#ossym25 takes to Finland – Register now for the 7th International Open Search Symposium

In October 2025, the ever growing open search community will gather at CSC – IT Center for Science in Helsinki/Finland for its annual autumn meeting. For the seventh time, the International Open Search Symposium #ossym will provide a forum to discuss and further develop ideas and concepts of open internet search. Registration for the event is now open.

Discuss all things “open web search” and meet the OpenWebSearch.eu partners and community at the interdisciplinary conference on open web search. Organized by our project partners Open Search Foundation , CSC – IT Center of Science and CERN, the International Open Search Symposium will again be hosted as a hybrid conference from 8 to 10 October 2025.

7th International Open Search Symposium

CSC – IT Center for Science, Helsinki (Finland) + online

8 to 10 October 2025

Tickets are available for 200 Euros or 60 Euros for students here:

https://ssl.eventilla.com/ossym25

Discuss about all aspects of open web search, such as:

  • Open Search Architectures and platforms
  • Open Web Index and application domains
  • Societal and ethical challenges and solutions
  • Web Data Analytics and Web Mining
  • Large Language Models, Machine Learning and generative AI
  • Personalization and recommendation in search
  • Conversational Retrieval Experiences
  • Search engine advertising and business models in an open search world
  • Green computing and sustainability
  • Politics and governance
  • Economic dimensions, business models, applications of open search
  • Legal aspects of open search
  • and many more …

Information and Registration

More information is provided on the webpage of the organizer Open Search Foundation: https://opensearchfoundation.org/en/events-osf/ossym25/

 

About the Organizers

The Open Search Foundation e.V. has first initiated the #ossym in 2019 and keeps organizing the yearly Symposium in conjunction with varying partners. The Open Search foundation is a European movement to create the foundation for independent, free and self-determined access to information on the Internet. In cooperation with research institutions, computer centres and other partners, we’re committed to searching the web in a way that benefits everyone.
Motto: “Together for a Better Net”. More info on the website: opensearchfoundation.org

CSC – IT Center for Science is this year’s local on-site host. CSC is a Finnish center of expertise in ICT that provides world-class services for research, education, culture, public administration and enterprises, to help them thrive and benefit society at large.

CERN handles participant communications and data security. CERN is a European Organization for Nuclear Research and one of the world’s largest and most respected centres for scientific research. Its business is fundamental physics, finding out what the Universe is made of and how it works.

OpenWebSearch.eu goes NGI Forum 2025

In the context of NGI Forum 2025, the OpenWebSearch.eu team was invited to co-organize a range of sessions surrounding the idea of a federated European Open Web Infrastructure, scheduled for the second conference day. 

Under the Horizon Europe funding program, the Next Generation Internet (NGI) Initiative organizes a yearly forum in Brussels that brings together digital experts, political decision makers and industry representatives to discuss and develop new visions for tomorrow’s human-centric Internet platforms across Europe.

Four sessions devoted to Open Web Data and Web Sovereignty in Europe

This year, The OpenWebSearch.eu project team was invited to not only present results from their own ongoing project, but to also co-organize and moderate a half-day program for the morning of 20th June.

After some final additions, the agenda is all set and includes a keynote from OpenWebSearch.eu project leader Dr. Prof. Michael Granizer (University of Passau), as well as policy statements from MEPs Alexandra Geese and Lina Gálvez.

The panel “Applications of an Open Web Index and Web Data Infrastructure” sets out to showcase some existing use cases with conclusions on the most important next steps from various angles. Panelists are Emmanuel Cartier (EC-JCR), Per Öster (CSC – IT Center for Science), Jan Hajič (OpenEuroLLM, Charles University) and Wolfgang Oels (Ecosia).

A second panel discussion titled “Web Sovereignty – towards a sovereign web tech stack for Europe” will bring together Renaud Chaput (Mastodon), Gaël Duval (Murena) and Ana Garcia Robles (BDVA).

Further speakers include Sara Garavelli (CSC – IT Center for Science) and Stefan Voigt (Open Search Foundation, DLR)

Are you curious to learn more about why Europe needs an open web data infrastructure for search, analytics and AI? Then join the NGI Forum in person or online.

Visit the NGI Forum landing page to see the agenda and to secure your ticket (be fast, as seats are filling up quickly): NGI Forum 2025