Conferences Web of Data

From semanticweb.org

This is the place to discuss the current state-of-the-art regarding the handling of conference metadata and possible future developments.

Contents 1 Where We Are 2 Where We Could Go 2.1 CWoD Manifest 2.2 Exemplary Setup 3 Interested People 4 Resources 5 Related Reading & Inspiration

[edit] Where We Are

Over the past couple of years a number of metadata chairs and SWT co-ordinators of Semantic Web conferences managed to build an impressive infrastructure. It it now possible to publish conference data such as publications, talks, etc. using stable vocabularies in a defined work flow (read more ...). At the recent ISWC2008 we have witnessed how powerful and engaging the addition of a dedicated social network for a conference can be; though still Web2.0ish and not available in RDF.

However, one may ask if this is just the beginning of more - more data, more functionality, more interaction?

[edit] Where We Could Go

In the following we take the idea further and discuss the Conferences in the Web of Data (CWoD) by applying the Linked data principles.

[edit] CWoD Manifest

What follows is the 'Conferences in the Web of Data' (CWoD) manifest, a number of requirements that enable a comprehensive realisation of representing and using conference (-related) data on the Web:

• EVERY participant has a URI (i.e. not only speaker, etc.)
  • Even if it's just their Twitter or LinkedIn page
• EVERY event has a URI (not only 'official' events such as a keynote, etc.)
• Where possible, ALL events, people, etc. are interlinked with other resources on the Web (e.g. flickr photos, video captures of talks, etc.)
• It should be straight-forward possible to integrate people's OpenIDs for ack the access of certain resources (blogs, Wikis, etc.)
• It should be straight-forward possible to gather blogs, microblogs (identi.ca, twitter, etc.), homepages of participants
  • and/ or OPML files of their RSS feeds.

[edit] Exemplary Setup

Imagine an upcoming conference xSWC that uses http://data.semanticweb.org as a base to publish data about papers and people. We envision the following to implement CWoD:

• using a true RDF-enabled social media platform such as http://paggr.com/ for hosting social stuff
  • the FOAF profile of the participants is used as the starting point (knows, interests, etc.)
  • new contacts and topics are added as participants move around the conference
  • talks, meetings, etc. are automatically proposed and updated in the participant's PIM
  • room locations are taken into account
• integrating post-conference resources such as flickr photos, video captures of talks by interlinking them with exiting conference data (such as talks, etc.)
• enabling sponsors to talk to interested parties and people
• adding social events, venue information etc.
• integrating discussions pre/post via SIOC
• lifestream wall with real-time tweets about the current sessions (as with MBC09)
• microformats on related web pages, so that, say, events can be downloaded to calendars, contacts to address books, locations to mapping tools.
• shared (and widely publicised, in advance where possible) tags for the whole event, and each session or topic, to be used across sites like Flickr, Twitter etc.

[edit] Interested People

• Michael Hausenblas, Semantic Web Technologies Co-ordinator of the ESWC2009
• Benjamin Nowack
• Dan Brickley, FOAF project and W3C Semantic Web Interest Group chair
• Harith Alani, Semantic Web Technologies Co-ordinator of the ESWC2009
• Tom Heath, former Dogfood Tsar of ESWC2006 and ISWC2007+ASWC2007, so will be tracking this out of interest but probably can't actively contribute much right now. Update: hoping to produce a personalisation service for the conference programme; more info to follow.
• Muhammad Aftab Iqbal
• Ciro Cattuto, SocioPatterns project, and general co-chair of ACM Hypertext 2009. Interested in mashing up real-world data from RFID badges with background and on-line information.
• Lora Aroyo, ESWC 2009 Program Co-Chair
• Drew Perttula, interested in collecting and publishing people's notes during conferences
• Knud Möller, Metadata Co-chair/Dogfood Tsar at ISWC+ASWC2007, 2008 and 2009, member of the team behind http://data.semanticweb.org
• Philipp Kärger, Organizer of the SPOT workshop at ESWC2009, interested in trust and privacy issues on the social/semantic web. Likes the idea of mapping real-life trust relationships to social platforms like "you can access my profile if we met at ESWC2009".
• Andy Mabbett - interested in making the above work with low-cost-of-entry tools, such as microformats and social media sites.

PLEASE ADD YOURSELF HERE

[edit] Resources

• http://data.semanticweb.org/
• http://linkeddata.org/
• http://esw.w3.org/topic/WebID
• http://paggr.com/about
• http://sioc-project.org/
• http://sti.innoraise.com/
• http://kasei.us/2007/06/tshirt.rdf -- draft t-shirt preference ontology, born out of frustration with over/under-sized conference t-shirts in horrible colours.
• http://www.sociopatterns.org/ -- real-time mining of social contacts with active RFID.

[edit] Related Reading & Inspiration

• Möller, Heath, Handschuh and Domingue (2007) Recipes for Semantic Web Dog Food - The ESWC and ISWC Metadata Projects. 6th International and 2nd Asian Semantic Web Conference (ISWC2007+ASWC2007), Busan, Korea. -- details much of the thinking behind previous dogfood efforts at ESWC/ISWC.

• Heath, Domingue and Shabajee (2006) User Interaction and Uptake Challenges to Successfully Deploying Semantic Web Technologies, Workshop on Semantic Web User Interaction (SWUI2006), 3rd International Semantic Web Conference, Athens, Georgia, USA.

• Custom PeopleBrowsr for SXSW2009 (RWW post)