This year’s ACM Hypertext and Social Media conference highlighted the exceptional contributions of KMi members, with many taking on key roles; Enrico Motta delivered a keynote speech at the opening ceremony on the 10th of September, setting a high tone for the event.

Several KMi colleagues played vital roles in organising this successful conference. As Programme Chair, Alessio Antonini took great pride in collaborating with Paul Mulholland as Track Chair, Iman Naja as Workshop Chair, and Angelo Salatino, who served as the Practitioners & Industry Chair. Their contributions were publicly acknowledged, with The Open University (OU) and KMi also recognized as conference sponsors, receiving praise for their exceptional efforts and support.

(Image caption: A 2-minute presentation during the opening of the exhibition of practitioners and industry demos.)

The picture above shows the opening of the demo session with individual 2-minute presentations of practitioners and industry systems and tools. The conference also hosted the first edition of the International Teaching and Research in Hypertext summer school, a practitioners and industry systems and tools exhibition with 11 demos and six curated exhibitions of electronic literature.

(Image caption: Dialogue with an author during the of electronic literature exhibition)

Special mentions go to OU colleagues Edmund King and Andrew Gargett, both served as Track Chairs. Shafquat Towheed delivered a poignant Keynote, and Harriett Cornish designed the conference logo and website style.

(Image caption: OU Shafquat Towheed keynote on the Future of Reading)

It is noteworthy that two of the four papers submitted by The OU were nominated for the prestigious ACM Hypertext Douglas Engelbart Best Paper Award, highlighting KMi’s academic influence and leadership in interdisciplinary research at The OU.

The first paper, titled “@TellMeWhatUReadingbot: the Multi-modal Strategy of the READ-IT Project for Collecting Experiences of Reading,” is co-authored by Francesca Benatti, Shafquat Towheed (English and Creative Writing), Sally Blackburn-Daniels (formerly OU), and Alessio Antonini (KMi). This paper is a key outcome of the EU JPI-funded READ-IT project.

The second paper was written by Paul Mulholland, Jason Carvalho, and Enrico Daga from KMi, along with Peter van Kranenburg from the University of Utrecht. Titled “Supporting the End-User Curation of Cultural Heritage Knowledge Graphs,” it is a product of the EU Horizon Polifonia project.

This year’s conference not only showcased innovative research but also KMi’s commitment to advancing the field.

(Image caption: Picture of conference attendance at the end of the conference)

The ACM Hypertext & Social Media 2024 conference focuses on the latest research and advancements in hypertext, hypermedia, and social media. It explores topics such as content linking, data analytics, and online behaviour, fostering interdisciplinary dialogue in these fields.

Related links:

@TellMeWhatUReadingbot: the Multi-modal Strategy of the READ-IT Project for Collecting Experiences of Reading https://oro.open.ac.uk/99037/

Supporting the End-User Curation of Cultural Heritage Knowledge Graphs ​​https://oro.open.ac.uk/99120/

Conference website https://ht.acm.org/ht2024/

International Teaching and Research in Hypertext https://ht.acm.org/ht2024/workshops/intr-ht-summer-school/