[CfP] VOILA @ ISWC 2015 - Visualizations and User Interfaces for Ontologies and Linked Data

CALL FOR PAPERS

VOILA 2015 - Visualizations and User Interfaces for Ontologies and 
Linked Data

International Workshop at ISWC 2015, 14th International Semantic Web 
Conference
October 11 or 12, 2015, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, USA

http://voila2015.visualdataweb.org


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Submission Deadline: July 1, 2015
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Motivation and Objectives
==========

"A picture is worth a thousand words", we often say, yet many areas are 
in demand of sophisticated visualization techniques, and the Semantic 
Web is not an exception. The size and complexity of ontologies and 
Linked Data in the Semantic Web constantly grow and the diverse 
backgrounds of the users and application areas multiply at the same 
time. Providing users with visual representations and intuitive user 
interfaces can significantly aid the understanding of the domains and 
knowledge represented by ontologies and Linked Data. There is no "one 
size fits all" solution but different use cases demand different 
visualization and interaction techniques. Ultimately, providing better 
user interfaces and visual representations will foster user engagement 
and likely lead to higher quality results in different applications 
employing ontologies and to the proliferation of Linked Data usage.

User interfaces are essential to easily provide access to the increasing 
diversity of knowledge modeled in ontologies. As ontologies grow in size 
and complexity, the demand for comprehensive visualization and 
sophisticated interaction also rises. In particular, user interfaces are 
an integral part of ontology engineering, to help bridge the gap between 
domain experts and ontology engineers. Ontology visualization is not a 
new topic and a number of approaches have become available in recent 
years, with some being already well-established, particularly in the 
field of ontology modeling. In other areas of ontology engineering, such 
as ontology alignment and debugging, although several tools have 
recently been developed, few provide a graphical user interface, not to 
mention navigational aids or comprehensive visualization techniques.

While ontology users usually possess domain and/or knowledge 
representation expertise, this is not necessarily the case with 
potential Linked Data consumers who can come from very different 
backgrounds and have varying levels of expertise. Currently, the main 
Linked Data consumers are technology experienced users, one of the 
reasons being the lack of appropriate user interfaces and visualizations 
to support other user groups. Visual approaches are needed to assist 
various kinds of users, who pursue diverse goals and pose individual 
requirements. In the presence of a huge network of interconnected 
resources, one of the challenges faced by the Linked Data community is 
the visualization of the multidimensional datasets to provide for 
efficient overview, exploration and querying tasks, to mention just a 
few. With the focus shifting from a Web of Documents to a Web of Data, 
changes in the interaction paradigms are in demand as well. Novel 
approaches also need to take into consideration the technological 
challenges and opportunities given by new interaction contexts, ranging 
from mobile and touch interaction to visualizations on large displays, 
and encompassing highly responsive web applications.


Topics of Interest
==========

Topics of interest include (but are not limited to):
- Visualizations for (large and complex) ontologies;
- Visualization of ontology design patterns;
- Linked Data visualizations and user interfaces;
- Visualizations and user interfaces for ontology engineering (ontology 
development, alignment, debugging, etc.);
- Requirements analysis for ontology and Linked Data visualizations;
- Case studies of applying visualizations in ontology engineering and 
Linked Data consumption;
- Context-aware visualization and interaction techniques;
- Applications of novel interaction techniques (e.g., touch and gesture 
interaction);
- User interfaces for collaborative ontology development;
- Ontology visualizations for large and high-resolution displays;
- Mobile user interfaces for ontology engineering and Linked Data 
exploration;
- User interfaces assisting people with disabilities;
- Visual exploration and querying of Linked Data.


Submission Guidelines
==========

Paper submission and reviewing for this workshop will be electronic via 
EasyChair. The papers should be written in English, following the 
Springer LNCS format, and be submitted in PDF.
The following types of contributions are welcome:
- Full research papers (8-12 pages);
- Experience papers (8-12 pages);
- Position papers (6-8 pages);
- Short research papers (4-6 pages);
- System papers (4-6 pages).

Accepted papers will be published as a volume in the CEUR Workshop 
Proceedings series.


Important Dates
==========

Submission: July 1, 2015
Notification: July 30, 2015
Camera-ready: August 14, 2015


Attendance
==========

Note that workshop attendees cannot register for the workshop only, but 
need to register for the main conference, as well.


Organizers
==========

Valentina Ivanova, Linköping University, Sweden
Patrick Lambrix, Linköping University, Sweden
Steffen Lohmann, University of Stuttgart, Germany
Catia Pesquita, University of Lisbon, Portugal

Received on Monday, 27 April 2015 10:12:32 UTC