| STI International Offsite 2009 |
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"Sure miss Kalamaki..." The overwhelming sentiment loudly whispered during the 6th European Semantic Web Conference following this year's Offsite. By the first eve of the 2nd STI International Offsite, attendees were already congratulating the organizers on how they'd out done themselves compared to the year prior. The quaint island town of Kalamaki - more or less an intersection, a couple simple hotels, a string of cafes and restaurants on the beach, and of course the quintessential disco - provided a unique setting where attendees were encouraged to engage in informal discussion about common research challenges and recent accomplishments, finally match faces to names they'd been citing or even collaborating with over the past year, and perhaps meet some of the prominent invited speakers and participants; STI International has without a doubt found the new home for our annual meeting.
The breadth of international researchers - ranging from graduate students to habilitated professors - gathered together to share research interests, to formulate optimistic goals of STI International as a global networking organization for the next year, and to establish beneficial relationships with fellow researchers and developers in the progressing field of semantic technologies. This year saw close to 100 attendees from over 19 geographically dispersed organizations, attracting almost 30% female participants, and 100% participants with a partiality towards Mediterranean beaches.
The STI Education Service Coordinator and head organizer of the event, Dr. Elena Simperl, opened the offsite with a short presentation about STI International and our accomplishments since last year; highlights included the acquisition of over 40 member organizations, the establishment of the Future Internet Symposium, and the development of a training and certification program under the name Semsphere, STI International's first spin-off. The audience was then shown a short video on the Future Internet in order to provide younger researchers with a comical glimpse of a new research domain to come. Additional multimedia entertainment included the winning video of last year's STI International Elevator Pitch Challenge focusing on the reasons to become a STI International member. This year participants were challenged to describe a historic moment in the development of the Semantic Web in a five minute video presentation. After the group partners for the video challenge had a chance to meet one another, the poster/demo session opened allowing researchers of the STI International network to discuss their ongoing work and show off their most recent results.
The second day opened with a lecture entitled Computer Science: A Unifying Theory for Science by Prof. Dieter Fensel, STI Vice President of Strategic Affairs. The talk explained the encompassing role of computer science when applied to fields such as mathematics, physics, and biology; the intriguing session optimistically concluded that while computer science can rightly look back upon scientific discovery and provide an appropriate conceptual framework and model - particularly when analyzing the natural sciences - the next challenge for young researchers is to use the same frameworks and models to support the future progression of all natural sciences. Dr. Tom Heath from the Platform Division of Talis Information Limited - the recipient of the STI Ph.D. of the Year 2009 - then presented his work on synergies between the Web and social networks which enhance the process of obtaining relevant and trustworthy information. He explained how one can use semantic technologies - in concert with the sociological approach aimed at understanding how people choose word of mouth information sources from among members of their social groups - to build Semantic Web-based systems that support people in information seeking through their trusted social networks.
In the afternoon we took a break from the lectures and headed to the football pitch for a hard fought match between the STI Innsbruck and STI International; the International side triumphantly defended their title, though this year saw a fairer, evenly fought match compared to last year's battle. Time was short to put together the challenge videos, so congratulatory toasts and boastful cheers were saved for the evening, following the offsite dinner and presentation from STI President Prof. John Domingue providing comical insight to the institutes of STI International. Then it was off to the our favorite disco for midnight birthday celebrations and jigs to Zorba the Greek.
Albeit the late hours, the chairs gradually filled up the next morning for Prof. Hans Akkermans' talk entitled Semantics and Pragmatics of Self-Organizing Services over the Web. Then came the presentation of the STI Challenge videos before we broke for lunch, allowing the jury to ultimately decide the videos of Groups 4 and 5 were worthy of winning the STI International Video Challenge 2009. The official STI Offsite 2009 program came to a close with several growing traditions: the trophy presentation to the STI International football team, gifts of appreciation to the event organizers, a sincere thank you from the former President, the birthday cake for Dr. Elena Simperl, and of course throwing the STI President in the pool, as well as several other innocent bystanders.
But for those who stuck around for an extra day before flying back home or heading north for the 6th European Semantic Web Conference, STI International organized a day-long excursion to Matala to see the famous caves which slide into the sea at an odd angle, creating one of the most unusual beachscapes on the island. The week slowed to an end as the reluctant researchers packed up and said their melancholy goodbyes, each knowing the next week would start with an overflowed inbox and the stress of "pre-summer break" deadlines. Well worth it, as the testimonies read. In my eyes, seeing notable professors having a cup of coffee with younger graduate students discussing an array of topics ranging from drawbacks of abstract state machines to sites worth seeing in Heraklion is proof itself that STI International Offsite 2009 was a success.
So from our side we'd just like to again express our gratitude, rehashing what our President so eloquently remarked upon his inauguration: STI International is only as strong as our members. And events like the Offsite go to show how strong our members are.
Offsite 2009: Paticipant Testimonies | Chllange Videos | Event Photos STI Symposium 2010: Join the Mailing List
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