The Forward Linking conference and workshops on linked open data for cultural scholarship and cultural memory will be held at the University of Ottawa. Join us as we develop, reflect on, and build a national linked data ecosystem for Canadian cultural content together.

We have an exciting schedule planned. Here is an overview of our time together:

    May 5: Forward Linking Partnership Meetings
    May 6: Opening Keynote; Panels; Newcomers' Dinner
    May 7: Panels; GLAM Roundtable; CRCCF and Women's Archives Tour; Closing Keynote
    May 8: Forward Linking and DHSITE Workshops
    May 9: DHSITE Workshops; DHSITE Keynote

Linked data is at the heart of the Semantic Web—a method of making the contents of the World Wide Web machine readable so that computers can meaningfully interpret its information. The application of the Semantic Web in cultural sectors is still in its early days. A national linked cultural data ecosystem will have immense, mutual benefit for cultural and heritage organizations, Humanities and Social Science (HSS) researchers, and the public. Building it will require strong relationships, shared goals, and sustained knowledge exchange from a broad range of stakeholders.

Forward Linking assembles these stakeholders to work toward the Canadian cultural Semantic Web. Through presentations, collaborative working sessions, and workshops, we will investigate how to enable symbiotic relationships among cultural organizations and HSS researchers in the cultural knowledge ecosystem, for mutual and public benefit, with a focus on identifying and addressing the challenges ahead.

Registration and Location

Visit our registration page for more information about how to register via Eventbrite.

The conference and workshops will take place in rooms 4007, 4004, 4014 of the Faculty of Social Sciences Building, 120 University Private, The Partnership Development Grant meets take place in room 302 of the  Perez Building, 610 Cumberland.

Keynote Speakers

Jennifer Wemigwans
Assistant Professor, Department of Leadership, Higher & Adult Education, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto.
Author of A Digital Bundle: Protecting and Promoting Indigenous Knowledge Online (University of Regina Press, 2018)

Terhi Nurmikko-Fuller
Associate Professor, POLIS: The Centre for Social Policy and Research, College of Arts and Social Sciences, Australian National University. Author of Linked Data for Digital Humanities (Routledge, 2023)

Workshops

This year the conference workshops are being offered in partnership with the University of Ottawa’s Digital Humanities Summer School, DHSITE. Their 3-hour “Cultural Translations” workshops centre on feminist digital crafting, responsible machine translation, and the ethical practice of citation and research assessment.The Forward Linking 90-minute workshops introduce linked data, ontologies, respectful terminology, publishing and data cleaning tools and more.  All the workshops count towards the Canadian Certificate in Digital Humanities.

See you in Ottawa!
The Forward Linking Program Committee: Constance Crompton, Susan Brown, Kim Martin, Sarah Roger, and Alice Defours
Donnees.scihum.hum.data@uottawa.ca

The University of Ottawa is located on Anishinābe Aki, unceded Algonquin territory