International Society for Knowledge Organization: UK Chapter (ISKO UK)

Training

Knowledge Organization Education (KO-ED)

A. Introduction to Knowledge Organization (October – December 2020)
Classes: Definition and scope of KO in relation to Information Retrieval; Content analysis; Language of description; Subject headings: a word-based approach to organization and retrieval; General principles underlying knowledge organization systems (KOS); Faceted classification; From concepts to knowledge organization systems; What is a thesaurus? How and Why so?; How should today’s thesaurus earn its keep?

B. Theoretical Perspectives in Knowledge Organization (January – March February 2021)
Classes: Why search engines cannot replace knowledge organization?; Disciplines and phenomena in knowledge organization systems; Information foraging in knowledge organisations; Critical Description and Evaluation of Classification Schemes; Towards interoperability of KOS vocabularies; Automatic subject indexing and evaluation: an introduction; Automated indexing: implementation case studies; Some reflections on genre and knowledge organization;…

C. Knowledge Organization Systems Workshops (June – September 2021 August/September 2021 October 2021 – January 2022)
Workshops: Representing concepts in subject indexing: challenges of vocabulary control; Introduction to Universal Decimal Classification; Practical Thesaurus Construction

Workshops

• Workshop series on Linked Open Data (LOD) ¹⁾
  – May 2018: Linked Open Data Professional Development Workshop

Meetings

Knowledge Organization Research Observatory (KO-RO)
(last Wednesday every month; In collaboration with other Chapters of ISKO)

• Jan 2022: Knowledge Organization and Indigenous Knowledge (Indigenous metadata: the view from a Pākehā (non-Māori person); Translating a western classification of knowledge into indigenous languages of South America)
• Nov 2021: Research Repositories and Dataverse: Negotiating Metadata, Vocabularies and Domain Needs (Flexibility in Metadata Schemes and Standardisation: the Case of CMDI and the DANS EASY Research Data Repository; Adapting Flexible Metadata Support in Dataverse to the Needs of Domain-Specific Repositories: the Case of the Tromsø Repository of Language and Linguistics (TROLLing))
• Oct 2021: Advancements in Enabling the Fair Principles and Semantic Interoperability (FAIR + FIT : Functional Metrics for Linked Open Data (LOD) KOS Products; Gerard Coen: Recommendations for FAIR Semantics from the FAIRsFAIR projects)
• Sep 2021: Research Fields Classifications: Essential Tools in Reporting and Harmonising Scientific Information (The Flemish Research Discipline Standard: One Step Towards Harmonised Research Information in Flanders; Developing a Classification for Interdisciplinary Research Fields for the German Science System)
• Jun 2021: Observing Knowledge Organization trajectories in healthcare (Home care nursing information behavior: expansion of a knowledge base in a time of pandemic; Making healthcare data FAIR data: the ontologies-data models-instances conundrum)
• May 2021: Observing trajectories in Science: Building the DANS KOS Observatory (Observing trajectories in Science: Building the DANS KOS Observatory; Looking both ways, BARTOC then and now as it prepares for the future of Knowledge Organization) – w. ISKO Low Countries chapter
• Apr 2021: Computational ethnography: tracking the flow of information
• Mar 2021: AI in exploiting information assets to enhance verification, creativity and innovation (Exploiting information assets to enhance verification in Journalism: the DMINR approach; Exploiting information assets to enhance creativity and innovation: the CebAI approach)

Knowledge Organization Meetups ²⁾

• Jan 2022: Doing Magic With Metadata: The Six Purposes Of Metadata
• Nov 2021: Introduction to Wikibase (Hands-on Meetup) (was: Introduction to Wikimedia)
• Oct 2021: Coping with complexity: building a knowledge graph for UK Parliament (was: Talking about Parliament Ontologies)
• Sep 2021: Copyright in a knowledge organization workplace (was: Building Better Ecommerce Search with Open Source Software)
• Aug 2021: On the pre-history of information technology
• Jun 2021: Semantic Tagging and Text Classification for Archives and Content Systems; VocBench Workshops: Part 3: VocBench Vocabulary Versioning and Data Catalogue
• May 2021: MS Teams – the case for Information Architecture and Governance; VocBench Workshops: Part 2: VocBench Data Import with Sheet2RDF (Hands-on Meetup)
• Apr 2021: Beyond the Hero’s Journey; VocBench Workshops: Part 1: Introducing VocBench (Hands-on Meetup)
• Mar 2021: Going virtual with Taxonomy Boot Camp London
• Feb 2021: Searching fast and slow: exploring alternatives approaches to search for knowledge workers (was: Putting Search Theory to Work on Large Datasets)
• Jan 2021: Managing business correspondence in the email era (and in the MS Teams era)
• Dec 2020: VocBench – getting started (Interactive Workshop)
• Nov 2020: Myths and half truths about semantic data modelling
• Oct 2020: Times Tags: Metadata at The New York Times
• Sep 2020: Practical Tools for Taxonomists (virtual)
• Aug 2020: Knowledge Graphs, Part II: Practical Applications (virtual)
• Jul 2020: Knowledge Graphs, Part I: Theories and Definitions (virtual)
• Jun 2020: How the BBC is approaching metadata quality measurement (virtual)
• May 2020: Knowledge Organization every day and everywhere, but is it beneficial or not? (virtual)
• Apr 2020: Data visualisation – Hands-on practice (virtual)
• Feb 2020: Taxonomies vs. Thesauri vs. Ontologies
• Oct 2019: Taxonomy Chill-out (in conjunction with the Taxonomy Boot Camp London; with SLA and SLA Europe)
• Jul 2019: ISKO UK Pre-conference get-together @ The Peasant
• Jun 2019: What are the purposes of Knowledge Organization Research?
• May 2019: CANCELLED
• Apr 2019: To what extent do Library & Information Professionals actively manage change?
• Mar 2019: Machine Learning and Visualization for the Information Professional
• Feb 2019: Creativity in Knowledge Organization
• Jan 2019: Ontology of Risk Workshop
• Oct 2018: Taxonomy Chill-out (in conjunction with the Taxonomy Boot Camp London)
• Jul 2018: IA, UX and Taxonomy in Digital Agencies
• Jun 2018: Semantic enhancement, discovery and the ISKO digital strategy
• May 2018: Change Management and Knowledge Organization
• Apr 2018: Different strokes for different folks; wrangling unstructured information
• Mar 2018: Can metadata be viewed in terms of its purposes?
• Feb 2018: More content intelligence, more performance potential
• Oct 2017: Taxonomy Chill-out (in conjunction with the Taxonomy Boot Camp London)
• Oct 2016: Taxonomy Chill-out (in conjunction with the Taxonomy Boot Camp London)
• Jul 2016: User Centric Design
• Mar 2015: Findability and information management in the corporate workplace

Annual General Meeting (AGM) followed by (afternoon) events / seminars

• April 2021: ISKO UK Meetup – Beyond the Hero’s Journey (Virtual AGM)
• Mar 2020: Knowledge Organization in publishing : Using Knowledge Organisation to deliver content (Virtual AGM; preceding event CANCELLED)
• Apr 2019: Metadata, taxonomies and retrieval
• Mar 2018: Knowledge Organization and Ethics
• Mar 2017: Making Knowledge Organization Work: integrating taxonomies into technology
• Mar 2016: Organizing information: roles, skills and training for the future
• Feb 2015: The Great Debate: This house believes that traditional thesaurus has no place in modern information retrieval
• Apr 2014: Taming the news beast Finding context and value in text and data
• Mar 2013: The power of social media to support knowledge sharing
• Mar 2012: On Location: organizing and using geospatial information (joint with the BCS Location Information Specialist Group (LISG))
• Nov 2011 (Seminar): Interoperability: joining up knowledge and information in the health sector
• Apr 2011: Public Access to Information? Challenges for Information Gatekeepers (in cooperation with TiPS (Taxonomies in the Public Sector))
• Mar 2010: Recording the Living World (in cooperation with the Department for Information Studies, University College London)
• Apr 2009 (Lecture): Human-Machine Symbiosis for Data Interpretation (in cooperation with the Department for Information Studies, University College London)
• Mar 2008: Confronting the Future
• Mar 2007 (Inaugural meeting): If it rained knowledge…

Afternoon meetings (half-day)

• Jun 2018: Organizing Medical and Health-related Information (joint meeting with NetIKX)
• Oct 2015: Knowledge Organization in Learning and Teaching
• Nov 2014: Knowledge Organization goes Mobile
• Jun 2014: Making metadata work (Joint Meeting with tutorial and workshop between ISKO UK, IRSG (Information Retrieval Special Interest Group of BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT) and DCMI (Dublin Core Metadata Initiative))
• Oct 2013: Information – a risky business
• Nov 2012: Images in Focus: Organizing Visual Content for Use
• Sep 2012: The shape of knowledge: improving the visual representation of information and knowledge.
• Sep 2009: Records and Information Management in Transition (in cooperation with the Department for Information Studies, University College London)
• Oct 2008: MetaKnowledge Mash-up 2.0: making and organising knowledge in communities (joint with BCS-KIDMM (Knowledge, Information, Data and Metadata Management) communit)
• Jun 2008: Agenda for Information Retrieval (in cooperation with the School of Library Archives and Information Studies, University College London)

KOnnecting KOmmunities meeting series (half-day)

• Nov 2010: Legal Know-how: Organization and Semantic Analysis (in cooperation with the Department for Information Studies, University College London)
• Jun 2010: Seeing is believing: new technologies for cultural heritage (in cooperation with the Department for Information Studies, University College London)
• Nov 2008: Semantic Analysis Technology: in search of categories, concepts & context (in cooperation with the School of Library, Archives and Information Studies, University College London)
• Jul 2008: Sharing Vocabularies on the Web via Simple Knowledge Organization System (SKOS) (in cooperation with the School of Library, Archives and Information Studies, University College London)
• Nov 2007: Ranganathan Revisited: Facets for the Future (sponsored by Factiva from Dow Jones; venue provided by the School of Library, Archive and Information Studies, University College London)
• May 2007: Content, knowledge, information: Same Difference?

Evening events

• Sep 2016: Text and data mining – Open Sesame!

Afternoon tutorials, seminars & workshops

• Sep 2014 (tutorial): Metadata Management in Sharepoint
  (repeat of the over-subscribed tutorial held on 23 June in conjunction with the Making metadata work event)
• Jun 2014 (tutorial & workshop): Metadata Management in Sharepoint & Vocabularies and the potential for linkage
  (in conjunction with the Making metadata work event)
• Jul 2012 (full day Seminar & Workshop): I think, therefore I classify (co-hosted by the BCS Information Retrieval Specialist Group (IRSG))
• Sep 2007 (Seminar): Tools for Knowledge Organization Today ( in cooperation with the School of Library, Archive and Information Studies, University College London)
• Feb 2007 (Seminar): Blunt Dialectics

Conferences

• International Society for Knowledge Organization UK Chapter Conference (ISKO-UK)*
• Search Solutions Forum
  (Organizer: Information Retrieval Specialist Group of the BCS – Chartered Institiute for IT (BCS IRSG); since 2014 together with ISKO UK)
• Linked Data: The Future of Knowledge Organization on the Web, 14 September 2010, University College London, London, United Kingdom
  (organized in cooperation with the Department for Information Studies, University College London)
  Presentations:
  Government Linked Data: A Tipping Point for the Semantic Web
  SKOS and Linked Data
  The Linked Data Journey
  Linked Data in local government – The Knowledge Hub
  Linked Data in E-commerce – The GoodRelations ontology
  Linked Data – The Long and Winding Road
  Linking to Geographic Data
  PoolParty: SKOS Thesaurus Management utilizing Linked Data
  Porting terminologies to the Semantic Web

  Panel discussions: ´
  The Semantic Web: Threat or Opportunity for Conventional Knowledge Organization (KO)?

  Posters:
  Integrating applications and projects: Dynamic and repeatable transformation of existing Thesauri and Authority lists into SKOS + Cross-tabulation of Concepts Linked Data
  Linked Open Services