OpenCyc looks promising in these regards and others as well. I'd like to integrate an inference engine with the OpenACS, and OpenCyc claims to supply something in this regard.
In my experience, an inference engine can make personalization much easier to develop and is a more flexible solution than predetermining a SQL query or too. In the long run, both systems can probably generate identical results, but my experience is that doing so in a rule-based fashion is more productive (no pun intended), and easier to modify and reconfigure when your goals, or market changes.
Imagine the SDM/ticket tracker mixed in with case based reasoning or other sorts of Cyc based reasoning: have these symptoms been reported before? Which bugs have dealt with these symptoms? Which developers have worked on those bugs?
Of course, visiting sourceforge, it doesn't look as though anything has been released yet.
