Category: announcements

Australian politics might dominate the landscape in Canberra during the day and politicians swell the bars in the evening, but linked open data helps anyone to make good connections!

rain + night + driving | swirling thoughts | CC by-nc 2.0

The Canberra Linked Open Data – Libraries, Archives Museums (LODLAM) minibar will be held on Tuesday 27th March, 2012 from 5.30-6.30pm. We will meet in the Fellows Bar and Cafe, University House at the Australian National University.

Those local to Canberra and in the library, archives, museum and gallery world of metadata and web development, or gov2 enthusiasts or those attending the Australasian Digital Humanities 2012 conference may wish to find peers and interested in attending the lodlam minibar. The Fellows Bar at University House is about 5 minutes walk from the Shine Dome (where the conference is being held).

The event is a means to:

• Get to know each other – let’s all get a drink from the bar and we do some introductions
• Get some shared understanding – let’s collate some information about what people are doing, ask questions and do some quick brain storming

lodlam attendees may like to head out to dinner to continue the conversation about linked open data (and perhaps digital humanities use of LOD too) in smaller groups.

Postscript:

We had about 18 people gather together to talk linked open data – libraries, archives, museums. From University of Queensland, Anna Gerber and Kerry Kilner; from the Australian War Memorial Roby Van Dyk, Adam Bell, Liz Holcolmbe; from University of Melbourne eScholarship Research Centre, Gavan McCarthy; from University of Western Sydney, Peter Sefton; from Deakin University, Deb Verhoeven; from Victoria University of Wellington, Sydney Shep; from Auckland War Memorial Museum, Russell Briggs; and last but definitely not least, Mia Ridge, PhD candidate from the Open University (UK).. and Oyvind Eide, PhD candidate at King’s College, London (UK). There were a handful of others, but I think the pong from the scratch and sniff ice cream stickers was affecting my capacity to memorise who was there… who I’ve missed, feel free to advise or correct me.

The upshot was, we shared our interest, questions, potential projects, desire to regroup again, so, here’s the takeaway:

• A number of people in the group (from Australia) are working on the HuNI project (Humanities Networked Infrastructure) NeCTAR funded virtual laboratory project (which aims to start in May and goes for 2 years). Linked data is going to be a key aspect of this project. It is being led out of Deakin University.
• There is another NeCTAR funded research tools project, Aust-ESE which will involve linked data, led out of University of Queensland.
• Anna Gerber talked about how ITEE eResearch Group at University of Queensland has been focusing efforts around the use of RDF and linked data with their open annotation work.
• Gavan McCarthy talked about how Melbourne eScholarship has been using linked data in their projects.
• Peter Sefton talked about how he’s been interested and working with linked data in his application development work.
• The Trans-Tasman ‘museums folks’ talked about an ongoing, and stronger collaboration around WWI data to enable them to contribute to centenary commemorations of WWI in 2014.
• A Melbourne #lodlam date was set, 17th April, more information will be coming, check with @elyw or @elewhitworth for more information or watch for blog posts soon.
• A Brisbane #lodlam date was mooted, 26th August, to time with a possible THATCamp, the 2012 International Council of Archives Congress check with @wragge and @annagerber for more information or watch for more blog posts soon.
• A clear idea that a Sydney #lodlam event, late October/early November, to align with the eResearch Australasia 2012, and needs to have 3 sessions: a tech session, a content session, a mixed session, so that all parties (developer, scholar, collection manager, etc) can all get their heads around the work space. Check with @1n9r1d @dfflanders @richardlehane for more information or watch for more blog posts soon.

That’s all folks! See you at the next #lodlam Australian Style!

I’m very excited to pass on the announcement of an upcoming event put together by Corey Harper, Jason Kucsma and Ben Vershbow.

From Corey:

Please note that the smaller afternoon session has already filled up there is now a wait list, but we still have slots open for the morning plenary session.

http://www.metro.org/en/art/488/

Best,
-Corey

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LOD-LAM-NYC: A Day of Linked Data Discussion & Activities for the NY Metropolitan Area

Thurs, Feb 23, 9:00am-6:00pm

There is no fee to attend, but registration is required.

Following the success of the LOD-LAM Summit (http://lod-lam.net/summit/) in June, 2011, discussions of Cultural Heritage Linked Data have continued at a variety of Regional LOD-LAM (Linked Open Data for Libraries, Archives, and Museums) events. These events, characterized by their “Unconference” style and focus on cutting edge Semantic Web technologies, have continued to further the goals defined in the World Wide Web Consortiums Library Linked Data Incubator Report and the various outputs of the Stanford Linked Data
Workshop.

Continuing this conversation, we would like to announce LOD-LAM-NYC, two related events that add up to a day of Linked Data discussions for the Cultural Heritage Sector in the NY Metropolitan Area on February 23, 2012. The event will be comprised of two separate sessions, a morning plenary, and a smaller afternoon “hands-on” workshop. While these events are being offered free-of-charge, separate registration is required for each (see below for links).

This event, co-organized by METRO, The New York Public Library’s NYPL Labs, and New York University, sponsored by METRO, and hosted by NYPL, will accommodate 175 attendees for the morning sessions. The afternoon workshop will be smaller, with space for up to 40 participants.

Learn more & register at http://www.metro.org/en/art/488/.