The World Wide Web conference is the annually largest and most important meeting on Web technologies. ConnectME is pleased to be presenting its innovative Web technology for video annotation and enriched playout during the event. Meet project co-ordinator Lyndon Nixon, who is speaking at the Linked Data on the Web (LDOW) workshop on the Tuesday, as well as presenting ConnectME during the Demos track (annotation tool and player) as well as in the Developers track (Linked Services Infrastructure, the back-end solution to mapping annotated concepts to enrichment content).

Information on the project: salzburgresearch.at/projekt/connectme

The Salzburg NewMediaLab team is happy to announce the release of the Linked Media Framework (LMF) 2.6.0. LMF is a Linked Data Server bundling and integrating additional functionality like triplification, semantic search and content enhancement/interlinking based on OpenRefine, Apache SOLR, Apache Stanbol and the upcoming Apache Marmotta. The LMF release is available at the LMF project website at:

• project website: http://code.google.com/p/lmf/
• standalone installer and deployable WAR: http://code.google.com/p/lmf/downloads/list
• Maven artifacts: http://devel.kiwi-project.eu:8080/nexus
• source code: http://code.google.com/p/lmf/source/browse/?name=lmf-parent-2.6.0

Major changes compared to 2.4.x:

• rewritten KiWi Triplestore (including versioning, rule-based reasoner, transaction support) with considerably higher performance
• modularized LDPath, Linked Data Client and Linked Data Cache (so it can be used by other projects independently of the LMF)
• changed RDF API to Sesame (so it should be easy to exchange the underlying triple store)
• new administration interface
• started implementation of the upcoming Linked Data Platform specification
• many minor bugfixes and improvements and dependency cleanups

This release is a milestone towards Apache Marmotta (incubating). Starting next week, the Linked Data parts of the source code will be contributed to the Apache Software Foundation. The Linked Media Framework will continue to exist as a bundling of different technologies (including Linked Data Platform, Semantic Search, and Content Enhancement).

Many young people took advantage of the speed dating with researchers, and asked what they have always wanted to ask. On 30 January two female researchers from Salzburg Research answered all questions at the fti…remixed researcher speed dating event:

• Cornelia Schneider

• Maria Obermayer

fti … remixed is an initiative of the Austrian Federal Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology (bmvi)t.

The more complex the circumstances, the more challenging it is to identify an optimal solution. Salzburg Research developes at the Center for Logistics Optimization (LOGO) pioneering optimization technologies that directly benefit domestic companies.

Increased competition and increasing customer demands call for flexibility and efficiency in order to successfully survive in the market. Operational decisions must therefore be as “optimal” as possible – decision making for complex problem situations in logistics planning is now largely computer-based. But because there is no silver bullet in the form of a universally applicable optimization process, many companies are reaching their limits – valuable optimization potential is unfulfilled.

The ever increasing volume of freight traffic increased the need for effective optimization solutions. Therefore, the Centre for Logistics Optimization LOGO was set at Salzburg Research. The focus is on two main areas: On the one hand, so-called “hybrid” methods are used, where different optimization methods are combined – each method complement each other, benefits be enhanced and individual weaknesses eliminated. On the other hand, optimization methods are developed for the execution on massively parallel supercomputers and tested. “Calculations that previously took two days or more, can now be done within half an hour,” explains Günter Kiechle, head of the research unit “CLL – Computational Logistics Lab”.

LOGO is funded by the Federal Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology (BMVIT) and the Province of Salzburg.

While new technologies are omnipresent in tourism industry, the cultural sector still needs to catch up. A new research project of Salzburg Research is about to change that now. In combination with cultural tourism experiences such as the European Mozart Ways, the Mozart Cycle Path or the Austrian Pilgrimage Routes cultural heritage should be made sustainably accessible- especially by means of new technologies. The first international expert conference on „Innovations for European Cultural Routes“ provides an insight into that topic from the 3^rd to4^th  of December in Salzburg`s castle Leopoldskron.

The employment of new technologies is already an integral component in the tourism sector. Innovative approaches in the communication of cultural heritage are greater in demand than ever before. The new research project CERTESS (Euro 1.935.495,00) aims at identifying and promoting innovative solutions in order to convey European cultural heritage in the form of cultural routes.

European Research project shows new paths in conveying culture

In search of new solutions in conveying culture researchers strive to benefit and learn from already existing successful cultural tourism experiences. Strategies for successful partnerships as well as intersectoral/cross-industrial innovations between the fields of culture and tourism are of special interest. „In most cases a range of local initiatives are casually scattered along the route and its associated territory, but they have no critical mass, do not involve a systematic approach and have poor coherence. CERTESS thus aims at sustainably developing, managing and adding value to European cultural routes“ (Penelope Denu, Executive Secretary Council of Europa, Director of the European Institute of Cultural Routes, Luxemburg).

Main focus on cultural heritage

Another emphasis lays on conveying cultural heritage in an innovative way. „Nowadays new information technologies shouldn`t be missing in the identification and development of innovative ways. Local enterprises and products along such routes should be adequately promoted and merchandised by adopting innovative immaterial services from the IT-sector such as smartphone, tablet & co“ as explained by national CERTESS-coordinator Veronika Hornung-Prähauser from Salzburg Research/Austria. „As national coordinators we also collect good practices of our regions to give incentives to others – e.g. the Mozart Cycle Path or Pilgrimage Routes in Austria“.

Pilgrimage Routes in Austria

Conveying culture completely differently: The virtual pilgrimage platform „Pilgern in Österreich“ http://www.pilgerwege.at combines traditional as well as new ways to rediscover one`s senses transnationally. These pilgrimage routes exemplify innovative cross-cooperation between cultural, tourism as well as regional stakeholders. „The pilgrimage routes Austria are an extraordinary model for similar projects in the Czech Republic. Due to cooperation activities in the EU-project CERTESS the participating institutions benefit enormously from the expertise of other project partners“ as stated from Martin Peterka, regional coordinator in the Czech region Zlín.

Traveling like Mozart

Culturally aware people can travel along the European Mozart`s paths. „Via www.mozartways.com the public gets to know the first important and famous traveling musician“ explained Gerhard Spitz, managing director of the European Mozart`s Ways, a network consisting of cities, regions, touristic, cultural as well as scientific institutions from ten different European countries which W. A. Mozart had visited.

„Mozart spend about a third of his life on traveling across whole Europe. The European Mozart ways offer travel suggestions as regards Mozart’s journeys and concrete recommendations with respect to background information etc. The association was founded in the year 2002 in Salzburg and promotes on the one hand the re-activation of touristic routes and on the other hand co-operations in the field of arts, culture, education, and science, taking Mozart`s life and work into special account.

First international conference on cultural innovation

The conference „Innovations for European Cultural Routes“ deals with current trends and innovative methods to convey European culture and history. More than 35 international experts from regional cultural institutions, governments, the tourism industry as well as from the field of information technology participate in that conference taking place on 3 ^rd to 4^th of December 2012.

CERTESS

The EU-project CERTESS, which started in March 2012 and lasts until the end of 2014, aims at setting up a common methodological framework on how to develop, manage and enhance European Cultural Routes to foster sustainable cultural tourism.

The goals of CERTESS encompass:

• Collection of good practices (publicly available)
• Pilot projects for new routes or route sections with innovative methods
• Management Manual
• Networking among experienced and new route operators

Picture: Executive Secretary oft he European Mozart Ways Mag. Gerhard Spitz, Executive Secretary Council of Europe &, Director of the European Institute of Cultural Routes Ms.Penelope Denu (Luxemburg), European CERTESS project coordinator Ms. Sorina Capp, Austrian project coordinatorin Mag. Dr. Veronika Hornung-Prähauser (Salzburg Research)

Technological progress is the result of continuous learning, steady development efforts as well as a visionary mind-set and the willingness to innovate. This is particularly the case for information and communication technologies, which support us in our daily lives. In the year 2012, we again made technological progress by applying strategic analyses and developing smart software solutions. Your role as a partner or as a client has been vital in this!

To what measure technological advancements can aid us becomes particularly clear in relation to children with severe disabilities. For example, speech aids and voice amplifiers, special computer keyboards and learning programmes can help them in finding a voice and getting heard.

We would therefore like to take the opportunity to financially support the pupils of the Anna-Bertha-Königsegg School for children with special needs in Salzburg, rather than making gifts and sending out Christmas cards.

We would like to thank you for your support in the past year and wish you peaceful and relaxing holidays and a successful year 2013!

During the last two years we have created academic training material that addresses the different aspects of semantic content management. This material discusses foundational topics, like content management in general, the semantic web and underlying technologies as well as advanced concepts of modeling complex knowledge domains using ontologies. Using the approaches, models and methods developed in the IKS project, up-to-date research results are presented for introducing semantic content management and software engineering approaches for developing semantic CMS.

The whole set of training material is now available online: http://www.iks-project.eu/academy

On this page we are presenting an updated and improved set of the training material, including 2 introduction lectures and a complete curriculum of 10 lectures including 12 sets of slides. All slides are also available and downloadable at slideshare (http://slideshare.net/IKS_Project.eu)., so that they can be viewed by an internet browser. In addition, a Teachers Handbook is available that gives an overview and description of the material and how it can be adopted for the usage in an existing curriculum.

The current versions of the training material have a high degree of maturity, but of course we are interested in improving and extending the existing sets of slides. For this purpose, we are offering the possibility to comment the material on our new page. Everybody is invited to actively participate in improving our IKS academy!

As we approach the end of the official IKS project phase (end of 2012) it is time to shift our focus and effort towards ensuring that the results continue to provide value beyond 2012 to a broad community.

The recent announcements of Apache Stanbol becoming a top-level project at the Apache Software Foundation and for example TYPO3 Neos adopting VIE and Create.js for its content editing framework, are evidence that substantial progress has already been made. However we have also been asked by early adopters and developers to provide a stable and reliable web service for the running of demonstrators/prototypes and overall testing of the Stanbol enhancement engines. Also we consider such a service as key to keep building on the ecosystem of partners that are using Apache Stanbol and to preserve “openess” as one key foundation of the overall project.

So we have decided to go to the community in the form of a survey to ask about the setup and needs of a “Stanbol as a Service”. We have kept the form as short as possible so please do take the time to tell us how you would like to use such a service as part of growing your business further.

Please also share this with other relevant contacts.

Go to the IKS Online Survey – 15 minutes max, I promise.

Follow this link to view the newsletter online

For a short history of Apache Stanbol please visit the IKS Blog:

• http://blog.iks-project.eu/graduation-a-short-history-of-apache-stanbol/

Manyearly adopters have already incorporated the Open Source software  into own products. An extensive list of demo applications is available on the IKS project website:

• http://www.iks-project.eu/Demos

Television has always been a social experience and yet Social TV is the big trend when it comes to the future of television. Smartphones, tablet computers and notebooks are increasingly taking over the function of interactive, Internet-connected TV companions, with the once passive couch potatoes now exchanges and communicates far beyond the confines of your own living room – before, during and after the broadcast on television.
Studies show that in Germany almost half of all internet users online on a second device while watching TV – to check email, search for additional information about TV shows, or to bridge commercial breaks . The attention to television on the “Big Screen” continues to fade. That has yet unforeseeable consequences for television producers and advertisers, but also opens up completely new opportunities in the communication with the audience.
Experts from Germany and Austria discussed the potential and challenges of increased grip to the second screen for TV producers, advertising, entertainment, and audience.

Integrate the audience, learn from the audience
Television companies react rather sluggishly to this new development, which is not a replacement for, but a complement to linear TV. Nevertheless, this year in late spring, the Bavarian Broadcasting Company (Bayerischer Rundfunk) has taken the initiative and launched the most comprehensive experiment: The “Round Show” involves videos of viewers and brought viewers from the living room to the screen on Google Hangout. With a specially programmed application with the programmatic name of “The Power” (“Die Macht”), the audience had the opportunity to vote on issues, even a say in the selection of topics for the program. Richard Gutjahr, television journalist and blogger was the mastermind of this attempt to enter new dimensions for television. He reported at the 9th Salzburg Media Day on the experience of the “Round Show”.

How seriously the Second Screen is now being addressed, shows the initiative of a large producer for television: he praises the renowned New York Television Festival this year for the first time one handsome prize for productions that integrate the second screen as an essential ingredient in their short films.

The 9th Salzburg Media Day
The Salzburg Media Day (on 14  September 14th, 2012) was once again organized by the “Platform Digital Salzburg”, which is a joint project of the University of Salzburg, Salzburg University of Applied Sciences,  and  Salzburg Research. The goal of the association is to bring together the research expertise in digital, interactive television. Two research projects on the acceptance of interactive television were carried out with  support of the State of Salzburg and the European Union so far.
Partners of the Salzburg media tags are the ITG Salzburg, CableLink communications expert Salzburg AG and the RTR radio and telecom regulation society.