I-Semantics is a conference aiming to bring together science and industry:

• To address the needs and interests of industry the iPraxis track presents enterprise solutions that deal with semantic processing of data and/or information in areas like like Linked Data, Data Publishing, Semantic Search, Recommendation Services, Sentiment Detection, Search Engine Add-Ons, Thesaurus and/or Ontology Management, Text Mining, Data Mining and any related fields.
• In the exhibition area I-SEMANTICS 2012 will offer its participants a unique platform either to present latest and leading edge developments or to catch up with the developments of most innovative IT technologies, content applications, knowledge management trends and emerging market opportunities.
• For the first time in 2012 we will bring to you the I-CHALLENGE, consisting of the Best Paper Award, the Best Poster Award, the Best PhD Paper and the Linked Data Cup.
• I-SEMANTICS 2012 proceedings will be published in the digital library of the ACM ICP Series and will contain all accepted papers from the Research & Application track and the I-CHALLENGE. The topics of interest for research and application papers include (but are not limited to): The Web of Data, Quality of Semantic Data on the Web, Corporate Semantic Web, Semantic Content Engineering, Semantic Multimedia and (Linked) Data Ecosystems & Markets

Website: I-Semantics 2012

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Image based on work by Paolo Mañalac

Thomas Schandl: An especially nice thing about this conference is that it’s co-location attracts people from two separate communities: Knowledge Management and Semantic Web. This serves as a natural facilitator for looking beyond the boundaries of one’s own domain and getting more than a glimpse of what’s currently happening in related fields.

That being said one of the most interesting talks I attended was a talk from KM expert Prof. Martin Eppler and his take on “Sketching at Work“, which introduced loads of sketching methods which can help to solve problems, inspire creativity and support communication.

From the Semantic Web side I enjoyed the innovative approach taken by Hasso Plattner Insitute‘s DBpedia powered quiz game Risq!. It is a Jeopardy-like Facebook game, that (besides being fun) sheds insights as to which facts are especially important to characterize a Linked Data resource. E.g. when the system wants you to guess a specific “female politician” would it help you more to know that she is part of the category yago:LivingPeople or would you rather get the hint that she is dbpedia:Chancellor_of_Germany?
By analyzing the logs of the played games, the researchers can find out which triples have more discriminative power than others.

Through the many personal encounters I also got a lot of input on which new features would be especially interesting for future versions of PoolParty and what we should concentrate on in the LOD interlinking project LASSO that Bernhard Schandl (Gnowsis / Refinder), Stefan Wunder (Neurovation) and me presented at the I-Praxis track.

Andreas Blumauer: Again, this year was absolutely worth coming to Graz also from a business perspective. For me it was the 10th time going to Graz. When I went to the second edition of I-KNOW in 2001 I remember that nearly nobody has ever heard of “semantics”. When I-SEMANTICS came to Graz the first time, this was in 2007, it was still unclear for most visitors how semantic technologies could contribute to a more efficient enterprise knowledge management. Nowadays, 10 years later, there is another question most prominent:

Which kind of semantic technology is solving my problem?

Being most of the time at our exhibition booth I enjoyed talking to visitors who had very concrete plans & ideas about how to use linked data, text mining or knowledge models for their business. The time when we had to explain what the “semantic web” is all about is over.

Christian Dirschl´s (Wolters Kluwer) keynote on Friday was exactly reflecting this fact: It´s good to see how big players have started to integrate the idea of linked data into their processes already. The days when we had to explain the difference between RDF and XML seem to be over. Or at least almost.

Florian Kondert: It was a vibrant atmosphere for me, since I didn’t make it to participate to just one track, but talking to interesting and interested persons at the booth without one break, instead.

From the participant’s perspective the conference as a networking platform was a huge success – and it definitely didn’t stop at dusk! It is worth pointing out the diverse needs and ideas on semantic use cases, that allow us to learn more with every discussion. The bottom line is that semantic solutions are badly needed for many organisations – and they start to realize, that there are no working alternatives at the moment.

On the other hand it is crucial to show up with real life examples, not just with prototypes that might work tentatively! As providers for semantic solutions we face decision makers on the highest level and they demand high level remedies – so, no time to take a break!

Tassilo Pellegrini: As the conference chair I really had an intense, but all in all very positive time at the conference. Interesting people, inspiring talks and a really good time at the socializing events (greetings to Leo Sauermann & Co. – I enjoyed the drinks!). For a general conference overview read my post from a few days ago.

But there is more to such a diverse conference as just talking about semantics. As some of you might know, beside my interest in Semantic Web, I have been involved in some policy consulting lately concerning the topic of net neutrality. At the conference I took the opportunity to talk to some telecommunications-savvy people and had some really great conversations (Harald … I really enjoyed our discussion!). But to my surprise I had to find out that – especially among the engineering guys – there seems to be very little awareness about the pressing social, cultural and economic consequences that an abandoning of net neutrality will have on the Internet as we know it today. For those readers who are into semantic web but not into the net neutrality discourse I want to reduce it to a very simple formula: without net neutrality you can say goodbye to linked open data. And this should really make us think and act!!

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More than 70 scientific and 40 industry presentations provided a valid overview over current technological and organisational trends in various areas of semantic computing like text mining, information retrieval, visual analytics, semantic content engineering, social semantic web and linked data. Especially the last topic appeared in many different contexts, showing that the linked data paradigm is gaining traction as a horizontal topic that crosses domains and communities.

One of the conference’s unique characteristics is the high amount of attendees from industrial domains, searching for inspiration and solutions for practical problems on the one side, but also for diversification potentials of their business on the other side. In this respect the applied scientific approach of I-SEMANTICS / I-KNOW has proven to be a valid approach to scrutinize academic research against its reusability in industrial settings, transfer knowledge and skills between both communities and provide incentives for cooperative research and project engagement.

This cooperative spirit was also represented by the four key note speakers, who took a deliberate practical approach to show how high level research fertilizes organizational reflexivity and triggers change for sustainability on a societal, cultural and economic level. Hence, Daniel A. Heim, Professor at the Computer Science Department of the University of Konstanz, Germany, showed how visual analytics have a stake in solving organizational problems. Gloria Mark, Professor at the University of California, Irvine, USA, talked about the challenges that derive from informational multi-tasking. Stefan Rueger, Professor at the Knowledge Media Institute of The Open University, United Kingdom, gave a talk about “potential, automation and limits of knowledge discovery in the web” and Christian Dirschl, Head of Content Strategy Department at Wolters Kluwer Germany, gave an insight in how one of the global players in legal publishing is utilizing linked data and semantic web technologies to prepare for the next step in web-based business diversification.
The next I-SEMANTICS will take place from September 5-7, 2012 in Graz again. Hope to see you there and enjoy the impressions …

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Linked Data Camp

• Linked Data Camp (Vienna, November 30 – December 1) with keynotes from Leigh Dodds (Talis) and Michael Hausenblas (DERI Galway) – Register here!
• Vienna Semantic Web Meetup (Vienna, November 30) as evening event of the Linked Data Camp
• SAMT 2009 – 4 th International Conference on Semantic and Digital Media Technologies (Graz, December 2-4) with keynote from Ricardo Baeza-Yates (Yahoo!)
• ESTC 2009 – 3 rd European Semantic Technology Conference (Vienna, December 2-3) with keynote from Susie Stephens (Johnson&Johnson)

The Jackson tribute might have been a flop for Vienna, but this is history! So, what are you waiting for – come & join the party!

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• Linked Data Meetup in London (cloudofdata.com)

• Notification of Acceptance: Mid of May 2009
• Submission of Camera-Ready Paper: Mid of June 2009
• I-SEMANTICS ’09 Conference: 2-4 September 2009

For details please visit the conference site.

“SWC has established itself as one of the leading companies in the area of semantic technologies. SWC maintains excellent relations with the national and international Semantic Web Community. We are using semantic technologies in a number of our projects, and there is a constant need for expert contacts, information about recent development and about the needs of companies. This explains why we are very keen on gaining a partner like SWC who is able to grant us access to these communities and to this type of information. There aren’t many possible partners in Austria that have the competence and network to meet our needs – SWC is exactly the kind of partner we were looking for.“

One of the exciting projects we are embarking on together is the organization of the Triple-I 2008 conference in Graz in September. Once again, it is going to be a 3-in-1 event, as Triple-I is a joint venture of three conferences which all cover essential areas within semantic technology: I-Know, the Conference for Knowledge Management, I-Media, the Conference for New Media Technologies, and I-Semantics, the Conference for Semantic Systems. The Call for Paper is still open, and we are looking forward to your submissions:

• Call for Papers Triple-I 2008: I-Know
• Call for Papers Triple-I 2008: I-Media
• Call for Papers Triple-I 2008: I-Semantics

The conference is scheduled for 3 to 5 September 2008 – see you in Graz!