Re: [CFP] 2nd Call for Participation, early bird registration closing soon and more!

On 2022-10-10 19:05, International Semantic Web Conference wrote:
> Join us from anywhere in the world for the virtual International 
> Semantic Web Conference and enjoy the insightful keynotes [1] 
> <https://iswc2022.semanticweb.org/index.php/keynote-speakers/>, 
> presentations [2], posters & demos [3]


Nothing to see there besides an index of insightful knowledge that is 
inaccessible.

The copyright system that ISWC engages with Springer as part of its 
business/legal agreement in order to exchange scientific knowledge in 
its forum poses obstacles for those who learn, teach, research, create, 
preserve or seek to enjoy the world’s cultural heritage.

SWSA governs ISWC. The objectives of SWSA is misleading [4] and 
blatantly false to the community:

 >The Semantic Web Science Association (SWSA) is a non-profit 
organisation incorporated in Karlsruhe, Germany for the purpose of 
promoting and exchanging scholarly work in Semantic Web and related 
fields throughout the world. The association's activities are selfless; 
its main objectives do not concern any own economic interests.

When ISWC/SWSA goes into an agreement with Springer (revenue in 
multi-billions..) that has its mission to put profit over access to 
knowledge, i.e., requiring authors to hand the copyright of their own 
work to the publisher or requiring additional substantial amount of 
money to make it "open access", that is very much an economic decision. 
It is a deliberate decision.

That is in addition to moral and ethical issues that SWSA ignores when 
it has business agreements with these companies.



Researchers in Semantic Web should find alternative means to exchange 
their knowledge without going through these for-profit intermediaries.

In case there is a question about how, the following was written ~30 
years ago [5]:

 >The WWW project merges the techniques of information retrieval and 
hypertext to make an easy but powerful global information system.

 >The project started with the philosophy that much academic information 
should be freely available to anyone. It aims to allow information 
sharing within internationally dispersed teams, and the dissemination of 
information by support groups.

WorldWideWeb: Summary, alt.hypertext, Tim Berners-Lee, 1991


The thing we use every day. The Semantic "Web" community must have some 
ideas on how it can use it to communicate or is it not ready for prime 
for scholarly communication?

There is something wrong with the picture when the SW research community 
is still expected to:

* transfer copyright and/or pay a lot of money (out of pocket or using 
taxpayers'):
* use print-centric formats;
* publish documents on third-party websites (privacy issues, constrained 
use..)


The bar to do better is very low.


[2] 
https://web.archive.org/web/20221011073941/https://iswc2022.semanticweb.org/index.php/accepted-papers/
[3] 
https://web.archive.org/web/20221011074411/https://iswc2022.semanticweb.org/index.php/posters-and-demos-2/
[4] http://swsa.semanticweb.org/content/objectives
[5] 
https://web.archive.org/web/20180826220707/https://groups.google.com/forum/message/raw?msg=alt.hypertext/eCTkkOoWTAY/bJGhZyooXzkJ

-Sarven
https://csarven.ca/#i

Received on Tuesday, 11 October 2022 08:46:14 UTC