CFP Semantic Web Challenge '06

Apologies for multiple postings.

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Call for Participation for the 

Semantic Web Challenge 

at the International Semantic Web Conference ISWC 2006, Athens, GA, USA.
November 5-9th 2006

http://challenge.semanticweb.org/
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We invite submissions to the fourth annual Semantic Web Challenge, 
the premiere event for demonstrating innovative 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.

The core technological building blocks are now in place and widely
available:
ontology languages, flexible storage and querying facilities, reasoning
engines, etc. Guidelines for best practice are being formulated and
disseminated by the W3C.

The next challenge is to show off 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 demonstrate clear practical value that goes
above and beyond what is possible with conventional web technologies alone.

The challenge is open to everyone from academia and industry. The authors of
the best applications will be awarded prizes and featured prominently at the
conference.

GOALS
-----
The overall goal of this event is to advance our understanding of how
semantic 
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. 

The specific goal for the 2006 Semantic Web Challenge is to have
applications
that embody the true Web spirit of encouraging and supporting reuse in
situations 
that have not been foreseen by the original authors.  To achieve this,
participants 
should provide standards-compliant web interfaces to the data and services
provided 
by their applications. For example, these could take the form of RSS feeds,
SPARQL 
endpoints, REST or Web Services interfaces.

Minimal Requirements
--------------------
Submissions for the 2006 Semantic Web Challenge must meet the following
minimum requirements:

 1. The meaning of data has to play a central role.
      * Meaning must be represented using formal descriptions. 
      * 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;

 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.  It is required that all applications assume an open world, i.e. 
    that the information is never complete.

Although we expect that most applications will use RDF, RDF Schema, or OWL
this is not a requirement. What is more important is that whatever semantic
technology is used, it plays a central role in achieving interesting new
levels of functionality or performance.

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

-  Rigorous evaluations have taken place that demonstrate the benefits of
   semantic technologies, or validate the results obtained. 
-  The application should be scalable (in terms of the amount of data used
   and in terms of distributed components working together)
-  Functionality is different from or goes beyond pure information retrieval
-  The application has clear commercial potential
-  Contextual information is used for ratings or rankings
-  Multi-media 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


How to participate
------------------
Visit 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 be open until July 14, 2006, 12pm CET. The requirements of this entry
are:

1) Abstract: no more than 200 words.

2) Description: The description will 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.
Papers should not exceed five pages and must be formatted according to the
same guidelines as the papers in the Research Track
(see http://iswc2006.semanticweb.org)

3) Web access: The application should be accessible via the web. If the
application is not publicly accessible, passwords should be provided. We
also ask to provide a (short) instruction on how to start and use the
application.

Accepted descriptions will be published in the conference proceedings. 


Prizes
------
The prizes for the winners will be available as money and book
vouchers. The winners will also be asked to give a live demonstration of
their application at the ISWC 2006 conference. The best applications will
also have a chance to appear as full papers in the Journal of Web Semantics.


IMPORTANT DATES
--------- -----

  July 14, 2006        Submissions due 
  August 7, 2006       Acceptance notification
  August 21, 2006      Camera-ready papers due
  November 5-9, 2006   ISWC 2006 Technical Program


SWC Co-Chairs
-------------
Peter Mika
Mike Uschold


SWC Advisory Board
-------------------
Dean Allemang
Jürgen Angele
Mike Dean
Stefan Decker
Jérôme Euzenat
Ian Horrocks
Atanas Kiryakov
Michel Klein
Deborah McGuinness
Rob Shearer
Amit Sheth
York Sure
Hideaki Takeda
Ubbo Visser


Contact:
--------
Peter Mika
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Faculty of Sciences - Dept. of Computer Science
De Boelelaan 1081a
1081 HV Amsterdam
The Netherlands
Phone: +31 20 598 7753
Department fax: +31 20 598 7653
Email: pmika at cs.vu.nl
Web: http://www.cs.vu.nl/~pmika/

Received on Tuesday, 28 February 2006 19:09:11 UTC