of the Semantic Web overall. The newest part of Vulcan Inc.'s Project Halo, SILK is a new, highly ambitious effort that is redefining the knowledge representation (KR) playing field for business rules and rule-based process management. It aims to provide key infrastructure for widely-authored VLKBs (Very Large Knowledge Bases) for business and science that answer questions, proactively supply information, and reason powerfully. Practical semantic rules and ontologies KR today is based primarily on declarative logic programs, which are the core KR of RuleML and RIF as well as of databases (SQL, XQuery, and SPARQL) and most commercial implementations of OWL ontologies. SILK's KR is *hyper* logic programs, which adds: - prioritized defaults and robust conflict handling; - higher-order and flexible meta-reasoning; - tight and robust integration of full classical logic (including OWL, Common Logic, and SBVR), in weakened form; and - actions and events, cf. production rules and process models The SILK system includes components for: - large-scale reasoning; - web knowledge interchange; and - (in future) collaborative knowledge acquisition. We survey use cases for SILK in business and science, including in Semantic MediaWiki. We discuss prospects for the SILK approach to effectively interchange and integrate a high percentage of the world's structured knowledge starting from today's legacy forms. "SILK" stands for "Semantic Inferencing on Large Knowledge", what the next generation Web will be spun from.