Connectionists: Covid-19 update: ISWC 2020 to be a virtual conference

[International Semantic Web Conference]

Dear ISWC community,

We have been monitoring the situation evolving around Covid-19 closely and after much deliberation and considering the contingency and prevention measures that have recently been put into place, we decided that ISWC 2020 will be a virtual conference. Our primary concern is the health and wellbeing of our community members and the challenging circumstances that might be directly affecting them. We will be providing detailed information on the ISWC web site [1] in the following days but can already inform about the following changes:

	• Remote participation: We are working with the local organizers to put together technical infrastructure for remote presentations as well as techniques to maximize social engagement and encourage community participation. As travel is no longer required, we hope to reach a much wider audience.
	• Extended deadlines: We are extending all deadlines and will publish updated timelines shortly. If you’ve already submitted your paper, you’re welcome to update it until the new deadline. 
	• Registration fees: We hope to substantially reduce the registration fees  because of the reduction in physical resources required. We will provide more details when we’ve worked out how much the infrastructure and support will cost.

There are several logistical issues that have to still be worked out and we would appreciate your patience and support while we come up with suitable solutions. 

ISWC 2020 needs your support to keep going so please submit papers, participate (remotely) and help us make this (virtual) conference a success!! 

The ISWC Organizing Committee 

[1] https://iswc2020.semanticweb.org