The Knowledge Web Network of Excellence kick-off meeting was held over two days (3-4, February) of glorious early spring weather at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM) on the outskirts of Madrid. As usual, our Spanish hosts were both friendly and efficient. The biggest problem experienced by most participants was getting the Madrid taxi drivers to understand the directions provided to get to UPM (even though these were in Spanish!). KMi participants were Professor Motta and Dr Stutt.
KnowledgeWeb started on 1st January and will last for 4 years. Its is funded under the EU Framework VI and has three main strands: Industrial, Research and Education. Attentive readers of Planet will notice some similarity between our logo and that of the Prolearn Temple illustrated in Peter Scott's story from December last year. Great minds! KMi (which can expect to receive the equivalent of nearly 400,000 Euros from the NoE) has particular responsibilities for the educational outreach strand of the network.
Our main task in the NOE is to create a semantic platform for learning, adding semantic technologies such as Magpie to more conventional learning environments. While we will concentrate in the first instance on the use of Magpie, other KMi technologies such as Hexagon, Buddyspace, D3E and IRS will also form part of the KnowledgeWeb technological infrastructure.
KMi will also be involved in the organization and running of the 2nd European Summer School on Ontological Engineering and the Semantic Web (SSSW-2004). This summer school for postgraduate students is the second in a series following on from the highly successful school held last year in Cercidilla, near Madrid.
Apart from furthering its links with the burgeoning research community in Spain, and with the Learning Lab Lower Saxony, KnowledgeWeb gives KMi the opportunity to further its work on the provision of enhanced learning environments and to extend its influence on the direction research on the Semantic Web will take in Europe over the next decade.
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