2015 Election of Executive Council Members

The second 2015 IAOA Virtual Assembly is being held in September and October in order to elect new members for the Association's Executive Council (EC). The current terms of Marion Haemmerli, Janna Hastings, Oliver Kutz, Frank Loebe, Fabian Neuhaus and Leo Obrst will come to an end at the end of 2015, those of João Paulo Almeida, Roberta Ferrario and Michael Gruninger last until December 2016.

In order to maintain nine EC members, six positions need to be filled. The election of new or continuing councilors proceeds in three main phases:

• Sep 15 - Sep 30: Candidature phase
• Oct 01 - Oct 20: Campaigning phase
• Oct 21 -  Oct 27: Virtual Assembly eBallot

Details are provided on the election wiki page, and members find the corresponding announcement by the President via the membership mailing list [iaoa-member].

All IAOA members are kindly invited to participate in the election. Please engage in candidate nominations in September. In the actual ballot, a quorum of 50%+1 of the membership is to be met. Thus each IAOA member is asked to log in to the Member's Area during October 21-27, to proceed via Utilities to the personal voting page and to cast your vote, please!

1st 2015 Assembly on finances and 2015 Events

The first 2015 IAOA Assembly is being held in April in order to discuss the 2014 Financial Statement and the 2015 Budget. Moreover, a ballot during April 09-15 is part of the Assembly and is legally required in order to approve the 2014 Financial Statement. Details can be found on the ballot wiki page and members find the corresponding announcement by the President via the membership mailing list [iaoa-member].

Accordingly, these days all IAOA members are addressed and kindly invited to review and discuss the documents. In the ballot we need to meet the quorum of 50%+1 of the membership. If you are an IAOA member: please log in to the Member's Area, proceed via Utilities to the personal voting page and please cast your vote!

The Ontology Summit 2015 on the theme "Internet of Things: Toward Smart Networked Systems and Societies" culminates in the Summit Symposium on April 13-14 in Arlington, Virginia, USA. As in previous editions, a communique is developed during the Summit and will be adopted at its Symposium.

Further IAOA co-organized events in 2015:

• IAOA Summer Institute, co-organized together with the Vespucci Initiative in Bar Harbor, Maine, USA, June 21-27
• FOMI - 7th Workshop on Formal Ontologies meet Industry, associated with RuleML, in Berlin, Germany, August 5

IAOA Supported Events in 2015:

• ICBO - International Conference on Biomedical Ontology
  in Lisbon, Portugal, July 27-30.
• JOWO - Joint Ontology Workshops at the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI) in Buenos Aires, Argentina, July 25-31, where Episode 1: The Argentine Winter of Ontology comprises 
• WoMO - Workshop on Modular Ontologies
• FOfAI - Formal Ontologies for Artificial Intelligence
• Ontologies and logic programming for query answering
• Workshop on Belief Change and Non Monotonic Reasoning in Ontologies and Databases

Summer Institute, FOMI and further events in 2015

On the theme "Spatial Ontologies for e-Science", the IAOA Summer Institute 2015 is co-organized together with the Vespucci Initiative and will be held as the first week of The Vespucci Institutes 2015 in Bar Harbor, Maine, USA from June 21 to 27. With Peter Fox, Michael Gruninger, and Werner Kuhn as facilitators and its orientation fostering discussions and hands-on problem solving, this event can be expected to become as lively and inspiring as the previous editions of the Summer Institute. 

From February to April, the Ontology Summit 2015 provides a forum for in-depth exchange on the "Internet of Things: Toward Smart Networked Systems and Societies". FOMI 2015, the 7th Workshop on Formal Ontologies meet Industry to happen in Berlin, Germany on August 5, is associated with this year's RuleML.

Moreover, several promising conferences and workshops in this year have already been accepted as IAOA Supported Events:

• ICBO - International Conference on Biomedical Ontology
  in Lisbon, Portugal, July 27-30.
• JOWO - Joint Ontology Workshops at the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJCAI) in Buenos Aires, Argentina, July 25-31, where Episode 1: The Argentine Winter of Ontology comprises 
• WoMO - Workshop on Modular Ontologies
• FOfAI - Formal Ontologies for Artificial Intelligence
• Ontologies and logic programming for query answering
• Workshop on Belief Change and Non Monotonic Reasoning in Ontologies and Databases

Please feel encouraged to participate in (some of) these events. Note further two calendars on ontology-related events and their (initial) deadlines.