Supporting a VIVO Regional Community

Abstract

VIVO is member-supported, open source software and an ontology for representing scholarship. VIVO supports recording, editing, searching, browsing, and visualizing scholarly activity. VIVO encourages showcasing the scholarly record, research discovery, expert finding, network analysis, and assessment of research impact. When installed and populated with researcher interests, activities, and accomplishments by an institution, VIVO enables the discovery of research and scholarship across disciplines at that institution and beyond. When VIVO is implemented in a research institution, there is a need to adjust the software to local needs. If a system has its roots in a different country, the adjustments can be more comprehensive. The VIVO ontology and a lot of the underlying assumptions, which are based on the realities of the US scholarly landscape, must be “tailored” to be able to depict the academic culture. The differences concern both the meaning of the translated terms and the usage of the terms in the common language use. This one-hour webinar aims at explaining some of the differences we have experienced while trying to make VIVO compliant to the needs of the German VIVO community. Our motives, goals, tools, and means of communication will be introduced to help others learn from our experiences. Time will be reserved for questions following the presentation. Space is limited and pre-registration is required.