Vol. 8 (2026): Proceedings 8th International Open Search Symposium #ossym2026, 7-9 October 2026, CODE University of Applied Sciences, Berlin, Germany

Dear readers,

Already in the 8th year of our #ossym conference series, it is our great pleasure to present the proceedings of the 8th International Open Search Symposium - #ossym2026 - which takes place from 7 to 9 October 2026 in Berlin, Germany, hosted by CODE University of Applied Sciences.

In this year’s symposium there are 28 accepted papers from 84 authors. A growing community around the topic and the constant strong interest in open search and artificial intelligence is reflected in many inspiring contributions in the topic clusters “Crawling”, “User behaviour and preferences in search and AI”, “Legal aspects of Open Web Search and AI training”, “Ethics and Society”, and “AI in Science”.

All in all, the #ossym symposium offers a variety of formats to exchange and to collect inspirations. From scientific presentations, workshops on horizontal aspects of open search topics, to exchange with industry players and policy makers. It provides a platform for researchers engaging in the Open Web Search Initiative to present and exchange their results with the community.

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

• “Sovereign AI Services Leading to a European Future of Search” Julian Kunkel, Deputy Head of High-Performance Computing at the Göttingen Supercomputing Center (GWDG) and Professor for High-Performance Computing at University of Göttingen
• "The Sovereign AI Stack: A Builder’s Perspective" Stefan Andresen, Chief Scientist, DeepL
• “The Pulse of the Planet: Remote Sensing and geoweb data redrawing the map of human behaviour” Hannes Taubenböck, Head of department „Georisks and Civil Security“ at the Earth Observation Center (EOC) of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and Professor at the University Würzburg holding the chair “Global Urbanization and Remote Sensing”
• “Sovereignty for whom? The politics of breaking with dependencies in search” Aline Blankertz, Structural Integrity

We want to express our special thanks to all authors, for their sound contributions, the program committee, for their valuable reviews and recommendations, all keynote and featured speakers, for the inspiring insights, all sponsors, for their financial support to the event, as well the team of this year’s host, CODE University of Applied Sciences, for all the organizational efforts. Without all these great contributions and helpful support, it would not be possible to successfully run the 8th International Open Search Symposium.
The initial motivation for establishing the #ossym conference series was to establish a place for exchange, demonstration and inspiration on the multifaceted approaches, disciplines, angles and activities in the vibrant Open Web Search community. Looking back at our previous events, we are now even more convinced that #ossym provides this place of exchange in a very fruitful and interesting manner. Every #ossym takes the Open Web Search activities and related initiatives a big step further - year after year. We look forward to meeting all participants: whether onsite or online. Your engagement, contributions and lively discussions are the foundation that the Open Search Initiative is based on and that stimulate its advancements.

On behalf of the #ossym2026 conference chairs,
Michael Granitzer, Christian Gütl, Megi Sharikadze, Stefan Voigt, and Andreas Wagner