Call for Semantic Web Challenge and Billion Triples tracks

[Li Ding]

Call for Participation

Sixth Semantic Web Challenge Open Track and Billion Triples Track 
<http://challenge.semanticweb.org/>

International Semantic Web Conference (ISWC 2008)
26-30 October 2008, Karlsruhe, Germany


We invite submissions to the sixth 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.

As the core technological building blocks are now in place, 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.

Unlike in previous years, the Semantic Web Challenge of 2008 will 
consist of two tracks: the Open Track and the Billion Triples Track. The 
key difference between the two tracks is that the Billion Triples Track 
requires the participants to make use of the data set –a billion 
triples– provided by the organizers. The Open Track has no such 
restrictions.

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 special sessions during 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.

The specific goal of the Billion Triples Track is to demonstrate the 
scalability of applications as well as to encourage the development of 
applications that can deal with Web data. We stress that the goal of 
this is not to be a benchmarking effort between triple stores, but 
rather to demonstrate applications that can scale to a Web scale using 
realistic Web-quality data.


        Minimal Requirements

Submissions for the Semantic Web Challenge must meet the
following minimum requirements:

For the Open Track:

    * 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).
    * The application has to be an end-user application, i.e. an
      application that provides a practical value to domain experts.

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.

It is required that all applications assume an open world, i.e. that the 
information is never complete.


        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


        For the Billion Triples Track

    * The primary goal is to for submissions to show how they add value
      to the very large triple store. This can involved anything from
      helping people figure out what is in the store via browsing,
      visualization, etc; could include inferencing that adds
      information not directly queriable in the original dataset; could
      involve showing how ontological information could be tied to
      part(s) or the whole of the dataset; etc.
    * The tool or application has to make use of at least a significant
      portion of the data provided by the organizers.
    * The tool or application is allowed to use other data that can be
      linked to the target dataset, but there is still an expectation
      that the primary focus will be on the data provided.
    * The tool or application does not have to be specifically an
      end-user application, as defined for the Open Track Challenge, but
      usability is a concern. The key goal is to demonstrate an
      interaction with the large data-set driven by a user or an
      application. However, given the scale of this challenge, solutions
      that can be justified as leading to such applications, or as
      crucial to the success of future applications, will be considered.

It is desired that all applications assume an open world, i.e. that the 
information is never complete. However, applications that can show 
useful ways to “close the world” for sections of the very large dataset 
will be considered.


        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 should do more than simply store/retrieve large
      numbers of triples
    * The application or tool(s) should be scalable (in terms of the
      amount of data used and in terms of distributed components working
      together)
    * The application or tool(s) should show the use of the very large,
      mixed quality data set
    * The application should either function in real-time or, if
      pre-computation is needed, have a real-time realization (but we
      will take a wide view of “real time” depending on the scale of
      what is done)


        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 October 1, 2008, 12am 
CET. The requirements of this entry are:

    * Abstract: no more than 200 words.
    * 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://iswc2008.semanticweb.org/)
    * 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.

Descriptions will be published in the form of an online proceedings.


        Prizes

A prize in money will be provided to the winners along with publicity 
for their work. The winners will also be asked to give a live 
demonstration of their application at the ISWC 2008 conference. The best 
applications will also have a chance to appear as full papers in the 
Journal of Web Semantics.

In the event that one of the tracks receive less than a minimal number 
of submissions, the organizers reserve the right to merge the two tracks 
of the competition.


        Important Dates

    * October 1, 2008 Submissions due
    * October 26-30, 2008 ISWC 2008 Technical Program


        SWC Co-Chairs

    * Jim Hendler (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute)
    * Peter Mika (Yahoo! Research Barcelona)


        SWC Advisory Board

Dean Allemang (TopQuadrant), Jürgen Angele (Ontoprise), Mike Dean (BBN 
Technologies), Stefan Decker (DERI, Galway), Jérôme 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/ <http://www.cs.vu.nl/%7Epmika/>