Open Semantic Data Association

The Open Semantic Data Association e. V. (OSDA) is a non-profit organization that emerged from the Semantic MediaWiki project, that is dedicated to the use of open semantic data to support education and free access to information. OSDA therefore aims at supporting:

the creation and distribution of open data,
the use of open machine-readable data formats that simplify re-use and distribution,
the development of free software tools for these purposes.

OSDA believes that SMWCon meetings that bring together the Open Source user and developer community around Semantic MediaWiki.

About us

OSDA is organized as a charitable registered association under German law (gemeinnütziger eingetragener Verein, VR 3603, Amtsgericht Karlsruhe) seated in Karlsruhe, Germany. It is legally required to operate as a not-for-profit organization that only pursues the charitable goals set forth in its statutes. OSDA was founded on 3rd March 2011 and was officially announced as a registered association on 2nd August 2011.

Importantly, OSDA does not generally represent Semantic MediaWiki or any of its related projects or organizations, even though some members of OSDA may be closely affiliated with these. However, OSDA can occasionally act as a representative organization for specific activities, such as when applying for an award or funding programs, to represent related Open Source projects that otherwise do not have an official organization to support them. Naturally, this is only done in close cooperation with the responsible maintainer, and it does not mean that OSDA represents the project in other matters. Likewise, OSDA is convinced that its charitable goals have wide support in the related communities, but it does not represent a particular community as a whole (though its members may reflect a range of important viewpoints found in related communities).

The OSDA is a volunteer organization that does not currently have any employees. A small Management Board is in charge of the practical operations. A Steering Committee of OSDA members discusses important matters and takes decisions on the activities of the OSDA. As of 2012, the OSDA Management Board is comprised of:

President: Markus Krötzsch, Dresden University of Technology (since Mar 2011)
Vice president: Yaron Koren, WikiWorks (since Mar 2011)
Treasurer: Frank Dengler, audriga GmbH (since Mar 2011)

The OSDA Steering Committee includes the members of the Management Board and the following members:

Michael Cariaso, SNPedia.com (since Mar 2011)
Jeroen De Dauw (since Mar 2011)
Daniel Hansch, DIQA Projektmanagement GmbH (since Mar 2011)
Karsten Hoffmeyer, WikiHoster.net (since Oct 2013)
Joel Natividad, Ontodia Inc. (since Mar 2011)
Lydia Pintscher, Wikimedia Deutschland (since Mar 2011)
Don Undeen, Metropolitan Museum of Art (since Mar 2011)
Denny Vrandečić, Google (since Mar 2011)

OSDA additionally has the following members:

Michael Erdmann, DIQA Projektmanagement GmbH
Alexander Gesinn, gesinn.it
Yury Katkov, Blue Brain Project
Bernhard Krabina, Zentrum für Verwaltungsforschung KDZ
Jesse Wang, Atigeo

The following are former Steering Committee members of OSDA:

Jesse Wang, Atigeo (SC member 2011–2013)

Activities

An important part of the work of OSDA is the co-organization and facilitation of the SMWCon meetings. The OSDA Steering Committee decides on the time and place of SMWCons, and supports the local organizers.

In 2011 and 2012, OSDA also coordinated the application of Semantic MediaWiki to the Google Summer of Code program, unfortunately without (direct) success.

Statutes

The official statutes of OSDA are in German, but an unofficial English translation is also available.

Contact

To contact OSDA, please write to info@opensemanticdata.org.

Donate

All donations are very welcome. Donations will be used to further the goals of OSDA, especially the development and popularization of Semantic MediaWiki. To donate, you can just use the PayPal button below:

If you would like to make a more targeted donation, or you have any questions about donating, you can write to info@opensemanticdata.org.