[DL] Semantic Web Challenge CFP (ISWC 2007 + ASWC 2007)

[Masahiro Hori]

Apologies for multiple postings.

===============================================================
  ##### Semantic Web Challenge: Call for Participation #####

  The 6th International Semantic Web Conference (ISWC 2007)
                         combined with
      the 2nd Asian Semantic Web Conference (ASWC 2007)

                    November 11-15, 2007
 BEXCO (Busan Exhibition and Convention Center), Busan, KOREA
               http://iswc2007.semanticweb.org
===============================================================

Call for Participation for the Fifth Semantic Web Challenge
-----------------------------------------------------------

We invite submissions to the fifth annual Semantic Web Challenge, 
the premiere 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. 
The core technological building blocks are now in place and widely 
available: ontology languages, flexible storage and querying facilities, 
protocols, 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.

In the past years, the Semantic Web Challenge has grown into one 
of the most exciting and inspiring events of the ISWC conference. 
As before, 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. 

Following last year's event, the 2007 Semantic Web Challenge has the 
specific goal to encourage applications that not only reuse data and 
services of other applications, but support the serendipitous reuse 
of their own data and services 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
--------------------
As in previous years, submissions for the 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. 

-  The application provides an attractive and functional Web interface (for human users)
-  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)
-  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
-  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 and accessibility on a range of devices

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, 2007, 12am 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 eight pages and must be formatted according to 
the same guidelines as the papers in the Research Track
(see http://iswc2007.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 2007 conference. The best applications will also 
have a chance to appear as full papers in the Journal of Web Semantics. 

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

  July 14, 2007        Submissions due 
  August 10, 2007      Acceptance notification
  August 21, 2007      Camera-ready papers due
  November 11-15, 2007   ISWC 2007 Technical Program

SWC Co-Chairs
-------------
Jennifer Golbeck (University of Maryland, College Park)
Peter Mika (Yahoo! Research Barcelona)

SWC Advisory Board
-------------------
Dean Allemang (TopQuadrant)
Jugen Angele (Ontoprise)
Mike Dean (BBN Technologies)
Stefan Decker (DERI, Galway)
Je'rome Euzenat (INRIA Rhone-Alpes)
Ian Horrocks (University of Manchester)
Atanas Kiryakov (OntoText)
Michel Klein (Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam)
Deborah McGuinness (Stanford University)
Rob Shearer (University of Manchester)
Amit Sheth (Wright State University)
York Sure (University of Karlsruhe)
Hideaki Takeda (National Institute of Informatics, Tokyo)
Ubbo Visser (University of Bremen)

Contact:
--------
Peter Mika
Yahoo! Research Barcelona
Ocata 1
08001 Barcelona, Spain
Tel: +34 935 421 165
Fax: +34 935 421 150 
Email: pmika at yahoo-inc.com
Web: http://www.cs.vu.nl/~pmika/