2022 IAOA Extra-Ordinary Virtual Assembly, Nov 30-Dec 06

Dear IAOA members,

soon a 2022 IAOA Extra-Ordinary Assembly [1] will be held online, the purpose of which is to examine and approve the 2021 IAOA Financial Report [2].

The most important dates of the assembly are:

  • Wed, Nov 23 – discussion phase ends
  • Wed, Nov 30 – assembly called to order, ballot starts
  • Tue, Dec 06 – ballot closes

Please see the assembly page [1] with the Financial Report [2], the Auditors’ Report [3] and further details on the overall assembly.

We will be grateful for your participation in the ballot as well as for any prior input on the matter during the discussion phase (e.g., writing to [4]). Active involvement in IAOA is valuable to our whole community.

Frank Loebe
Secretary, IAOA

PS: Trying soon to access the Utilities [5] page in the Members’ Area helps you to ensure access to the voting system during the ballot.

[1] https://wiki.iaoa.org/index.php/IAOA_Assembly_2022_11
[2] https://iaoa.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/iaoa-ch-financial-report-2021.pdf
[3] https://iaoa.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/iaoa-ch-audit-approval-2021-signed.pdf
[4] iaoa-member@ovgu.de
[5] https://iaoa.org/index.php/member-area/utilities/

IAOA 2022 Assembly — Coming soon!

The live session concluding our first 2022 General Assembly will take place on August 18, 2022 at 17:00-18:00 CEST (https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html?iso=20220818T150000&p1=1382), onsite at JOWO (https://www.iaoa.org/jowo/2022/index.html) and online.

Connection details for virtual participation:

* https://ju-se.zoom.us/j/69514929419

* Password: 213306

The agenda includes the following items:

1. Introduction
2. General Updates
a. EC Election for 2023-2024 (results)
b. Preliminary 2021 Finances
c. Membership Development
3. Events
a. JOWO 2022
b. FOIS & ISAO 2023
c. Sequentially Hybrid Model
4. TCs & SIGs
a. SWAO
b. ISTC
c. EduTC (including ESAO)
5. Outlook
6. Any other Business

You will find all details on the Assembly page at:

https://wiki.iaoa.org/index.php/IAOA_Assembly_2022_08

Should you have any doubt or problem, don’t hesitate to contact the IAOA Secretaries, Megan Katsumi and Frank Loebe at secretary@iaoa.org

General Assembly and Ballot Opening

Dear IAOA members,

I declare our General Assembly open, starting with a virtual part, namely the voting period for the Executive Council elections. The ballot is open from August 8 till August 15, 2022 (23:59, AoE = UTC-12).

To cast your vote, you have to:

* log in onto this website (or top-right menu item)
(Note: if you cannot log in, you might have lost your password –see https://iaoa.org/wp-login.php?action=lostpassword, or you haven’t renewed your membership. Membership registration is blocked during the ballot period.)

* go to the 2022 Executive Council Election page

* cast your vote by clicking your preferences in the voting form and submitting it
(Note: you are selecting up to 9 candidates as EC members. You may select less than nine; if you select zero (0) candidates, this counts as abstaining)

The Candidates for the new EC are, in alphabetical order:

  • Ken Baclawski (Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA)
  • Boyan Brodaric (Natural Resources Canada, Ottawa, Canada)
  • Torsten Hahmann (University of Maine, Orono, ME, USA)
  • Megan Katsumi (University of Toronto, Canada)
  • Oliver Kutz (Free University of Bolzano, Italy)
  • Frank Loebe (University of Leipzig, Germany)
  • Fabian Neuhaus (Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg, Germany)
  • Guendalina Righetti (Free University of Bolzano, Italy)
  • Tiago Prince Sales (University of Twente, The Netherlands)
  • Emilio Sanfilippo (Laboratory for Applied Ontology, ISTC-CNR, Trento, Italy)

They are listed on the assembly wiki page together with their position statements, nomination and support messages, as well as the details of the election process.

Should you have any question, comment or motion proposal, feel free to send a message to info <at> iaoa.org, or to post a public message to the iaoa-member list.

Please don’t forget to CAST YOUR VOTE AS SOON AS POSSIBLE, EVEN IF YOU INTEND TO ABSTAIN. Every vote is important!
The voting period closes on August 15, 2022 at 23:59, AoE (= UTC-12)

Election results will be announced on the mailing list on August 17, 2022 and live during the Assembly on August 18, 2022 at JOWO.

Should you have any doubt or problem, don’t hesitate to contact the IAOA Secretaries, Megan Katsumi and Frank Loebe at secretary <at> iaoa.org

Thanks for your participation,

Laure Vieu
President, IAOA

IAOA 2022 Assembly Announcement

Dear IAOA members,

soon the 2022 IAOA Assembly [1] will be held, which consists of a session for synchronous exchange in hybrid mode during JOWO 2022 [2,3], preceded by a virtual phase which will include, besides potentially further matters, the Executive Council (EC) election for the period of 2023-2024.

–> *PLEASE ENSURE THAT YOUR MEMBERSHIP IS UP-TO-DATE.*

Your membership may have elapsed, unless you renewed it in the last 12 months. Please check and feel invited to renew [4], if necessary. Gentle reminder: *MEMBERSHIP IS NOW FREE*

Your IAOA membership is the prerequisite for participating in the assembly and the election, in particular, including for making and supporting nominations for the nine (9) positions available.

–> The candidature phase is opened with this message, so
*START PREPARING AND MAKING NOMINATIONS FROM TODAY ON, PLEASE!*

Note that nominees must be aware of and agree to their nomination beforehand.

–> The most important dates of the assembly and election schedules are:

– Wed, Jul 27 – nomination closes, additional agenda items due
– Mon, Aug 08 – assembly called to order, ballot(s) start
– Mon, Aug 15 – ballot(s) close
– Thu, Aug 18 – Assembly session (synchronous, hybrid) and end

–> *PLEASE SEND US ADDITIONAL AGENDA ITEMS, if you see any.*

Besides that, please see below for further details on the overall assembly and the process of the election. The same, possibly updated information is maintained at the assembly page [1], including the agenda as it evolves.

We will be very grateful for any efforts and contributions to the 2022 EC election. Active involvement in IAOA through Executive Council membership is a highly valuable service to the whole community. Please do consider nominating candidates!

Laure Vieu
President, IAOA

[1] 2022 IAOA Assembly
https://wiki.iaoa.org/index.php/IAOA_Assembly_2022_08

[2] JOWO 2022 website at iaoa.org
https://www.iaoa.org/jowo/2022/index.html

[3] JOWO 2022 website at Jönköping University
https://ju.se/en/collaboration/events-and-conferences/conferences/jowo-2022.html

[4] page for becoming an IAOA member
https://iaoa.org/index.php/join/

== IAOA Assembly in August 2022 ==

Latest information is available at this page for the assembly:

[1] https://wiki.iaoa.org/index.php/IAOA_Assembly_2022_08

Please feel free to send any editing comments to
[5] iaoa-election at ovgu.de .

=== Assembly schedule ===

– Preparation phase
– Announcement (by the IAOA President) of Assembly, incl. election process: Jul 08 by email
– Proposals for additional agenda items due: Jul 27
– Finalizing agenda, material and preparations by: Aug 07
– Assembly
– Call to order (by the IAOA President): Aug 08
– e-ballot(s) period: Aug 08-15
– Assembly session: Aug 18 (session end concludes the assembly)

== 2022 IAOA Executive Council election (for 2023-2024) ==

The elections of the IAOA Executive Council (EC) follow the regulations in the IAOA Statute as of Jun 23, 2016 [6,7].

All EC members come to the end of their terms at the end of 2022. Thus the new Executive Council takes office on January 01, 2023, regularly until December 31, 2024.

By decision of the current EC, nine (9) persons are to be elected, thereby keeping the present number of EC members.

=== EC election schedule ===

– Candidature phase
– Nomination and Discussion opens: Jul 08
– Nomination closes: Jul 27 (AoE = UTC-12)
– Candidates list published: Jul 28
– Campaigning by candidates:
– Continues from Jul 29
– Campaigning closes: Aug 07
– Election
– Ballot opens: 00:01, Aug 08 (CEST)
– Ballot closes: 23:59, Aug 15 (AoE = UTC-12)
– Announcement of election results: before or on Aug 18

=== Phase descriptions ===

For the next few weeks, we foresee three main phases:
Candidature, Campaigning, and Election, as follows.

==== A – Candidature phase (from July 08 to July 27) ====

At least two members (a proposer and at least one seconder, none of whom should be the nominee) are required in order to make a nomination. The members making the nomination shall ensure that they, as well as the nominee, are current members of the association, and that the nominee shall accept the nomination.

*PLEASE START NOW IN MAKING YOUR NOMINATIONS,* by means of a message posted to [8] iaoa-member at ovgu.de and specifying the proposer, the seconder(s), the nominee, and optionally some motivations and/or a candidate’s position statement (which can be circulated afterwards).

Nominations can be freely discussed on the members’ mailing list [8,9] from the nomination time to the end of the campaigning phase.

==== B – Campaigning phase (continuing from July 29 to August 07) ====

Campaigning can actually start with the first candidate nomination, i.e., during the candidature phase. Once that phase is closed, there is still over a week available for active campaigning and discussion on the members’ mailing list [8,9].

==== C – Election phase (from August 08 to August 15) ====

In this period you will be asked to vote for nine Executive Council candidates. Please be so kind as to participate in the vote even if you decide to abstain, so we can count you among the participants. The more participants, the stronger the result of the election will be!

The list of candidates and their position statements will be made available through the IAOA Election wiki page [1].

Results will be announced on the mailing list [9], the assembly page [1], and during the hybrid Assembly session at JOWO [2,3] on Aug 18.

== Links and addresses ==

[1] https://wiki.iaoa.org/index.php/IAOA_Assembly_2022_08

[2] https://www.iaoa.org/jowo/2022/index.html

[3] https://ju.se/en/collaboration/events-and-conferences/conferences/jowo-2022.html

[4] https://iaoa.org/index.php/join/

[5] iaoa-election at ovgu.de

[6] https://iaoa.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/iaoa-ch-statute-2016-06-23-en_v12.pdf

[7] https://iaoa.org/index.php/about/statute-and-bylaws/

[8] iaoa-member at ovgu.de

[9] https://listserv.ovgu.de/mailman/listinfo/iaoa-member

IAOA second 2021 Assembly Announcement

The Twelfth International Conference on Formal Ontology in Information Systems [1], FOIS 2021, in the framework of the Bolzano Summer of Knowledge 2021 [2], is happening in Bolzano, Italy and online during this week.

–> The second 2021 IAOA Assembly will be held there and virtually
on Wednesday, September 15, 2021, 17:15-18:15 CEST [3]You are cordially invited to join!
Details [4] for joining virtually can be found below.

To join physically, beware that the meeting takes place in the main building of the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano (Piazza Università, 39100 Bolzano BZ), just a block away from the Kolpinghaus where FOIS is held [5].This Assembly will be informal and mainly serves to inform you and let all of us discuss about the development of our Association and its activities.

Please find the agenda for the Assembly at the bottom of this message. If you would like to see further topics addressed during the Assembly, please send them to the Secretary [6].

We look forward to everyone’s participation on September 15, in person at FOIS or virtually.

Laure Vieu
President, IAOA

[6] secretary@iaoa.org

= IAOA Assembly of September 15, 2021 =

== Agenda ==
[as of Sep 14, 2021]

1. Introductory remarks
a. IAOA in general
2. General updates
a. New zero-fee membership scheme
b. Code of conduct
c. End of the relocation of IAOA to Switzerland
3. Activities, Technical Committees and SIGs
a. Semantic Web Applied Ontology (SWAO) SIG
b. Industry and Standards Technical Committee (ISTC)
c. Education Technical Committee (EduTC)
(incl. new Educational Series on Applied Ontology (ESAO))
4. FOIS
a. review of FOIS 2020 & FOIS 2021
b. FOIS format & procedures
c. call for hosting FOIS 2023
5. Outlook
a. JOWO 2022 announcement
b. Next assemblies and elections
6. Any other business

Call for hosting FOIS 2023!

The International Association for Ontology and its Applications (IAOA) is now soliciting proposals for the location of the 13th edition of FOIS to be held in 2023 (see the page Hosting FOIS).

Proposals should include a description of the conference venue, the availability of local sponsorship, proposed dates, and a preliminary budget. Possible co-location with related conferences will also be considered as a factor in the final decision.
The IAOA has adopted the policy to take all risks and benefits for the FOIS conferences while encouraging sponsors to take part of the risks.

Please send proposals to by December 2021.

June SWAO Monthly Report

The Semantic Web Applied Ontology (SWAO) Special Interest Group is working to develop a set of guidelines and explanatory documents regarding ontologies. Members of the SIG have prepared overviews of the various purposes and landscapes in which ontologies are developed and used (for example, in semantic application use cases, or for data integration, AI enhancement and explainability, and business knowledge representation), learnings from lexicography, and how ontologies can provide formal definitions of a domain’s concepts, relationships and facts. Within the SIG, there has been much discussion of different approaches to ontology articulation (e.g., how and why an ontology is defined) and its communication. These discussions have addressed ontology purpose and intended audience, various methods of communication (e.g., RDFS, OWL, OWL with rules, Common Logic, etc. or perhaps simple spreadsheets), ability to reuse and maintain ontologies, and much more. The goal of the work is to create a paper articulating the diversity of approaches used in ontology development and its expression. This paper should be available later this year.

IAOA first 2021 Virtual Assembly Announcement

Dear IAOA members,

Our Statutes [1] require the Association’s Financial Statement to be formally approved every year by a (virtual) assembly.

This is a formal invitation to participate in the first 2021 virtual assembly [2], whose main purpose is to discuss and approve the 2020 Financial Statement [3].
The report from the Auditors on the Financial Statement [4] and the proposed budget for 2021 [5] are also available.

The discussion on the Financial Statement (and possibly other issues concerning the Association) can take place from now and until April 12, 2021 through sending a message to  [6] on the IAOA member mailing list [7].
Finalized details integrating the discussion outcome will be published by April 15, 2021.

The voting period will be April 20-April 30, 2021 — save these dates!

Everyone with an active IAOA membership is eligible to vote. Detailed voting instructions will be available from the Assembly page [2] and shall be distributed anew at ballot opening.
The Assembly may approve the Financial Statement by simple majority; there is no quorum.
The outcome of the voting will be announced to the members’ mailing list by May 05, 2021.

Laure Vieu
President, IAOA

[1] https://iaoa.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/iaoa-ch-statute-2016-06-23-en_v12.pdf
[2] https://wiki.iaoa.org/index.php/IAOA_Assembly_2021_04
[3] https://iaoa.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/annual-report-iaoa-ch-20210326.pdf
[4] https://iaoa.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/IAOA_audit_approval-2021-03-21-signed.pdf
[5] https://iaoa.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/IAOA-CH-2021-Budget_V3_1.pdf
[6] iaoa-member@ovgu.de
[7] https://listserv.ovgu.de/mailman/listinfo/iaoa-member/

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