[DL] Semantic Web Challenge 2005 Call for Participation

[Ubbo Visser]

Call for Participation

for the Semantic Web Challenge at the
International Semantic Web Conference ISWC 2005 Galway, Ireland November
6-10th 2005

http://challenge.semanticweb.org/

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The Semantic Web organizers invite proposals for the Semantic Web Challenge
2005. Participants have the chance to show the possibilities of the current
Semantic Web technologies. We already have infrastructures, languages,
reasoning engines, etc. that enable us to develop integrated,useful, and
attractive applications.


Specific Goal for Semantic Web Challenge 2005
---------------------------------------------

For the challenge 2005, we encourage people to show the benefit of re-using
existing ontologies, schemas, or models. These can be standard ontologies,
but also proprietary schemas developed for other applications.

People from academia and from industry are invited to submit applications
that illustrate the possibilities of the Semantic Web. The applications
should integrate, combine, and deduce information from various sources to
assist users in performing specific tasks. The submissions should at least
satisfy the minimal requirements for a Semantic Web Application and
preferably exhibit some of the additional desires. Although we expect that
most applications will use RDF, RDF Schema, and OWL, this is not an official
requirement.


Minimal Requirements
--------------------
A Semantic Web Application has to meet the following minimal requirements.

1.  First, the information sources used
    should be geographically distributed,
    should have diverse ownerships (i.e. there is no control of evolution),
    should be heterogeneous (syntactically, structurally, and semantically),
and
    should contain real world data, i.e. are more then toy examples.
2.  It is required that all applications assume an open world, i.e. assume
that the information is never complete.
3.  Finally, the applications should use some formal description of the
meaning of the data.


Additional Desires
------------------
Besides the minimal criteria, a number of desires are formulated. The more
desires are met,the higher an application can score. The desires are:

-  The application uses data sources for other purposes or in another way
than originally intended
-  Using the contents of multi-media documents
-  Accessibility in multiple languages
-  Accessibility via devices other than the PC
-  Other applications than pure information retrieval
-  Combination of static and dynamic knowledge (e.g. combination of static
ontologies and dynamic workflows)
-  The results should be as accurate as possible (e.g. use a ranking of
results according to validity)
-  The application should be scalable (in terms of the amount of data used
and in terms of distributed components working together)


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 June 15, 2005, 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, and why it is relevant tothe challenge. Examples of its use must
be provided and if the application includes the additional desires these
should be mentioned. The description should not exceed four pages (LNCS
format). Selected descriptions will be published in the conference
proceedings.
3.) Accessibility: 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. 


Prizes
------
The prizes for the winners will be available as travel support and book
vouchers. The winners will also be asked to give a live demonstration of
their application at the ISWC 2005 conference.


SWC Advisory Board
-------------------
Dean Allemang
Jürgen Angele
Mike Dean
Stefan Decker
Jérôme Euzenat
Frank van Harmelen
Ian Horrocks
Atanas Kiryakov
Deborah McGuinness
Rob Shearer
Amit Sheth
York Sure
Mike Uschold


Contact:
--------
Michel Klein
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Faculty of Sciences - dep. of Computer Science
De Boelelaan 1081a
1081 HV Amsterdam
The Netherlands
Phone: +31 20 44 47782
Department fax: +31 20 44 47653
Email: Michel.Klein at cs.vu.nl
Web: http://www.cs.vu.nl/~mcaklein/

Ubbo Visser
Universität Bremen
TZI - Center for Computing Technologies
Universitätsallee 21-23
D-28359 Bremen
Germany
Tel: 0421/218-7840
Fax: 0421/218-7196
Email: visser at tzi.de
Web: http://www.tzi.de/~visser/