[Air-L] AI-BRIDGES Symposium: Institutional Data, Open Knowledge & AI — May 28–29, London (free)

[Shani Evenstein Sigalov]

Dear Air-L friends & colleagues,

*TLDR: *You are invited to a free two-day event at Senate House, London,
bringing together institutions, Open Knowledge communities, AI developers,
researchers and funders. The event will focus on how institutional data,
Linked Open Data, and GenAI can be better connected, featuring hands-on
workshops, an expert panel (incl. Jimmy Wales, Denny Vrandečić, Prof. Elena
Simperl, Renata Avila and others), and collaborative roundtables. More
details & registration here <https://ai-bridges.org/2026/02/13/symposium/>.

*The more elaborate version: *
I have been wanting to write here for a few months now about AI-BRIDGES,
and am excited to finally do that and specifically invite you to the
AI-BRIDGES Symposium. For those researching the intersection of AI, open
knowledge, and institutional data governance, an event that combines
research dialogue with hands-on collaboration may be of interest.

AI-BRIDGES <https://ai-bridges.org/> is a European Commission-funded
project exploring how institutional data, Linked Open Data platforms like
Wikidata & Wikibase, and Generative AI can be better connected, practically
and responsibly. We work with various partners in the UK and globally (a
partial list of which you could find here <https://ai-bridges.org/partners/>),
and the project serves as a convening, facilitating and innovative space
that connects communities that otherwise work in silos, in order to
collaboratively tackle some joint challenges.

On *May 28–29*, we're hosting a Symposium at *Senate House, University of
London*:
*Day 1 (Thu):* *pre-Symposium training day:* training about Wikidata,
Wikibase, AI embeddings & MCP, and vibe coding for institutions and
practitioners. Online attendance is possible.
*Day 2 (Fri):* *the main Symposium day*: intro & framing, Expert panel  &
facilitated roundtables. Only in person (most will be recorded).

*Panelists* include *Jimmy Wales* (Founder of Wikipedia), *Dr. Denny
Vrandečić* (Founder of Wikidata & lead of Abstract Wikipedia), *Jon
Lloyd* (Director
of Advocacy, Digital Public Good Alliance), *Renata Avila* (CEO, Open
Knowledge Foundation), *Prof. Elena Simperl* (Co-director King’s College
Institute for AI; director of research Open Data Institute), *Dr. Aaron
Halfaker* (Principal Scientist, Microsoft), and *Josie Fraser* (Head of
Digital Policy, National Lottery Heritage Fund UK), alongside
representatives from government, cultural heritage, academia and civil
society.
The *roundtables* are designed for collaborative problem-solving,
participants work together on real challenges and leave with concrete next
steps.

Attendance is free, but registration is required. For more details and
registration, please see here <https://ai-bridges.org/2026/02/13/symposium/>
.

*Beyond the Symposium*, AI-BRIDGES hosts monthly Open Forum meetings (last
Friday of each month, 15:00 UK time), an open space for shared learning and
collaboration. See here to learn how to join the google group and become a
thought partner <https://ai-bridges.org/2026/01/06/open-forum/>. Finally,
if you work at an institution, please check the "Get Involved" tab
<https://ai-bridges.org/get-involved/>, specifically around contributing
sample data to the project.

If you have any questions or want to partner, we'd love to hear from you
<https://ai-bridges.org/about/>.

Best,

Shani.

--------------------------
Dr. Shani Evenstein Sigalov
Marie Curie Postdoctoral Researcher & AI-BRIDGES
<https://ai-bridges.org/> project
lead
Digital Humanities Research Hub
School of Advanced Study
University of London
+44-7783056290
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