Identity and Reference on the Semantic Web (IRSW2008) at ESWC2008 - cfp

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			CALL FOR PAPERS

		       ESWC 2008 Workshop

       Identity and Reference on the Semantic Web (IRSW2008)
	--------------------------------------------	
	Entity-centric Approaches to Information and
	       Knowledge Management on the Web

		 Tenerife, Spain - June 1 2008

		http://www.okkam.org/IRSW2008

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The recent developments of the Semantic Web - and the fast rise of Web
2.0 applications - make more and more evident that the problem of
identity and reference through URIs is perhaps the single most
important issue for fostering the Semantic Web on a global scale. In a
nutshell: the effective use of the Semantic Web on a global scale
requires the systematic reuse of stable and global URIs. This in turn
requires that there exist decentralized agreement on how URIs can be
used to identify and refer to the same object. So far, uniqueness of
URIs and reference have often been taken for granted. Initiatives like
Linked Data, OntoWorld and the large number of proposals aiming at
using popular identifiers (e.g. Wikipedia's) as "canonical" URIs
(especially for "real world" objects that aren't accessible on the
Web) show that a solution to this issue is both urgent and relevant.

Solving this issue would enable and foster the decentralized and open
publication of data on the Semantic Web, would allow better and faster
semantic search engines, would be the basis for a new generation of
Semantic Web browsers, would start the development of smarter
applications on the Web. Other vertical (and often commercial)
initiatives (like XRIs, LSID, DOI, etc.) prove that there is also a
practical and business potential in a standard solution.

So far, there is little agreement on how this problem should be
addressed and solved. On the one hand we need to address technical
issues:

    *      How do we make sure that people and applications can find
and reuse pre-existing URIs for different types of entity?
    *      Is HTTP the most appropriate addressing scheme for these URIs?
    *      Should URIs for commonly identified entities, like people,
organizations or countries, be managed by a central service? If so,
under what conditions?
    *      Are centralized registries of URIs for different types of
entities necessary? Can such a registries be built in a decentralized
manner while still linking data?

There are also issues of trust and security:

    * What if the same URI is used to make contradictory or undesired
statements about an entity?
    * Do people or groups really want that a single URIs is
consistently used to represent knowledge about them on the Web, one
that could be used to effectively gather data about them?
    * What is an acceptable level of security for any kind of URI registry?
    * Where is the boundary between describing entities and violating
their privacy?

Despite the high level of awareness in the community, the potential
for the integration of information currently published on the Semantic
Web is still mostly unexploited. FOAF profiles do not have canonical
and reusable URIs for pointing to people one knows (only ad hoc
solutions are available, like the email hashcode); the most popular
ontology editors mint new URIs for any newly started OWL project;
social networks are not easily portable.

Starting from such a situation, this workshop aims at collecting
contributions which can roughly be grouped as follows:

    * Foundations: formal and conceptual theories of identity and
reference for the Semantic Web
    * Vision papers: visionary solutions to the problems of identity
and reference
    * Project papers: descriptions of research & development projects
in this area
    * Experiences: contributions from research and industry that
illustrate case studies or approaches to deal with the issues of
identity and reference
    * Critical viewpoints: discussions of advantages and disadvantages
of previously proposed approaches.

We especially encourage contributions from groups or organizations
which are working on identification schemes for large semantic data
collections,  in order to compare the different practical solutions
that have been developed to integrate Semantic Web data..

Workshop's anticipated outcome:

The anticipated outcome of the workshop is to assess the state of the
art in the area, as well as to discuss the approach and critically
evaluate the next steps in pursuing this topic. There is the potential
for creating the core of a consortium for future R&D projects on the
topic for both
academia and industry.

Submission Details
------------------

All submissions will undergo a thorough peer-review process by
an international program committee, made up of leading members of
different communities from "Web 2.0", Semantic Web and Information
Retrieval researchers and companies.

Accepted contributions will be included on the ESWC2008
Conference CD as well as made available as CEUR Online Proceedings

We invite submissions of two types:

   1. full papers (up to 15 pages in LNCS format)
   2. extended abstracts (up to 4 pages in LNCS format).

The authors of accepted abstracts will be requested to produce a full
paper by the time the camera-ready version is due. Accepted
contributions will be presented at the workshop. Additionally, some
submissions may be accepted as posters.

Submissions should be formatted in Springer LNCS format
(http://www.springer.de/comp/lncs/authors.html) and submitted in PDF
format.
The submission site can be reached through the webpage
http://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=irsw2008

Please note that at least one author of an accepted paper must
register for the ESWC 2008 conference
Important Dates

    * Paper/abstract submission: March 7, 2008
    * Notification of acceptance: April 4, 2008
    * Camera ready Paper submission: April 18, 2008
    * Workshop: June 1, 2008


Organization
------------
Chair
 Paolo Bouquet, University of Trento
Program Co-Chairs
 Heiko Stoermer, University of Trento
 Giovanni Tummarello, DERI Galway
 Harry Halpin, University of Edinburgh


Program Committee:

Karl Aberer	        EPFL	
Chris Bizer	        Freie Universität Berlin	
David Booth	        HP	
Werner Ceusters	        University of Buffalo	
Richard	Cyganiak	DERI Galway	
Anita De Waard	        Elsevier	
Stefan Decker	        DERI Galway	
Hugh Glaser	        University of Southampton	
Andreas Harth	        DERI Galway	
Tom Heath	        Talis Information Ltd	
Pierre Levy	        University of Ottawa	
Alexander Löser	        SAP Research	
Antonio	Mana	        University of Malaga	
Christian Morbidoni	Universita' Politecnica delle Marche	
Claudia	Niederée	L3S Research Center	
Alan Ruttenberg	Science Commons	US	
Matthias Samwald	DERI Galway	
Leo Sauermann	        DFKI	
Henry Thompson	        University of Edinburgh	UK	
Marco Varone	        ExpertSystem	IT	
Bernard	Vatant	        Mondeca	FR

Received on Wednesday, 30 January 2008 17:49:13 UTC