the online registration for DC-2009, the ninth International Conference on Dublin Core and Metadata Applications, to be held in Seoul, Korea, 12-16 October 2009, is now open. Early bird registration is open until 31 August. Also, the preliminary program is published with the main elements of the program for the event. A further version of the program with additional details is scheduled to be published in early August.

DC-2009 will focus on linked data and the enabling of the Semantic Web. Conference participants will explore the conceptual and practical issues in breaking the constraints of data silos and connecting pieces of data, information, and knowledge. Metadata is a key to these processes supporting publishing and interlinking structured data on the Semantic Web.

There is a growing interest in the metadata community in connecting existing and future data contained in silos within and across organizations in a meaningful way that supports extraction and correlation of the data. The linking of data from disparate data silos presents technical and social challenges that will be explored at DC-2009 through full papers, project reports, posters, special sessions and workshops.