Vol. 5 (2023): Proceedings 5th International Open Search Symposium #ossym2023, 4–6 October 2023, CERN, Geneva, Switzerland

We are delighted to present the 2023 volume of the #ossym Proceedings. It documents the many innovative and interdisciplinary contributions of the #ossym23 International Open Search Symposium. Hosted at CERN in Geneva from 4 to 6 October 2023, the conference brought together researchers, technology experts, political representatives, and industry executives for the 5th time to discuss the foundations of human-centred, transparent, and open web search.

The conference offered a variety of formats, from scientific presentations, interactive workshops on the ethics of internet search as well as legal and environmental aspects, to a panel discussion with industry players and talks by representatives of alternative search engines fragFinn, Mojeek and Marginalia. Researchers from the EU Project “OpenWebSearch.eu” gave updates on the project’s research in dedicated tracks, covering all aspects from technical challenges of search engine operability, crawling, web page classification and prototyping of Open Web Search applications to aspects of ethics and governance of an Open Web Index.

Not covered in these proceedings, but nevertheless important to mention are the keynote speeches, providing valuable insights into technical, governmental, community-related and ethical aspects:

• Christoph Schumann (LAINON e.V.) emphasised the power of the open AI community.
• Vice President of the European Commission for Values and Transparency, Věra Jourová, outlined the vision of a human-centric internet and stressed the importance of open, transparent Web Search Services for Europe.
• Ricardo Baeza-Yates (Director at the Institute of Experiential AI at Northeastern University) delivered an in-depth keynote on “Bias in Search and Recommender Systems”, covering all concepts of biases as well as methods to tackle them.
• Angella Ndaka, head of the The Centre for Africa Epistemic Justice and researcher at the University of Otago, presented insights on how tech-driven businesses change African societies and can endanger democratic structures.

All in all, it was once again a very stimulating meeting with a lively exchange between many different people from many different disciplines. We would like to thank all authors, presenters, panellists and keynote speakers for sharing their scientific work, ideas, expertise and thoughts with us at #ossym23 and in these proceedings. A special thank you goes to CERN as local host and co-organiser of #ossym2023 for their great preparation and tireless commitment.

The conference is an exemplary demonstration of how multifaceted the vibrant Open Web Search community approaches the topic and explores it from a wide range of disciplines and angles. Every #ossym conference takes the Open Web Search initiative a big step further year after year.

In this spirit: We look forward to the next conference – #ossym24 in Munich!

Andreas Wagner, Michael Granitzer, Christian Gütl, Christine Plote and Stefan Voigt