July 3-7, Nantes (France) 

International Workshop on

Semantic Modeling of Complex Information Systems

Overview

Information systems are intrinsically complex. The level of such complexity is increasing due to the growing need of integrating different and diverse systems among themselves. With the current stress on integration, systems development and re-engineering must focus on ways of modelling the complexity of modern information systems in an effective manner. Since information systems model complex real world phenomena, it is essential to adopt modeling techniques founded on semantics. Semantics enable the precise mapping between complex real world phenomena and their modelled counterparts.

Recent emerging areas, such as Model-Driven Development (MDD) and the Semantic Web, have started approaching the problem of semantic representation from different angles. While the former relies on the use of well-defined meta-models and transformation engines, the latter achieves semantic representation through the adoption of consistently defined ontologies. Although both areas, to date, remain essentially independent, there seems to exist significant overlap in terms of important problems related, for example, to the semantic description, transformation and alignment of information system models. Hence, both MDD and Semantic Web communities can significantly contribute towards identifying mechanisms for the semantic modeling of complex systems.

This workshop is aimed at bringing together researchers and practitioners with diverse cultural and professional backgrounds in order to discuss and analyze the different issues and perspectives of the semantic modeling of complex information systems.

In light of this, researchers and practitioners are invited to provide contributions in the form of research, case study or position papers (max. 10 pages) related to the workshop theme. Topics include, but are not limited to the following:
 
- Foundations of semantic modeling (SM)
- Complexity theory and information systems modeling
- SM in the context of software engineering (e.g., MDD)
- SM in the context of the Semantic Web
- Cross-fertilization between MDD and Semantic Web ideas
- SM for model transformations
- SM and metamodeling
- SM of web services
- SM for legacy transformation
- Ontological engineering
- Suitability of paradigms and languages for SM
- Semantic transformation, hence semantic discovery and semantic improvement
- Navigation through semantic models
- Methods and techniques for doing any of the above

Important Dates

Description	Dates
Paper submission deadline	Extended to April 14, 2006
Notification to authors	May 1, 2006
Submission of revised papers	June 1, 2006
Accepted papers uploaded here	June 15, 2006
Workshop (to be announced)	July 3 or 4, 2006

Submission

Authors are invited to submit papers by e-mail to Sergio de Cesare (sergio.decesare@brunel.ac.uk), the workshop's primary contact . Submissions can be in the form of research (or research in progress), case study or position papers. The maximum page length limit is 10 pages. Papers can be submitted in RTF, MS Word or Open Office formats. Authors should submit papers according to the LNCS style templates available at http://www.springer.com/sgw/cda/frontpage/0,11855,5-164-2-72376-0,00.html. This template is adopted in order to provide consistency across workshop papers.

The organizers are seeking to publish selected papers in the form of a special issue of an international journal. Authors of selected papers will be asked to extend their papers and resubmit them for further review. Further information will be made available on this web site.

Program

The final workshop program will be available at least two weeks prior to the workshop.

Generally speaking the workshop will follow these phases:

1.    Presentation of reviewed papers followed by discussion and questions;
2.    Participants will be divided into groups of interest to discuss specific subtopics emerging from the previous phase;
3.    General discussion of points drawn by the groups in phase two;
4.    Conclusion.

All of the above phases are aimed at stimulating creativity and discussion among the participants. Further goals related to the above discussion are to:

•    Identify key obstacles in relation to semantic modelling of complex information systems;
•    Improve the State-of-the-Art in the definition and representation of complex information systems;
•    Instigate collaborative research efforts among the participants

Information for attendees

At least one author of each accepted paper will be expected to register for the conference and attend the workshop. Workshop participation is not restricted only to authors of accepted papers. Any researcher or practitioner interested in the Semantic Modeling of Complex Information Systems can participate subject to registration.

Registration of workshop participants has to be done in two mandatory steps:

1. Contact the organizers of the workshop (in order to ensure that the participant limit has not been exceeded).
2. Register on the ECOOP 2006 web site either as a worskhop-only attendee or as a regular attendee. The latter includes access to workshops and to the main conference.

Organizers

The workshop is organized by the following academics and industrial practitioners:

Sergio de Cesare (sergio.decesare@brunel.ac.uk) holds a PhD in Information Systems from LUISS Guido Carli in Rome (Italy). He is currently a Lecturer at Brunel University where he teaches object-oriented modeling and Semantic Web technologies.  Sergio’s broad research interests lay in the areas of business and software modeling, model driven information systems development and the Semantic Web. His current research focuses on the development of ontological models for systems development/re-engineering and the subsequent transformation of such models into platform-independent and platform specific application models. Sergio has (co-)authored several papers published in international journals, books and conference/workshop proceedings related to object-oriented, component-based and ontological modeling. Sergio is co-editor of a book titled “Development of Component-Based Information Systems” recently published by M.E. Sharpe (New York).

Grant Holland (grant.holland@sun.com) has worked in the computer industry for more than 30 years. His primary experience is in the areas of operating system development, distributed enterprise computing, application communications, distributed applications architecture, distributed operating systems and biologically inspired computing. Grant has worked for several system vendors including Sperry-Univac, Unisys, Data General, Cincom Systems and Sun Microsystems. Currently, Grant is Principal Engineer for Sun Microsystems, where he is focusing on distributed enterprise systems architecture, Web services, Service Oriented Architecture, distributed operating systems and organic computing. Grant speaks at many industry forums including the Sun Professional Services Customer Engineering Conference, O’Reilly Conference on Enterprise Java and OOPSLA Semantics of Enterprise Integration Workshop. Grant is publishing a book with Prentice-Hall, the working title of which is Internet Application Communications. His current active area of research is called Organic Networks - the focus of which is to harvest innovations from biological systems in order to engineer improved software systems.

Mark Lycett (mark.lycett@brunel.ac.uk) holds a BSc in Computing and Business Management (Oxford Brookes), a MSc in Information Systems (Brunel University) and a PhD in Information Systems (Brunel University). Prior to returning to education, Mark spent a number of years in industry and he has both worked on and managed a number of national and international feasibility/development projects. His research concentrates on all aspects of component-based software engineering and he is currently engaged in ongoing research with a number of organizations. Mark has published work in the area of CBSE in a number of leading journals and international conferences.

Chris Partridge is currently a Visiting Fellow at Brunel University. His main research interest is in the use of ontologies in business modeling – documented in his book Business Object: Re-engineering for Re-use (Butterworth Heinemann 1996). His current area of interest is the recovery of business ontologies from operational systems. Chris also has extensive experience in industry, primarily in the financial sector.

Dilip Patel (dilip@lsbu.ac.uk) is a Professor of Information Systems at London South Bank University. He has an MSc and a PhD in Computer Science. His research interests include Cognitive Informatics, Object Technology, Databases and Distributed Systems. He has attracted research funding and published extensively in these areas. He has also organised several international conferences in object technology and cognitive informatics and has presented, by invitation many keynote speeches at major conferences.

Shushma Patel (shushma@lsbu.ac.uk) is a Principal Lecturer in Information Systems at London South Bank University. Her background is in medical sciences and she holds a PhD from the Faculty of Medicine, University of London. Her research interests include cognitive informatics, medical informatics and information systems and organisational behaviour. Shushma has published extensively in these areas. She has chaired, organised and been a programme committee member for several international conferences.

Updated Feb, 15th