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

[Masahiro Hori]

Apologies for multiple postings.

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Call for Participation

  ***** The Fifth Semantic Web Challenge *****

  at the 6th International Semantic Web Conference ISWC 2007,
  and the 2nd Asian Semantic Web Conference ASWC 2007

  November 11-15th 2007
  Busan, South Korea
  http://iswc2007.semanticweb.org
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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
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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
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As in previous years, submissions for the Semantic Web Challenge must meet the following minimum requirements:

    * The meaning of data has to play a central role.
          o Meaning must be represented using formal descriptions.
          o Data must be manipulated/processed in interesting ways to derive useful information and
          o this semantic information processing has to play a central role in achieving things that alternative technologies cannot do as well, or at all;
    * The information sources used
          o should be under diverse ownership or control
          o should be heterogeneous (syntactically, structurally, and semantically), and
          o should contain substantial quantities of real world data (i.e. not toy examples).
    * 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
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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
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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
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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
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July 14, 2007 Submissions due
August 10, 2007 Acceptance notification
August 21, 2007 Camera-ready papers due

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

SWC Advisory Board
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Dean Allemang (TopQuadrant)
Ju"gen Angele (Ontoprise)
Mike Dean (BBN Technologies)
Stefan Decker (DERI, Galway)
Je'ro^me 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/

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