2nd CfP: Semantic Web Challenge 2011 (Open Track and Billion Triples Track)

Hi all,

 

there are less than 2 months left until the submission deadline of the
Semantic Web Challenge 2011 and we thus recirculate the Call for
Participation.

 

The Semantic Web Challenge is the premier event for demonstrating practical
progress towards achieving the vision of the Semantic Web. 
The Semantic Web Challenge 2011 will take place at the 10th International
Semantic Web Conference in Bonn, Germany on October 23-27. 

 

The submission deadline for the Semantic Web Challenge 2011  is 

 

September 30, 2011, 23:59 CET.

 

More information about the Semantic Web Challenge 2011 as well as about the
winners of the former challenges is found at

 

 <http://challenge.semanticweb.org/> http://challenge.semanticweb.org/

 

The Billion Triples Dataset can be downloaded from

 

http://km.aifb.kit.edu/projects/btc-2011/

 

The Call for Participation for the Semantic Web Challenge 2011 is found
below.

 

We are looking forward to your submissions and to having another exciting
challenge this year!

 

Best,

 

Diane and Chris

 

 

Call for Participation for the 9th Semantic Web Challenge 

Open Track and Billion Triples Track 

at the 10th International Semantic Web Conference ISWC 2011 
Bonn, Germany 
October 23-27, 2011 
 <http://challenge.semanticweb.org/> http://challenge.semanticweb.org/ 

Introduction

Submissions are now invited for the 9th annual Semantic Web Challenge, the
premier event for demonstrating practical progress towards achieving the
vision of the Semantic Web. The central idea of the Semantic Web is to
extend the current human-readable Web by encoding some of the semantics of
resources in a machine-processable form. Moving beyond syntax opens the door
to more advanced applications and functionality on the Web. Computers will
be better able to search, process, integrate and present the content of
these resources in a meaningful, intelligent manner. 

As the core technological building blocks are now in place, the next
challenge is to demonstrate the benefits of semantic technologies by
developing integrated, easy to use applications that can provide new levels
of Web functionality for end users on the Web or within enterprise settings.
Applications submitted should give evidence of clear practical value that
goes above and beyond what is possible with conventional web technologies
alone. 

As in previous years, the Semantic Web Challenge 2011 will consist of two
tracks: the Open Track and the Billion Triples Track. The key difference
between the two tracks is that the Billion Triples Track requires the
participants to make use of the data set that has been crawled from the Web
and is provided by the organizers. The Open Track has no such restrictions.
As before, the Challenge is open to everyone from industry and academia. The
authors of the best applications will be awarded prizes and featured
prominently at special sessions during the conference. 

The overall goal of this event is to advance our understanding of how
Semantic Web technologies can be exploited to produce useful applications
for the Web. Semantic Web applications should integrate, combine, and deduce
information from various sources to assist users in performing specific
tasks. 

Challenge Criteria

The Challenge is defined in terms of minimum requirements and additional
desirable features that submissions should exhibit. The minimum requirements
and the additional desirable features are listed below per track. 

Open Track

Minimal requirements

1.	The application has to be an end-user application, i.e. an
application that provides a practical value to general Web users or, if this
is not the case, at least to domain experts. 
2.	The information sources used 

*	should be under diverse ownership or control 
*	should be heterogeneous (syntactically, structurally, and
semantically), and 
*	should contain substantial quantities of real world data (i.e. not
toy examples). 

3.	The meaning of data has to play a central role. 

*	Meaning must be represented using Semantic Web technologies. 
*	Data must be manipulated/processed in interesting ways to derive
useful information and 
*	this semantic information processing has to play a central role in
achieving things that alternative technologies cannot do as well, or at all;


Additional Desirable Features 

In addition to the above minimum requirements, we note other desirable
features that will be used as criteria to evaluate submissions. 

*	The application provides an attractive and functional Web interface
(for human users) 
*	The application should be scalable (in terms of the amount of data
used and in terms of distributed components working together). Ideally, the
application should use all data that is currently published on the Semantic
Web. 
*	Rigorous evaluations have taken place that demonstrate the benefits
of semantic technologies, or validate the results obtained. 
*	Novelty, in applying semantic technology to a domain or task that
have not been considered before 
*	Functionality is different from or goes beyond pure information
retrieval 
*	The application has clear commercial potential and/or large existing
user base 
*	Contextual information is used for ratings or rankings 
*	Multimedia documents are used in some way 
*	There is a use of dynamic data (e.g. workflows), perhaps in
combination with static information 
*	The results should be as accurate as possible (e.g. use a ranking of
results according to context) 
*	There is support for multiple languages and accessibility on a range
of devices 

Billion Triples Track 

The specific goal of the Billion Triples Track is to demonstrate the
scalability of applications as well as the capability to deal with the
specifics of data that has been crawled from the public Web. We stress that
the goal of this is not to be a benchmarking effort between triple stores,
but rather to demonstrate applications that can work on Web scale using
realistic Web-quality data. 

Minimal requirements 

The primary goal of the Billion Triple track is to demonstrate applications
that can work on Web scale using realistic Web-quality data. 

1.	The applications must make use of the Billion Triple Challenge 2011
data set provided by the organisers, which has been crawled from the Web.
The functionality of the applications is left open: for example it could
involve helping people figure out what is in the data set via browsing,
visualization, profiling, etc., or inferencing that adds information not
directly queryable in the original data set. 
2.	The tool or application has to make use of at least the first
billion triples from the data provided by the organizers. It is desired that
the tool or application uses the complete data set. 
3.	The tool or application is allowed to use other data that can be
linked to the Billion Triple Challenge 2011 data set, but there is still an
expectation that the primary focus will be on the data provided. 
4.	The tool or application does not have to be specifically an end-user
application, as defined for the Open Track Challenge, but usability is a
concern. The key goal is to demonstrate an interaction with the large data
set driven by a user or an application. 

Additional Desirable Features

In addition to the above minimum requirements, we note other desirable
features that will be used as criteria to evaluate submissions. 

*	The application should do more than simply store/retrieve large
numbers of triples 
*	The application or tool(s) should be scalable (in terms of the
amount of data used and in terms of distributed components working together)

*	The application or tool(s) should show the use of the very large,
mixed quality data set 
*	The application should either function in real-time or, if
pre-computation is needed, have a real-time realization (but we will take a
wide view of "real time" depending on the scale of what is done) 

How to participate

Visit  <http://challenge.semanticweb.org> http://challenge.semanticweb.org
in order to participate and register for the Semantic Web Challenge by
submitting the required information as well as a link to the application on
the online registration form. The form will open in August 2011 and will be
open until Friday 30 September, 2011. 

The following information must be provided: 

1.	Abstract: no more than 200 words. 
2.	Description: The description should show details of the system,
including why the system is innovative, which features or functions the
system provides, what design choices were made and what lessons were
learned. The description must include an appendix of 1-2 pages summarising
explicitly how participants have addressed the evaluation requirements
(including mandatory and any relevant desirable criteria). Papers should not
exceed eight pages (including the appendix) and must be formatted according
to the same guidelines as the papers in the Research Track (see
<http://iswc2011.semanticweb.org/> http://iswc2011.semanticweb.org/). 
3.	Web access: The application should be accessible via the web. If the
application is not publicly accessible, passwords should be provided. A
(short) set of instructions on how to start and use the application should
also be provided on the web page. 

Descriptions (including the appendix) will be published in the form of
online proceedings on the Semantic Web Challenge website. 

Prizes

All participants are required to present their systems at a specific poster
session at the ISWC 2011 conference. A jury consisting of experts from
industry and academia will judge the systems at the conference. A monetary
prize will be provided to the winners of each track, along with publicity
for their work. The best applications will also have a chance to appear as
full articles in the Journal of Web Semantics. 

In the event that one of the tracks receive less than a minimal number of
submissions, the organizers reserve the right to merge the two tracks of the
competition. 

Important Dates 

Friday 30 September 2011 Submissions due 
23-27 October: Challenge takes places at ISWC 2011 

SWC Co-Chairs 

Christian Bizer (Freie Universität Berlin, Germany) 

Diana Maynard (University of Sheffield, UK) 

 

 

 

--

Prof. Dr. Christian Bizer

Web-based Systems Group

Freie Universität Berlin

+49 30 838 55509

http://www.bizer.de

 <mailto:chris@bizer.de> chris@bizer.de