Building the Open Web Search Community (And Keeping it Growing)

BUILDING THE OPEN WEB SEARCH COMMUNITY (AND KEEPING IT GROWING) U. Gmelch†, Open Search Foundation e.V., Starnberg, Germany Abstract This talk traces the history of the Open Web Search Community, its achievements and also throws a glance into the future. In particular, it addresses the different stakeholder groups in the Open Web Search community, their activities and the role of the Open Search Foundation inside the community. The Open Web Search Initiative got started well before the OpenWebSearch.EU project. In fact, the community and particularly the Open Search Foundation were instrumental in inspiring the Next Generation Internet (NGI) section of the Horizon Europe program to raise its ambitions regarding the search component of NGI. Of this came the OpenWebSearch.EU project with 14 renowned European research partners and computing centres from 7 countries, currently in its final year. The Open Search Foundation (OSF) [1] has been the central node in the Open Web Search community since its founding in 2018. It can be described as the ‘spider in the web’ but also as the catalyst for several projects in the Open Web Search field, such as OpenWebSearch.EU, the German PriDI project [2] in the legal domain or #ethicsinsearch [3], among others. Over the years, the Open Search Foundation has inspired big institutions, small organisations and individuals to join their efforts and jointly conceptualise, build and advance Open Web Search capacities in Europe and beyond. The Open Web Search Community can be broadly categorized into six main stakeholder groups: compute providers, software & system developers, policy / oversight & funding organisations, democratic / public curation bodies, application & exploitation domain and data / distribution hubs. These can further be grouped by their proximity to the community, e.g. into core community members, contributors, active supporters and followers (or observers). Particular mention goes to the third-party partners of the OpenWebSearch.EU project who actively extend and enrich the existing community with further research, application development and legal guidance [4]. Beyond OpenWebSearch.EU, associated projects and activities in the Open Web Search field are KIsu [5], which builds an inclusive frontend for RAG systems, fit for use by children and the elderly, the three ethics workshops funded by the CAIS centre during 2024, where ethical questions around the Open Web Index were discussed and developed, and the yearly #FreeWebSearch Day [6], organised by OSF to promote free, open and transparent web search. While the OpenWebSearch.EU project was, and is, very important in providing a core development capacity for Open Web Search, it was always important to ensure integration and active exchange with the broader community at the same time. One important connector is, of course, the Open Search Symposium (#ossym), already held for the seventh time this year. Another one is the monthly Community Update online call [7], that has recently featured webinars on the core R&D components of the OpenWebSearch.EU project. Another means for integrating the Open Web Search community are the OSF working groups [8] (tech, application, ethics, legal, education&literacy and economy) which hold regular meetings, online or occasionally in person, and advance the work on Open Web Search significantly. Overarching all of this is the Mattermost community platform on Open Web Search [9], where all contributors are welcome to share news, discuss ideas and collaborate. The biggest achievement of the Open Web Search Community is probably the prototype of the Open Web Index [10], built within the OpenWebSearch.EU project and supported by the community. There are first use cases and cooperation with search engine providers, AI Factories and e.g. the OpenEuroLLM project building on the Open Web Index and the associated data products. Furthermore, through persistent communication and outreach, Open Web Search is now starting to be on the policy agenda in Europe, as evidenced for example by the session on Open Web Search organised at the NGI Forum in June, 2025 in Brussels [11]. In the near future, the Open Web Search Community very likely faces the challenge of not having a single / central follow-up activity or project to OpenWebSearch.EU. As a consequence, it will be important to build on the existing tools for integrating and communicating activities within the community: monthly community updates, working groups, Mattermost channels etc. An important factor in maintaining coherence in the Open Web Search community will be keeping the current infrastructure and the core contributors to the Open Web Index working together to enable further research and application development by the community, based on the Open Web Index. REFERENCES [1] https://opensearchfoundation.org/en/ [2] https://pridi-projekt.de/home-en/ [3] https://ethicsinsearch.org/en/home-e/ [4] https://openwebsearch.eu/third-partyprojects/ [5]https://kisu.cs.uni-saarland.de/ [6]https://freewebsearch.org/en/ ______________________________________________ † [email protected] https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17238407 [7]https://openwebsearch.eu/community/owseucommunity-updates/ [8]https://opensearchfoundation.org/en/workinggroups/ [9] https://openwebsearch.eu/community/owseu-community-on-mattermost/ [10]https://openwebindex.eu/ [11]https://ngi.eu/ngi-forum25/ https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17238407