Notes from the VIVO Implementation Fest 2015

A few weeks ago, our resident Open Profiles experts Alex Viggio and John Gieschenattended the VIVO Implementation Fest 2015, in Portland, Oregon. We asked Alex and John for a quick review of the summit, and what it heralds for the future of the VIVO project. Here’s what they had to say:

Observations

The 2015 IFest covered a lot of territory. From discussions of dos and dont’s of ontology extension, visualizing data, data ingest strategies, data integration and SPARQL 101, there was a recurring theme on the rich data and tools that VIVO provides to an institution’s researchers, administrators, and other key stakeholders. Installation opportunities using a variety of tools and partnerships were roundly discussed.

A mixed audience of VIVO stalwarts, innovators and new implementers made for lively meeting sessions that included insights from VIVO Project Director Dr. Mike Conlon. Alex demonstrated the latest release of our open source Elements harvester for VIVO, to an impressed audience. He also led a group discussion exploring the need for VIVO scaling and performance as VIVO sites grow and interlink to bring more high value data to the Semantic Web.

The IFest left participants inspired to continue realizing the potential of linked open data, and the benefits it can provide to a growing number of research communities. It ended with the raw materials of an evolving road map and community task force structure that aligns with the VIVO strategy and leadership. Keep August 12-14 open on your calendar for the VIVO annual conference in Cambridge, Massachusetts where the conversations will continue!

 

VIVO Conference

2015 call for papers is now open

Authors are now invited to submit abstracts for poster, panel, and paper presentations related to the Topics of Interest for the Sixth Annual VIVO Conference in August. For a copy of the full Call for Papers, please click here. All submissions must be submitted through EasyChair by Friday, April 24th 5:00 PM PST.

Happy Easter!

With this partnership, we have the opportunity to position ourselves as
a world leader in the development of the scholarly ecosystem.

Keith Webster, Dean of University Libraries, Carnegie Mellon

I cannot overstate how pleased we have been.
We have to have confidence to work with a partner
for at least 5 years on a project of this size.

Caleb Smith, Senior Strategy Manager for Research Intelligence & Analytics, University of Michigan

“Faculty need only spend perhaps less than an hour a year to prepare and submit their annual reports.”

Associate Dean, Carnegie Mellon University at Qatar

"Leveraging the interoperability between Symplectic Elements and DSpace has increased policy-driven institutional repository deposits by over 350%."

Ellen Phillips, Open Access Specialist, Boston University

Elements elegantly connected our multi-university system providing a
single source of truth throughout OIEx.

Tim Cain, The Ohio Innovation Exchange (OIEx)

The University measures the individual research activity of academic staff. This Measure of Research Activity (MoRA) requires the collection of publication data from faculty. Symplectic Elements supports this beautifully.

Floris van der Leest, Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia

[Elements] will help to bring transparency to the richness of thought showcased within non-traditional publications, providing a more holistic representation of faculties’ scholarly work.

Caleb Smith, University of Michigan

Feedback to date has been extremely positive from all levels across the University, with individual academics and colleagues actively promoting the ease of use of the system.

Rachel Baird, Research Policy Analyst, University of Liverpool