A short while ago the Semantic Web Journal was launched. Pascal Hitzler and Krzysztof Janowicz are editors-in-chief and AKSW’s Sören Auer serves on the editorial board. The journal published by IOS Press differs from other journals, in particular, since it follows an open and transparent peer-review process, which engages a wider community besides expert reviews. Supported by its young and agile editorial board, the SWJ can be expected to bring a lot of fresh wind to an already aging Semantic Web community. Since SWJ just started, it is right now a perfect time to submit an article to SWJ or propose a special issue. Please check out: http://www.semantic-web-journal.net.

Due to the rising interest in our LinkedGeoData project and the growth of the underlying OpenStreetMap database, we expanded the AKSW server infrastructure. LinkedGeoData will gradually move to a new server running Debian within the next weeks. This server runs on a virtual machine inside a new cluster at the University of Leipzig. Resources (memory, CPU, hard disk) can be allocated dynamically (of course limited by financial restrictions) such that we hope to keep up with the growth of the project. The first LinkedGeoData applications to move on the new server will be the Linked Data interface and the LGD Browser.

We decided to open source the code for the LinkedGeoData project and move it to Google Code:
http://code.google.com/p/linkedgeodata/

Initially, we will migrate the Triplify code, the LinkedGeoData browser, and the DBpedia mapping code into the repository. Naturally, it will take a while for the migrated code base to work as expected.

We will use the issue tracker as a central means for organising code enhancements. If you find bugs or have feature requests, please add them: http://code.google.com/p/linkedgeodata/issues/list

We’ve announced LESS today - an end-to-end approach for the syndication and use of linked data based on the definition of visualization templates for linked data resources and SPARQL query results.

Such syndication templates are edited, published and shared by using LESS’ collaborative Web platform. Templates for common types of entities can then be combined with specific, linked data resources or SPARQL query results and integrated into a wide range of applications, such as personal homepages, blogs/wikis, mobile widgets etc.

LESS and further information and documentation can be found at:

http://less.aksw.org

Particular thanks go to Raphael Doering (Netresearch) who performed most of the development work and to Sebastian Dietzold (AKSW) for contributing in various ways.

OKCon, now in its fifth year, is the interdisciplinary conference that brings together individuals from across the open knowledge spectrum for a day of presentations and workshops.

Open knowledge promises significant social and economic benefits in a wide range of areas from governance to science, from culture to technology. Opening up access to content and data can radically increase access and reuse; improving transparency, fostering innovation and increasing societal welfare.

In addition to high-profile initiatives such as Wikipedia, OpenStreetMap and the Human Genome Project, there is enormous growth among open knowledge projects and communities at all levels. Moreover, in the last year, many governments across the world began to open up their data.

And it doesn’t stop there. In academia, open access to both publications and data has been gathering momentum, and similar calls to open up learning materials have been heard in education. Furthermore, this gathering flood of open data and content is the creator and driver of massive technological change. How can we make this data available, how can we interlink it, how can we use it to collaborate and share our work?

• where: London, UK
• when: Saturday 24th April, 2010
• www: http://www.okfn.org/okcon/
• cfp: http://www.okfn.org/okcon/cfp/ (deadline: Jan 31st 2010)
• hashtag: #okcon2010