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About KMi

Visitors

Visitors
The Knowledge Media Institute (KMi) is home to internationally recognized researchers in semantic technologies, new media systems, collaboration technologies, knowledge management, artificial intelligence, cognitive science, and human-computer interaction. KMi provides opportunities for researchers and students to come to KMi and join our research teams. The participants will take part in project-based research with a chance to make a contribution to one of our projects, while at the same time pursuing their research agenda e.g., continuing to study towards their PhD. If interested, please read through the information provided below and afterwards contact the KMi Visitors Co-ordinator with the relevant information about yourself and your interests.


Frequently Asked Questions

What is the role of a visitor?
As a visitor, you will work in a project team, working with KMi students and staff on a research problem which is of interest to both KMi and to yourself.

Are visitors necessarily British or EU nationals?
Definitely not, we are open as to your nationality, and we will consider your application regardless of whether you are British/EU national or not.

Do I need to have my own funding?
Yes, normally visitors are covered by their own grant – e.g., in the context of their doctoral bursary. In exceptional circumstances we may be prepared to fund a visitor ourselves, but this is a relatively rare occurrence.

How to apply for a KMi Visitor vacancy

  • Look at the information available on our web site about our research activities. In particular, look at the What We Do page and at our list of projects and technologies.
  • Prepare a structured CV (résumé)
  • Describe one or more research topics of interest to you and try to identify relevant KMi projects, with which you would like to be associated.
  • Send us your CV and application by email
  • The Co-ordinator will make an initial assessment about your application, and, when appropriate, will put you in touch with a specific project leader or project team. You will then discuss your potential work with these people to ensure that a suitable topic is identified, which matches yours and the project’s interests.
  • If we decide to formally offer you a visitor position, we will contact you with the further particulars. It is your responsibility to obtain all travel documents and visa if applicable. If your application is accepted, we will of course support your application for a visa

The application process

  • Look at the information available on our web site about our research activities. In particular, look at the What We Do page and at our list of projects and technologies.
  • Prepare a structured CV (résumé)
  • Describe one or more research topics of interest to you and try to identify relevant KMi projects, with which you would like to be associated.
  • Send us your CV and application by email (visitor Co-ordinator contact details)
  • The Co-ordinator will make an initial assessment about your application, and, when appropriate, will put you in touch with a specific project leader or project team. You will then discuss your potential work with these people to ensure that a suitable topic is identified, which matches yours and the project’s interests.
  • If we decide to formally offer you a visitor position, we will contact you with the further particulars. It is your responsibility to obtain all travel documents and visa if applicable. If your application is accepted, we will of course support your application for a visa.

The Open University info

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Visitor Co-ordinator: Alan Fletcher - feel free to contact for advice about coming to KMi as a visitor (email, telephone +44 (0)1908 654511).

General information: Ms Ortenz Rose (email, telephone +44 (0) 1908 654774, Knowledge Media Institute, The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA, UK).
 
The Open University Event | SSSW 2013, The 10th Summer School on Ontology Engineering and the Semantic Web Journal | 25 years of knowledge acquisition
 

Semantic Web and Knowledge Services is...


Semantic Web and Knowledge Services
"The Semantic Web is an extension of the current web in which information is given well-defined meaning, better enabling computers and people to work in cooperation" (Berners-Lee et al., 2001).

Our research in the Semantic Web area looks at the potentials of fusing together advances in a range of disciplines, and applying them in a systemic way to simplify the development of intelligent, knowledge-based web services and to facilitate human access and use of knowledge available on the web. For instance, we are exploring ways in which tnatural language interfaces can be used to facilitate access to data distributed over different repositories. We are also developing infrastructures to support rapid development and deployment of semantic web services, which can be used to create web applications on-the-fly. We are also investigating ways in which semantic technology can support learning on the web, through a combination of knowledge representation support, pedagogical theories and intelligent content aggregation mechanisms. Finally, we are also investigating the Semantic Web itself as a domain of analysis and performing large scale empirical studies to uncover data about the concrete epistemologies which can be found on the Semantic Web. This exciting new area of research gives us concrete insights on the different conceptualizations that are present on the Semantic Web by giving us the possibility to discover which are the most common viewpoints, which viewpoints are mutually inconsistent, to what extent different models agree or disagree, etc...

Our aim is to be at the forefront of both theoretical and practical developments on the Semantic Web not only by developing theories and models, but also by building concrete applications, for a variety of domains and user communities, including KMi and the Open University itself.