Open Semantic Data Association
The Open Semantic Data Association e.V. (OSDA) is a non-profit organization that has emerged from the SMW Project to support one of the main motives of developing Semantic MediaWiki: using open semantic data to support education and the free access to information. OSDA therefore aims at supporting
- the creation and distribution of open data,
- the use of open machine-readable data formats that simplify re-use and distribution,
- the development of free software tools for these purposes.
OSDA believes that Semantic MediaWiki and related Open Source projects provide ideal tools for achieving these goals, but that additional organizational support is needed to bring the technological achievements to their full potential in applications. One example activity of OSDA therefore is to support the organization of the regular SMWCon meetings that bring together the Open Source user and developer community around Semantic MediaWiki.
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About OSDA
OSDA is organized as a charitable registered association under German law (gemeinnütziger eingetragener Verein, VR 3603, Amtsgericht Karlsruhe) seated in Karlsruhe, Germany. It is legally required to operate as a not-for-profit organization that only pursues the charitable goals set forth in its statutes. OSDA has been founded on 3rd March 2011 and was officially announced as a registered association on 2nd August 2011.
Importantly, OSDA does not generally represent Semantic MediaWiki or any of its related projects or organizations, even though some members of OSDA may be closely affiliated with these. However, OSDA can occasionally act as a representative organization for specific activities, such as when applying for an award or funding programs, to represent related Open Source projects that otherwise do not have an official organization to support them. Naturally, this is only done in close cooperation with the responsible maintainer, and it does not mean that OSDA represents the project in other matters. Likewise, OSDA is convinced that its charitable goals have wide support in the related communities, but it does not represent a particular community as a whole (though its members may reflect a range of important viewpoints found in related communities).
The OSDA is a volunteer organization that does not currently have any employees. A small Management Board is in charge of the practical operations. A Steering Committee of OSDA members discusses important matters and takes decisions on the activities of the OSDA. As of 2011, the OSDA Management Board is comprised of:
- President: Markus Krötzsch, University of Oxford
- Vice president: Yaron Koren, WikiWorks
- Treasurer: Frank Dengler, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
The OSDA Steering Committee includes the members of the Management Board and the following members:
- Michael Cariaso, SNPedia.com
- Jeroen De Dauw, independent
- Daniel Hansch, ontoprise GmbH
- Joel Natividad, Ontodia, LLC
- Lydia Pintscher, KDE
- Don Undeen, Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Denny Vrandecic, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
- Jesse Wang, Vulcan Inc.
Activities
OSDA has been founded in March 3, 2011, and officially announced as a registered association on August 2, 2011. An important part of its work is the co-organization and facilitation of the SMWCon meetings. The OSDA Steering Committee decides on the time and place of SMWCons, and supports the local organizers.
In 2011, OSDA has also coordinated the application of Semantic MediaWiki to the Google Summer of Code program, unfortunately without (direct) success.
Statutes
The official statutes of OSDA are in German, but an unofficial English translation is also available:
Contact
To contact OSDA, please write to osda@semantic-mediawiki.org.
