Information Modeling and Knowledge Bases has become an important technology contributor for the 21st century’s academic and industry research. It addresses the complexities of modeling in digital transformation and digital innovation, reaching beyond the traditional boarders of information systems and computer science academic research.

The amount and complexity of information itself, the number of abstraction levels of information, and the size of databases and knowledge bases are continuously growing. The diversity of data sources combines data from traditional legacy sources to stream based unstructured data having need for backwards modelling. Conceptual modelling is one of the sub-areas of information modelling. The aim of this conference is to bring together experts from different areas of computer science and other disciplines, who have a common interest in understanding and solving problems on information modelling and knowledge bases, as well as applying the results of research to practice. We also aim to recognize and study new areas of modelling and knowledge bases to which more attention should be paid. Therefore, philosophy and logic, cognitive science, knowledge management, linguistics, and management science as well as machine learning and AI are relevant areas, too.

In the conference, there will be three categories of presentations, i.e., full papers, short papers, and invited papers. The international conference on information modelling and knowledge bases originated from the co-operation between Japan and Finland in 1982 as the European Japanese conference (EJC). Then professor Ohsuga in Japan and Professors Hannu Kangassalo and Hannu Jaakkola from Finland (Nordic countries) did the pioneering work for this long tradition of academic collaboration. Over the years, the conference gradually expanded to include European and Asian countries, and gradually spread through networks of previous participants to other countries. In 2014, with this expanded geographical scope, the European Japanese part in the title was replaced by International. The conference characteristics include opening with a keynote session followed by presentation sessions with enough time for discussions. The limited number of participants is typical for this conference.

The 33rd International Conference on Information Modeling and Knowledge Bases (EJC 2023) held at Maribor, Slovenia constitutes a research forum for the exchange of scientific results and experiences of academics and practitioners dealing with information and knowledge. The main topics of EJC 2023 cover a wide range of themes extending the knowledge discovery through Conceptual Modelling, Knowledge and Information Modelling and Discovery, Linguistic Modelling, Cross-Cultural Communication and Social Computing, Environmental Modeling and Engineering, and Multimedia Data Modelling and Systems. The conference has also been open to new topics, related to its main themes. In this way, the content emphases of the conferences have been able to adapt to the changes taking place in the research field.

The EJC 2023 was hosted by the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science of the University of Maribor, Slovenia on June 5 – June 9, 2023. The contributions of this proceeding feature eighteen reviewed, selected, and upgraded publications as well as one keynote and three invited contributions that are the result of presentations, comments, and discussions during the conference. We thank all colleagues for their support in making this conference successful, especially the program committee, organization committee, and the program coordination team, especially Professor Naofumi Yoshida, who maintains the paper submission and reviewing systems and compiles the files for this book.

Editors

Marina Tropmann-Frick

Hannu Jaakkola

Bernhard Thalheim

Yasushi Kiyoki

Naofumi Yoshida