Take advantage of Early Bird rates until the end of April for
Knowledge Organization – Making a difference. ISKO UK BIENNIAL CONFERENCE – 13/14 July 2015, London
Details, fees, and a great draft programme are available at: http://www.iskouk.org/content/knowledge-organization-making-difference
Registration at: https://www.conftool.net/iskouk2015/
The systematic and structured organization of knowledge and information has far-reaching applications, best known in the search, browsing, navigation and exploration of collections and networks. But despite this capability, "what use is classification nowadays?" some people ask. "The era of the physical library is fading, and Google will find whatever we want." This widely held view forgets the way organized collections of scientific and cultural literature have underpinned study and development throughout the last 2-3 millennia, and neglects our current and future reliance on knowledge organization (KO). It ignores the current capabilities and upcoming potential of KO techniques and networked KOSs, not just to provide sophisticated access to a world of existing knowledge, but also to stimulate and support new discoveries.
This conference aims to explore, justify and proclaim the continuing demand for KO. It will be a showcase for R & D that offers benefits for cultural activities and economic development, and an opportunity to consider the impact that KO has had, is having and will have.
Who should attend
This conference caters amply for practitioners alongside theoreticians, including consultants, researchers, teachers and students. Knowledge Organization is useful to systems designers as well as information managers, with applications in areas as diverse as web design, records management, digital libraries and asset management, network management, etc. Sharing ideas is the way to advance your own thinking – do come and join the discussions!
Some highlights
· As Keynote speakers we have Alan Gilchrist and Dagobert Soergel, both influential writers and speakers in our field. While Gilchrist reflects on the advances already achieved through KO, Soergel looks to a future in which KO structures enable connections, inferencing, understanding and exploiting information.
· Patrick Lambe, already a popular speaker at our past conferences, returns to urge a proactive role for KO professionals in designing and developing networked knowledge environments. He will also facilitate an interactive fishbowl session for all of us to discuss what we can do in the workplace to implement KO effectively and raise its profile.
· Joining us from the USA, Joseph Busch will share his extensive consultancy experience in applying classification principles both in-house and on the Web.
· "Using Knowledge Organization Systems requires proper tools to manage them" is the declaration of Johannes Keizer and Caterina Caracciolo from the FAO , where the AGRIS database has evolved to become a KOS-based Linked Open Data web application underpinned by VocBench, a state of the art editor for KOS enabling automatic alignment of vocabularies.
There are many more speakers in the provisional programme at http://www.iskouk.org/content/knowledge-organization-making-difference, where you can also find details such as venue and registration fees. To make a booking you will need to go to https://www.conftool.net/iskouk2015/ and set up a user account. An early bird discount applies until 30th April, so don't delay in booking your place!
On behalf of ISKO UK, we look forward to seeing you there,
Anna Harvey
ISKO UK publicity
