CFP: (MOST-ONISW@ER 2009) - Joint International Workshop on Metamodels, Ontologies, Semantic Technologies and Information Systems for The Semantic Web

CALL for PAPERS

The Joint International Workshop on Metamodels, Ontologies, Semantic
Technologies,
and Information Systems for the Semantic Web (MOST-ONISW 2009)
http://www.ischool.drexel.edu/faculty/hhan/most-onisw2009/
in conjunction with
28th International Conference on Conceptual Modeling (ER 2009) - GRAMADO,
BRAZIL, Nov. 9-12, 2009.
http://www.inf.ufrgs.br/ER2009/index.php

Description and Scope:
Ontology is a cross-disciplinary field concerned with the study of concepts
and theories
that can be used for representing shared conceptualizations of specific
domains.
Ontological Engineering is a discipline in computer and information science
concerned
with the development of techniques, methods, languages and tools for the
systematic construction
of concrete artifacts capturing these representations, i.e., models (e.g.,
domain ontologies)
and metamodels (e.g., upper-level ontologies).
In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the application of
formal ontology
and ontological engineering to solve modeling problems in diverse areas in
computer science
such as software and data engineering, knowledge representation, natural
language processing,
information science, among many others.

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 objective of MOST-ONISW 2009 is to bring together researchers and
practitioners
in Information Management interested in the relation between ontology and
information models,
and theoretical topics such as formal ontology, formal logics, conceptual
modelling,
computational linguistics, cognitive science, knowledge representation, the
Semantic Web,
and MDE (Model-Driven Engineering), as well as more practical topics
as a result of applications of ontologies in diverse fields, such as
knowledge management,
informatics for education, ontology-based information and database
integration, e-commerce,
information processing (retrieval, classification and extraction), to
mention just a few.
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 does argumentation and information system content relate?
Current argumentation models, systems for collaborative work model
and Web2.0 applications visualize the flow of arguments or register
resulting propositions,
but do not model how argumentation operates on information system contents
expressed
in terms of ontologies, so that a full externalization of multiple arguments
and understanding of their integrated effect on information system contents
can be achieved.

6. What is the relation between formal ontologies and natural languages?
How can we link knowledge represented in an ontological way to every day
language?
Can we map layperson communication to domain expert-governed ontologies?

7. 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?

8. 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
and conceptual modelling.

Topics:

   * Ontology Engineering
         o methodologies
         o capture and learning
         o management
   * Ontology and Conceptual Modeling
         o Ontological Foundations for Conceptual Modeling and Metamodeling
         o Ontology-Based Conceptual Modeling Tools and Environments
         o Ontologies and Organizational Modeling
         o Conceptual modeling for the Semantic Web
         o Ontology design and maintenance for conceptual model integration
   * Semantic consistency
         o foundational ontologies
         o upper-level ontologies
         o evaluation methods, applications and problems
   * Semantic Interoperability
         o composition and modularity
         o merging, mapping and alignment
         o ontology language interoperability
         o Global ontologies and Local as View (LAV) integration methods,
problems and practice
   * Enhancement of ontology applicability
         o linguistic ontologies applied to text processing
         o patterns of ontologies for specific applications
   * Ontologies for Information Sharing
         o ontology-based information integration
         o mediators and brokers
         o agents and ontologies
         o Ontology-based data transformation and data migration tools.
         o Ontology-enabled interoperability in e-science, life sciences,
e-business, culture
         o User friendly semantic system integration tools
   * Ontology Applications
         o the Semantic Web
         o knowledge management
         o e-commerce, e-government
         o e-learning and e-science - agents and multiagents patterns and
applications
         o information retrieval, extraction and classification
         o Ontologies and Semantic Technologies in Education
         o Ontologies and natural language processing
         o Ontology visualization
   * Ontology and epistemology in information systems
   * Expert ontologies and layperson communications
   * Schema transformation
   * Domain specific heterogeneity analysis between data structures and
ontologies
   * Ontology-based query mediation
   * Querying the Semantic Web
   * Ontology-driven application system and Web service design
   * Argumentation models (Web2.0) for information system contents
maintenance
   * Reverse engineering of ontologies from conceptual models
   * Core ontologies and global models, applications and limitations
   * Lessons learnt and experience from large-scale integration projects.
   * Architectures and good practice of ontology-based integrated
application environments
   * Applications of above topics to e-science, e-business, and life
sciences

Submission Procedures:
Since the proceedings will be published by Springer in the LNCS series,
authors must submit manuscripts using the LNCS style.
For style files and details see
http://www.springer.com/computer/lncs/lncs+authors?SGWID=0-40209-0-0-0 .
The suggested number of pages is 10, and the maximum number of pages is 10.
Manuscripts not submitted in the LNCS style or having more than 10 pages
will not be reviewed and thus automatically rejected.
A paper submitted to MOST-ONISW 2009 cannot be under review for any other
conference or journal
during the time it is being considered for MOST-ONISW 2009. Papers must be
submitted as pdf files.

   * All MOST-ONISW workshop papers should be submitted to the EasyChair
system for MOST-ONISW 2009
https://www.easychair.org/login.cgi?conf=mostonisw2009.
   * At least one author of each accepted paper must register for the
workshop by June 20, 2009.

Important Dates (Firm deadlines):
   * Papers due: April 20, 2009 (11:59pm EST)
   * Notification of Acceptance: June 1, 2009
   * Camera ready: June 22, 2009

Organizers - Program Chairs
Martin Doerr, Foundation for Research and Technology - Hellas (FORTH) (
martin@ics.forth.gr)
Fred Freitas, Federal University of Pernambuco, Recife, Brazil (
fred@cin.ufpe.br)
Giancarlo Guizzardi, Federal University of Espírito Santo, Vitória, Brazil (
gguizzardi@acm.org)
Hyoil Han, Drexel University, USA, (hhan@ischool.drexel.edu)

Program Committee:
Will be added soon.

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