]> <a href="../../BlogPost/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Kick-Off_Group_outside_2.jpg"><img width="150" height="150" src="../../BlogPost/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Kick-Off_Group_outside_2-150x150.jpg" title="LOD2 consortium horizontally" style="width:150px;height:150px;float:right;"></a>The consortium comprises expertise in Semantic Web technologies, ontological engineering, machine learning, Web search, information retrieval, databases and knowledge stores. With CWI’s reputation in the database world, LOD2 aims to substantially contribute to cross-fertilization between database and semantic web research. The LOD2 consortium has engineering power provided by TenForce, Exalead and OpenLink Software as well as dissemination and exploitation expertise provided by its innovative SMEs (Exalead, Openlink, TenForce and SWC), a large corporation (WKD) and the eGovernment and Open Knowledge communities represented in the consortium by OKFN. Within efforts such as the Linking Open Data effort, DBpedia and MonetDB (and numerous smaller community and open-source projects), the project partners demonstrated that they can achieve high-impact results. 3 CWI will be primarily involved in WP2 and work together with OpenLink on improving RDF data management with state-of-the-art database research approaches. CWI will be involved with a minor stake in WP5 in order to evaluate and adapt browsing and navigation in large-scale knowledge bases. The Stichting Centrum voor Wiskunde en Informatica (CWI) is the Dutch national research institute for mathematics and computer science. It is a private, non-profit organization located at the Science Park Amsterdam. CWI’s mission is twofold: To perform frontier research in mathematics and computer science, and to transfer new knowledge in these fields to society. This is realized by several means. In addition to the standard ways of disseminating scientific knowledge, CWI actively pursues joint projects with external partners, provides consulting services, and stimulates the creation of spin-off companies. Special efforts are made to make research results known to non-specialist circles, ranging from researchers in other disciplines to the public at large. CWI also manages the Benelux Office of the W3C and hosts both the Semantic Web Activity Lead and the chair of the XHTML and XForms Working Group. CWI has always been very successful in participating in European research programmes (e.g. VITALAS, K-SPACE, QAP, CREDO, MUSCLE, and others) and large-scale national research programmes (e.g., programmes BRICKS, MultimediaN, and VL-e; NWO Veni, Vidi, Vici grants). It has extensive experience in managing these collaborative research efforts. CWI is also strongly embedded in Dutch university research: about twenty-five of its permanent senior researchers hold part-time positions as professors at universities and many projects are carried out in cooperation with university research groups. CWI receives a basic funding from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO), amounting to about two third of the institute’s total income. The remaining third is obtained through national research programmes, international programmes, and contract research commissioned by industry. CWI hosts a staff of 235 full time employees, 50 permanent scientific staff, 135 temporary scientific staff, and 50 support staff. The Information Systems (INS) group led by Prof. Dr. Martin Kersten is participating in the LOD2 proposal. 2 Exalead will contribute and advance components of its search engine infrastructure, with emphasis on semantic linked data and search on linked data. Exalead search technology will be adapted and integrated as a component in the LOD2 Stack. An open search API will be developed to browse and access to the semantic linked data. As an (application) service provider in corporate environments, Exalead will lead the specification, setup and implementation of the enterprise use case (WP8). In addition to this, Exalead will provide a prominent channel for exploiting this use case and the outcomes of the LOD2 project as a whole. Founded in 2000 by search engine pioneers, Exalead is a global software provider in the enterprise and Web search markets. Exalead worldwide client base includes leading companies such as Price Waterhouse Cooper, Michelin, American Greetings and Sanofi Pasteur, and more than 100 million unique users a month use Exalead's technology for search. Today, Exalead is reshaping the digital content landscape with a platform that uses advanced semantic technologies to bring structure, meaning and accessibility to previously unused or under-utilized data in the disparate, heterogeneous enterprise information cloud. The system collects data from virtually any source, in any format, and transforms it into structured, pervasive, contextualized building blocks of business information that can be directly searched and queried, or used as the foundation for a new breed of lean, innovative information access applications. Exalead's technology provides users with a single access point to information, regardless of format or location. Its patented Search by Serendipity® navigation system adapts to user habits. Exalead devotes substantial efforts in supporting research and innovation for helping customers succeed and to be in the forefront of emerging technology developments. Therefore, Exalead is engaged in European and French research projects with academic partners and some of the industry's top research organizations to forge new ground in the analysis, classification and usage of digital multimedia content, ranging from text, speech, and music to images and video. 8 Freie University Berlin will bring in expertise, tools and outreach capabilities to LOD2: (1) FUB has developed and maintains the Silk – Link Discovery Framework and Link Quality Assurance Workbench, which will be significantly extended and integrated into the LOD2 Stack. (2) FUB has developed D2R Server, the most widely used tool for publishing relational databases as Linked Data on the Web. D2R Server will be used for the domain complementation task in WP3 and will be included together with Pubby and Silk into the LOD2 Stack (WP6). (3) Within WP10 Training, Dissemination, community building, FUB will use its existing community building (initiator of W3C LOD) and outreach capabilities (Linked Data on the Web (LDOW) workshop series, Semantic Web Challenge competition series) to maximize the impact of LOD2. The Web-based Systems Group at Freie Universität Berlin explores technical and economic questions concerning the development of global, decentralized information environments. Its current focus lies on the publication and interlinking of structured data on the Web using Semantic Web technologies. The group has initialized several widely used open source software projects including D2RQ, D2R Server, RAP – RDF API for PHP, and NG4G – Named Graphs API for Jena. The group contributes to several open data publishing efforts including DBpedia and the W3C Linking-Open-Data project which aims at interlinking large numbers of data sources on the Web. The Web-based Systems Group is active within the World Wide Web Consortium where it has contributed to the SPARQL recommendation and participates in the Semantic Web Education and Outreach activity. The group maintains strong research ties with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Hewlett-Packard Labs, and the Open Archives Initiative. 4 NUIG will guarantee technical excellence in reliable large-scale data processing with the same practices which have been daily driving the works behind the Sindice and Sig.ma projects. NUIG will provide the relevance, feasibility and consensus of the initiative thanks to the continuous interaction between the Linked Data community and the Linked Data Research Centre, a cross institute initiative. National University of Ireland, Galway (NUI, Galway) - Digital Enterprise Research Institute (DERI) is one of the main actors in research and development of semantic technologies in the world. NUIG performs research in the Semantic Web, social networks, sensor network platforms and applies its research results to solve integration problems in various application-oriented projects in eLearning, eGovernment, eBusiness, and eHealth. NUIG develops advanced Semantic Web infrastructures, such as Semantically Interlinked Online Communities (SIOC), semantic search engines (SWSE, Sindice), and platforms for running large-scale, data-intensive experiments, which facilitate collaborative social working environments, scalable storage and reasoning engines, distributed computing, and ontology development. NUIG actively participates in and leads research funded by the EU FP7 program (FAST, Romulus, Okkam, CONET, PECES, iMP), the EU FP6 program (DIP, SUPER, SemanticGov, NEPOMUK, TripCom, RIDE), Science Foundation Ireland (LION) and Enterprise Ireland (SAOR, eLITE). National University of Ireland, Galway (NUI, Galway) - Digital Enterprise Research Institute (DERI) is one of the main actors in research and development of semantic technologies in the world. NUIG performs research in the Semantic Web, social networks, sensor network platforms and applies its research results to solve integration problems in various application-oriented projects in eLearning, eGovernment, eBusiness, and eHealth. NUIG develops advanced Semantic Web infrastructures, such as Semantically Interlinked Online Communities (SIOC), semantic search engines (SWSE, Sindice), and platforms for running large-scale, data-intensive experiments, which facilitate collaborative social working environments, scalable storage and reasoning engines, distributed computing, and ontology development. NUIG actively participates in and leads research funded by the EU FP7 program (FAST, Romulus, Okkam, CONET, PECES, iMP), the EU FP6 program (DIP, SUPER, SemanticGov, NEPOMUK, TripCom, RIDE), Science Foundation Ireland (LION) and Enterprise Ireland (SAOR, eLITE). 3 Adaptation of the LOD2 Stack for PublicData.eu Support with legal mechanisms for knowledge sharing and with open standards. Research and consultation with end-user communities. Dissemination and communication with relevant knowledge users and providers. The Open Knowledge Foundation (OKF) is a not-for-profit organization founded in 2004 and dedicated to promoting open knowledge in all its forms. It is a European leader in this field and prominent on the international stage. The Foundation has pioneered work in developing robust legal mechanisms for sharing data - and has taken a central role in helping to develop standards for openness in knowledge and services. It also works on the infrastructure for open data users and producers. This includes CKAN, a community driven resource for open data, which is currently being used by the UK Government for its Data.gov.uk project, and KForge, a suite of tools for knowledge development being used by academic researchers and civic software developers. Finally it hosts a number of open data and content projects, from a web application to represent UK public finance using best of breed visualization technologies to project to a database of artistic works that have fallen into the public domain. Crucially the Foundation acts as a hub, drawing together representatives from across the knowledge society - from academics, public servants and entrepreneurs to data experts, archivists and web developers. Forums, workshops and an annual conference serve to strengthen this network. The Open Knowledge Foundation (OKF) is a not-for-profit organization founded in 2004 and dedicated to promoting open knowledge in all its forms. It is a European leader in this field and prominent on the international stage. The Foundation has pioneered work in developing robust legal mechanisms for sharing data - and has taken a central role in helping to develop standards for openness in knowledge and services. It also works on the infrastructure for open data users and producers. This includes CKAN, a community driven resource for open data, which is currently being used by the UK Government for its Data.gov.uk project, and KForge, a suite of tools for knowledge development being used by academic researchers and civic software developers. Finally it hosts a number of open data and content projects, from a web application to represent UK public finance using best of breed visualization technologies to project to a database of artistic works that have fallen into the public domain. Crucially the Foundation acts as a hub, drawing together representatives from across the knowledge society - from academics, public servants and entrepreneurs to data experts, archivists and web developers. Forums, workshops and an annual conference serve to strengthen this network. 10 OpenLink contributes in particular to developing the scalable LOD2 knowledge store (WP2); to track and inference about data provenance and reliability; to support personalized views on knowledge and spatial data; alerts on data; to contribute to standardization activities regarding the integration of semantic and spatial technologies. OpenLink Software is a United Kingdom SME founded in 1992. It operates a business development and sales subsidiary in the United States. Most product development takes place within the EU, across the UK, Netherlands and Bulgaria. The company is a leading provider of high-performance, scalable, and secure technology covering: data access drivers, data virtualization middleware; native database management (RDBMS or RDF based Graph Store), and enterprise collaboration. Respective product portfolio offerings include: OpenLink High-Performance Drivers for ODBC, JDBC, ADO.NET, OLE-DB, and XMLA; Virtuoso Universal Server; and OpenLink Data Spaces for socially enhanced personal and/or enterprise collaboration. OpenLink has extensive experience in scalable RDF triple (and quad) stores as a result of extending its native Virtuoso database/SQL engine to incorporate SPARQL query language support. Virtuoso also includes powerful Linked Data Deployment and RDF to RDBMS transformation functionality. It offers management and creation of physical and virtual triples in conjunctions with the ability to declaratively produce RDF views of SQL Data (SQL to RDF mapping). OpenLink possess pioneering experience at both the applications and data management levels within the Semantic Web technology realm. OpenLink is a W3C member, an active participant in the W3C Semantic Web Education and Outreach (SWEO) Interest Group, a key member of the Linking Open Data project, and timeless supporter of the Open Data Movement. OpenLink is a DBpedia project co-creator and has hosted live instances of the DBpedia database since project inception. As a consortium member, OpenLink will leverage its experience with local and distributed query processing, SQL and SPARQL query optimization, RDF store and heterogeneous data integration technologies en route to developing an integrated database backbone for the LOD2 project. 5 SWC adopt the tool Poolparty, a self-developed modeling tool for corporate thesauri, as a component for the LOD2 stack. SWC will provide its expertise in technology assessment and business development when it comes to evaluate the economic rationale, organisational effects and the commercial potential of semantic web technologies. SWC will investigate governance and regulatory issues such as competition, IPR issues and privacy thereby contributing to the use cases in WP 7, 8 & 9. Our expertise in communicating the principles, technologies and especially business needs for semantic web applications on the one hand and the „translation“ of practical problems into technological concepts on the other hand will help to disseminate the findings beyond the scope of the use cases. Semantic Web Company (SWC), based in Vienna, is an SME, which offers consulting services in the fields of semantic web technologies, knowledge management systems and social software since 2005. Besides being one of the first European suppliers of consulting services in semantic web technologies and related topics, SWC is the founder of the I-SEMANTICS conference series, one of Europe’s largest industry outreach events in the field of semantic systems and knowledge management, which will take place for the 6th time in 2010. The mission of SWC is to narrow the gap between industry and academia R&D in semantic systems and to accelerate the time to market process of semantic web-technologies. By providing practice-oriented knowledge transfer SWC help companies and public organizations to integrate and apply semantic technologies for various purposes such as data integration, resource management and knowledge management. SWC communicates benefits and risks of semantic applications in corporate environments to developers and decision makers and serves organizations from the life sciences, insurance, energy and the media. SWC has built a special media focus over the last years specializing in business development aspects through semantic (web) technologies. SWC acts as a hub of a wide network of industry partners (software industry, end-user organizations), other Networks (Know Center Graz, Salzburg Research, Austrian Computer Society, W3C, PWM - Platform for Knowledge Management) and academic and research partners throughout Europe. 6 TenForce brings in LOD2: (1) thorough expertise in industrial implementation of taxonomies and metadata for automatic categorization and content management, (2) hands-on experience in conducting large-scale projects in this matter, such as portals for Wolters Kluwers Europe and the European Commission, (3) the capacity to deliver product quality thanks to years’ experience in engineering methodologies when building software products. TenForce is a Belgian software company specialized in delivering pragmatic solutions for complex problems. TenForce has years of international experience in knowledge management combined with an in-depth expertise in emerging technologies. Besides designing, marketing and supporting their in-house product – a web-based management environment for project and operational activities – , they conduct several projects on European scale focusing on modelling complex systems. Delivering services in high-end semantic technology for industrial purposes is their core business: taxonomy management systems, generic portal technology for international publishers or the European Commission. Next to this TenForce has extensive experience in building, integrating and setting up corporate and web-based applications in several industries: telecom, services, banking, manufacturing. Already in 2001 TenForce developed a Thesaurus Management System for Wolters Kluwer Belgium that is still being fine-tuned and maintained today. Since 2007 TenForce has been building a multilingual multipurpose publishing solution for Wolters Kluwer Legal, Tax & Regulatory Europe – based on semantic technology (OWL, RDF). Using the same technologies, TenForce is building a Thesaurus Management System for the Office of Official Publications of the European Commission (OPOCE) since summer 2008. In this project the so-called EUROVOC-thesaurus is made available through an online portal, for which an extension to existing SKOS standards needed to be defined. Another TenForce project on a European scale - called EURES -, scopes to make similar sets of information available through SPARQL end-points and as Linked Open Data, besides the latter web services. 7 Project coordination; develop knowledge structuring and enrichment algorithms as well as browsing, visualization and authoring interfaces; collaborate with OKFN in order to employ LOD2 results in the PublicData.eu use case. Universität Leipzig is one of the oldest (founded 1409) and largest (30.000 students) universities in Germany and focuses on interdisciplinary research in the life sciences, cognitive sciences and linguistics as well as mathematics and computer science. The Institute for Applied Computer Science (InfAI) at Universität Leipzig hosts world class research groups in service sciences, knowledge engineering and management as well as natural language processing. The approximately 20 researchers of the Agile Knowledge Engineering and Semantic Web (AKSW) research group at InfAI are establishing theoretical results and scalable implementations for the field. Particular emphasis is given to areas such as ontology creation and manipulation, knowledge extraction, ontology learning and information & data integration on the Semantic Web. The implemented tools and services developed by the group enjoy considerable popularity, the open-source semantic web framework OntoWiki for example is downloaded more than 500 times each month and applied in usage scenarios ranging from the authoring of bio-medical ontologies to knowledge management for the enterprise. InfAI is leading several large-scale collaborative research projects on the national and EU levels such as OntoWiki (EU FP7), Internet Media Businesses (EU SMART), PreBIS (German BmbF) and Factory ServNet (Eureka) and participates in many more. 1 WKD will primarily work on adapting and evaluating the LOD2 Stack for media and publishing, as well as contribute to the PublicData.eu use case, due to the experience as a publisher with governmental information. Wolters Kluwer Deutschland GmbH (WKD) is part of Wolters Kluwer n.v., a leading global information services and publishing company. The company provides products and services for professionals in the health, tax, accounting, corporate, financial services, legal and regulatory sectors. Wolters Kluwer has annual revenues (2008) of €3.4 billion, employs approximately 18,400 people worldwide and maintains operations in 20 European countries, North America and Asia Pacific. Wolters Kluwer is headquartered in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. WKD is involved in LOD2 with its dedicated “Business development and Strategy” department. This department is e.g. responsible for strategic product development and innovation. It analyzes trends in the IT and publishing market as well as in the professional environment of the customers and investigates important trends and how they will influence the future of WKD. WKD is a legal publisher, aiming at legal and financial professionals. Main target groups are lawyers, tax advisers, companies (e.g. HR departments), social and health insurances, public administrations and schools. In addition, one business unit is dealing with B2C customers, mainly offering software for income tax return. The media portfolio spreads from traditional paper books, magazines and loose-leafs to mere software solutions, including also offline, online and intranet solutions. Main brands are “Carl Heymanns Verlag”, “Luchterhand”, “Addison Software”, “CW Haarfeld”, “Deutscher Wirtschaftsdienst” and “Carl Link”. International Subject Matter Expert (SME) teams like the “European Content Core Team” or the global “SME team on Associative Retrieval” use e.g. collaboration tools and video presentations on a regular basis in order to transfer best practices and know-how into all WK branches. The project members are also part of a number of these teams and will thus disseminate LOD2 results to all WK branches worldwide. Dedicated interest in LOD2 was e.g. already signalled e.g. from Wolters Kluwer Spain. 9