26th International Conferences on Conceptual Modeling (ER 2007)

November 5-9, 2007, Auckland, New Zealand



1st International WORKSHOP on Ontologies and Information Systems for the Semantic Web (ONISW 2007)


*** Extended submission deadline: April 30, 2007 ***



[ CFP | Submission Procedures | Due Dates | Program Chairs | Program Committee ]


ER 2007 Workshop Homepage


CALL FOR PAPERS

The emergence of the World Wide Web made massive amounts of data available. Data exists in many scattered electronic data sources (e-sources) over the Web. Even though some of the data is in well-organized data sources, interoperability and integration with data from other sources, semantic coordination and conflict resolution are required for its full exploitation. Semantic Web enabled applications can potentially produce better results for semantic integration, interoperability and search. In particular, ontologies are widely regarded as the best solution to global information integration and semantic interoperability.

It is crucial question whether ontologies which are regarded as best choice regarding semantic interoperability and data integration can replace information models. Whereas ontologies work quite well as virtual schemata in mediation systems, they may perform poorly as information models and on the user interface level. On the theoretical side, there is a lack of understanding of the effective relation and interplay of ontological and epistemological features in information models and systems. Furthermore there are still open questions concerning good scientific practice in developing ontologies. On the practical side, there is still a lack of good practice of how to integrate existing information systems into ontology driven applications. Few experiences exist with creating good new data structures from ontologies directly for interoperation in complex and diverse application environments.

The main objective of the workshop is to bring together researchers in information management interested in the relation between ontology and information models, to present results and to discuss theoretical aspects and good practice. Among the issues are:
  1. What is the difference and relation between information models and ontologies? Which criteria must ontologies match in order to provide a sound basis for an information system? How interact and relate the ways of knowing and what can be known with the form of knowledge in information systems. Are there systematic kinds information elements associated with information management processes which are not of ontological nature? What is the epistemological impact on ontologies?
  2. How to construct ontologies from information models for semantic interoperability, how to create and manage mapping specifications for mediators, data transformation systems, Web service wrappers via ontologies. What are the characteristic cases of heterogeneity and how can they be managed generically. Languages and tools for mapping and transformation algorithm generators.
  3. How can we effectively enable domain experts to specify the semantics of their information systems in order to exploit Semantic Web technology? How can we visualize the ontology and mapping information in a user-friendly way?
  4. How to make effective information models, i.e. database schemata, data entry forms, Web service interfaces, simplified query interfaces, from ontologies? Ontologies can help to describe in objective terms the loss of information and reasoning capabilities due to necessary simplifications in information structures. What are the problems, mechanisms, rules, so that semantic interoperability is preserved?
  5. How to utilize ontologies and conceptual modelling for data management, integration and interoperability in Semantic web applications, in particular in e-science, life sciences, e-business and cultural applications. What are architectures and models of good practice? Are there domain-overarching global core ontologies? What are their characteristics?
We invite researchers and practitioners to submit theoretical, technical and practical research contributions that address directly or indirectly the above issues. Particularly welcome are application from e-science, e-business, life sciences, and cultural applications.

The workshop foresees a technical discussion on the relation of ontologies and conceptual modeling. ,The authors of the best papers will be invited to submit an extended and revised version of their work for publication in the Applied Ontology journal.

Topics of Interest include, but are not limited to: The volume will be published by Springer as part of its LNCS series.


SUBMISSION PROCEDURES

Authors are invited to submit original papers via email to Hyoil Han (hhan@ischool.drexel.edu) as a PDF file.
Since the workshop papers will be published by Springer-Verlag in the LNCS series, authors must submit manuscripts using the LNCS style. See www.springer.de/comp/lncs/authors.html for style files and details. The suggested number of pages is 10. Manuscripts not submitted in the LNCS style will not be reviewed and thus automatically rejected. (The final camera-ready version must not exceed 10 pages.)


IMPORTANT DATES (Deadlines)

        April 30, 2007 Full Papers **The deadline has been exntended**
        June 5, 2007 Notification
        July 6, 2007 Camera Ready Papers


PROGRAM CHAIRS

        Mathias Brochhausen      Institute of Formal Ontology (IFOMIS), Saarbrücken, Germany.
                (mathias.brochhausen AT ifomis.uni-saarland.de)
        Martin Doerr Institute of Computer Science, Foundation for Research and Technology - Hellas (FORTH)
                (martin AT ics.forth.gr)
        Hyoil Han       Drexel University, USA
                (hhan AT ischool.drexel.edu)


PROGRAM COMMITTEE

Yuan An, University of Toronto, Canada
Sofia J. Athenikos, Drexel University, USA
Boualem Benatallah, University of New South Wales (UNSW) in Sydney, Australia
Mathias Brochhausen, European Center of Ontological Research (ECOR), Institute of Formal Ontology (IFOMIS), Saarbrücken, Germany
Namyeon Choi, Drexel University, USA
Crisitan Cocos, IFOMIS, Saarland University, Saarbrücken, Germany
Martin Doerr, Institute of Computer Science, Foundation for Research and Technology - Hellas (FORTH)
Ramez Elmasri, University of Texas at Arlington, USA
Fabien Gandon, INRIA, France
Raul Garcia-Castro, Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, Spain
Hyoil Han, Drexel University, USA
Mary Elizabeth Jones, Immaculata University, USA
Aneesh Krishna, University of Wollongong, Australia
Werner Kuhn, Institute for Geoinformatics, University Muenster, Germany
Sang-Koo Lee, Seoul National University, Korea
SeungJin Lim, Utah State University, USA
Dimitris Plexousakis, University of Crete, Greece
Barry Smith, State University of New York at Buffalo, USA, and IFOMIS, Saarland University, Saarbrücken, Germany
Krishnaprasad Thirunarayan, Wright State University, USA




For further information on this Workshop, please contact program chairs.