The 2nd International workshop on Ontologies and Information Systems for the Semantic Web (ONISW 2008)
http://www.ischool.drexel.edu/faculty/hhan/onisw2008/
in conjunction with ACM 17th Conference on Information and Knowledge Management
Napa Valley Marriott Hotel & Spa: Napa Valley, California
October 26-30, 2008

Description and Scope of Topics:

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.

A crucial question is whether ontologies can replace information models.
But 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 and few experiences at all 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 to interact and relate the ways of knowing and what can be known with the form of knowledge
in information systems? Are there systematic kinds of information elements associated
with information management processes that are not of ontological nature?
What is the epistemological impact on ontologies?

2. How should we construct ontologies from information models for semantic interoperability,
and 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. What are the 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 can we make effective information models, i.e. database schemata, data entry forms,
Web service interfaces, and simplified query interfaces from ontologies?
Ontologies can help to objectively describe the loss of information and reasoning capabilities
due to necessary simplifications in information structures. What are the problems, mechanisms, and
rules in order to preserve semantic interoperability?

5. How should we utilize ontologies and conceptual modelling for data management, integration and
interoperability in Semantic web applications, particularly 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?

6. What is semantics? Are semantics logical formulae? Is ontological commitment a set of formulae or
an interpretation function to real world things and phenomena in the user?s mind?
What role does ontological commitment play in conceptual modelling and database integration?

Researchers and practitioners are invited to submit theoretical, technical and
practical research contributions that directly or indirectly address the issues above.
Particularly welcome are e-science, life-sciences, e-business and cultural applications.
The workshop foresees a technical discussion on the relation of ontologies, conceptual modelling, and
data management/integration for the Semantic Web.

Topics:

* Ontology and epistemology in information systems
* Ontologies and conceptual modelling
* Ontology learning
* Semantic interoperability
* Ontology-based schema mapping/matching and integration
* Ontology mapping tools and languages
* Ontology mapping and ontology visualization
* Schema transformation
* User friendly semantic system integration tools
* Ontology-based data transformation and data migration tools.
* Domain specific heterogeneity analysis between data structures and ontologies
* Ontology-based query mediation
* Conceptual modelling for the Semantic Web
* Querying the Semantic Web
* Ontology-driven application system and Web service design
* Conceptual and logical models for Web data sources and applications
* Ontology design and maintenance for conceptual model integration
* Reverse engineering of ontologies from conceptual models
* Ontology harmonization and merging: Methods and tools.
* Core ontologies and global models, applications and limitations
* Ontology-enabled interoperability in e-science, life sciences, e-business, culture
* Lessons learnt and experience from large-scale integration projects.
* Global ontologies and Local as View (LAV) integration methods, problems and practice
* Architectures and good practice of ontology-based integrated application environments
* Applications of above topics to e-science, e-business, and life sciences

All workshop proceedings will be printed along with the CIKM proceedings by ACM.
Thus, the timeline to print proceedings must strictly follow with the CIKM proceedings schedule.

The authors of the best papers will be invited to submit an extended and revised version of their work
for publication in the Journal of Computing Science and Engineering.
Submission Procedures
Workshop papers are accepted in the form of Posters (2-4 pages), Short papers (5 pages),
Position papers (5 pages), and Regular papers (7-8 pages).
All workshop papers will be up to 8 pages, double column.
No extra pages can be purchased for all workshop papers.

All ONISW workshop papers should be submitted to EasyChair system for ONISW.
At least one author of each accepted paper must register for the workshop by the Early Registration Deadline.
That is, registration must be done at the time when the author sends the camera-ready copy
of the accepted paper to the workshop chair. Workshop registration rate(s) is determined by CIKM.


All ONISW workshop papers will have various time slots to be presented in the Workshop: Posters (2-4 pages), Short papers (5 pages), Position papers (5 pages), and Regular papers (7-8 pages).
Important Dates (Firm deadlines)

* Individual workshop papers due: July 15, 2008
* Notification of Acceptance: August 10, 2008
* Camera ready: August 15, 2008


General Chair:
Ramez Elmasri, University of Texas at Arlington, USA (elmasri@cse.uta.edu)

Program Chairs:
Mathias Brochhausen, European Center of Ontological Research (ECOR), Institute of Formal Ontology (IFOMIS), Saarbr?cken, Germany (mathias.brochhausen@ifomis.uni-saarland.de)

Martin Doerr, Institute of Computer Science, Foundation for Research and Technology - Hellas (FORTH) (martin@ics.forth.gr)

Hyoil Han, Drexel University, USA (hhan@ischool.drexel.edu)


Will be added soon.


For further information on this Workshop, please contact program chairs (hhan@ischool.drexel.edu).