... to all IAOA members and all visitors of this website!We are looking forward to two major events this year – the second Summer Institute as well as the eighth Ontology Summit.
The Ontology Summit 2013 will launch on January 17, for three months of virtual panel sessions and discourse, culminating in a two-day symposium in April. This year's theme is "Ontology Evaluation Across the Ontology Lifecycle". The summit is co-organized by multiple communities and organizations, including Ontolog and IAOA. Members are encouraged to participate actively.
During June 3-7, 2013, the Summer Institute will take place in Fiesole (near Florence), Italy, jointly organized with The Vespucci Initiative, dealing with the theme "Ontologies and Models for Integrated Assessments of Multiple-Scale Processes". Calls for participation will be circulated soon.
In the previous year, we had a successful FOIS 2012, co-located in Graz, Austria, with the International Conference on Biomedical Ontology, ICBO 2012. The next edition of FOIS in 2014 is already getting on, as well. Just in December, a hosting proposal for Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in September 2014 has been accepted.
A few words on the IAOA itself. The new Executive Council (EC), as elected during FOIS 2012, has taken office on January 1, 2013. Welcome again to the new members and many thanks to all EC members for their work during the previous term(s) of office. Regarding new infrastructure, please note and consider using the still young IAOA blog, introduced via its first post in October 2012.
Last but not least, all IAOA members are kindly reminded to renew their membership for 2013 before January 31. Please go to the Member's Area > Utilities, select "Payment System (Membership Renewal)" and follow the procedure there. Separate pages list the membership fees and allow you to reset your password, if necessary. Of course, interested parties are always invited to become members of the IAOA.
Thanks to all members for your interest in Ontology and its Applications, as well as in your contributions to and support of the Association as a community. May 2013 become another successful and productive year for all of us.
