Together for free and open web search: OWS.EU Community Meet-Up was a great success!

From 9 to 11 October the #ossym24 brought together the open web search community to discuss technical, legal, ethical and economical aspects of free, unbiased and transparent access to information on the internet.

This year the OWS.EU consortium organised for the first time a “Community Meet-Up” on the evening of the first conference day. Many participants accepted the invitation and mingled with the experts from the project. Tables were dedicated to specific topics like “Infrastructure”, “Sustainability”, “Ethics”, “Legal” or “Web Index and Crawling”.

Megi Sharikadze (Leibniz Supercomputing Centre) who is heavily involved in management and coordinating aspects of the EU-funded OpenWebSearch.EU project explains the idea behind the gathering: “Usually the people involved in open web search initiatives are spread across Europe and beyond. It’s not always easy to stay in touch. The opportunity to meet the community locally, exchange ideas, inspire others and share common motivations is therefore of the utmost importance. As we build an open European web search ecosystem together, our community is growing and diversifying. We remain committed to motivating others and finding new allies – especially as we pass the halfway point of the OpenWebSearch.eu project. We have made great strides over the past few years, bringing on board new partners selected through our Community Programme. Now it is time to go out with our results and spread the word about how free and open web search can enhance our sovereignty and innovation potential in Europe”.

How to join the community

Are you a researcher, entrepreneur, inventor, politician, etc. interested in open web search, its chances and challenges? Don’t miss our monthly community meetings where the latest developments in open web search are presented and discussed on a regular basis. The 45-min community updates take place online on the BigBlueButton platform every first Monday of the month. The next Community Meet-Up will take place on 4 November 2024 in conjunction with our partner project NGI Search. Find out more about the event and registration in our community area.