Linked2Media Project Started with a Kick-off Meeting in Athens

The kick-off meeting of FP7 Linked2Media (L2M) Project which is coordinated by TURSAB (Association of Turkish Travel Agencies) was realized in Athens on the 3rd and 4th October, 2011.

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Linked2Media Project (An Open Linked Data Platform for Semantically-Interconnecting Online, Social Media Leveraging the Corporate Brand and Market Sector Reputation Analysis and Response Optimization Services) is an FP7 Capacities Programme Project which was funded by the EC within the Research for SME associations 2011 Call. The total budget of the project is and € 3,444,300.00 and the EU contribution will be € 2,216,500.00. The project is led by the Association of Turkish Travel Agencies (TURSAB) and the Linked2Media consortium comprises of SMEs Associations, SMEs and RTD performers from seven (7) EU member states and associated countries, i.e. Turkey, Spain, Italy, Greece, Romania, Bulgaria and Ireland. The other Turkish Partner of the project is BOTEGO which is focused solely on Natural Language Processing (NLP) technologies and provides software solutions based on its proprietary algorithms.

The main objective of the project is to tap into the vast user-generated content and interpret information posted on blogs, social networks and social media in Europe and beyond, ensuring that the European Commercial and Industrial SMEs will have homogenized access to the globally available online, social media information and data resources needed to perform, on their own, corporate brand reputation management and market sector repute analysis. In this way, the Linked2Media initiative will facilitate European SMEs to listen to customers’ prospects and social media, but, more importantly, to identify trends and gain insights to improve their overall marketing strategy and return of investment.

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The project started on the 1st October, 2011. The kick-off meeting of the 36-month- project was realized with the participation of Leyla Arsan, CEO of TAGES and the Linked2Media Project Coordinator, Ezgi Akkaya (TURSAB), Ekim Nazım Kaya and Gani Şimşek (BOTEGO) from Turkey. Moreover the meeting hosted other European partners with the participation of Atanas Naydenov (BCCI – Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry), İñaki Fernandez de Gorostiza (CTCR – Asociacion Para La Promocion, Investigacion Desarollo e innovacion Technologica De La Industria Del Calzado Y Conexas De La Rioja), Dan Baclesanu (UGIR – Uniunea Generala A Industriasilor Din Romania Asociatiei), Nikos Loutas and Fadi Maali (NUIG – National University of Ireland, Gateway), Gianluca Angelici and Matteo Moci (CYBION), Dimitrios Alexandrou, Konstantinos Perakis and Thanassis Bouras (UBITECH), Themis Tambouris and Eleni Kalyva (CERTH – Centre for Research and Technology Hellas), Alexandra Tudorache (EMI – Expert Multiservices Impex Srl) and Simone Tremiti (ICARIO). During the kick-off meeting, each partner representative made a presentation to introduce their organizations. The sessions and the presentations on the project vision and the main scientific and technological objectives; on-line brand reputation and market sector analysis system and their functions; the objectives, tasks, context, timetable of the project WPs; Conceptual Framework and Technological Concepts; Business Demonstrators; IPR Handling and Financial Management; project management were also realized. Regarding the WP1 – European-wide Requirements, Use Cases and Knowledge Map, a User Requirements Workshop was organized and the methodology of defining user requirements were discussed by all of the partners. As a result of the kick-off meeting and the workshop all of the project partners started to perform the project activities.

The 36-month Linked2Media project will result in: the open, generic Linked2Media Framework and Conceptual Architecture,the innovative Linked2Media Platform, highly sophisticated Brand Reputation Management and Marketing Strategy,the Linked2Media Semantic Model, the Linked2Media Business Demonstrator, the Linked2Media Roadmap and Handbook, Wide‐scale dissemination and exploitation of the project results to the European commercial, retail and industrial SMEs through the formulation of a multinational consortium with direct and indirect presence in the Enlarged Europe.