Call for Papers: International Workshop On Semantic Extensions to Middleware: Enabling Large Scale Knowledge Applications (SEMELS '08)

[Ilona Zaremba]

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C A L L  F O R  P A P E R S
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International Workshop On Semantic Extensions to Middleware: Enabling 
Large Scale Knowledge Applications (SEMELS '08)

http://www.cs.rmit.edu.au/fedconf/index.html?page=semels2008cfp

At the OnTheMove (OTM) Federated Conferences and Workshops
http://www.cs.rmit.edu.au/fedconf/

November 9 - 14, 2008, Monterrey, Mexico

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WORKSHOP INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES
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In large scale systems, data and program heterogeneity have been a 
classical problem, to which semantic technologies are often presented as 
a solution. The classical solution to non-semantic integration has been 
middleware systems, which provide functionality for data and process 
mediation, coordination and composition. As semantics become more of a 
part of the underlying data and process layers of large scale systems, 
extensions are also required in the middleware layer to not only support 
knowledge mediation and coordination but to provide new functionalities 
not previously possible due to the introduction of machine 
processability of the data and processes being integrated at the
middleware.

As knowledge is becoming more and more ubiquitous in the Internet, we 
expect millions, even billions of knowledge and service providers and 
consumers to interact, integrate and coordinate on the emerging, open 
Semantic Web just as today millions of clients exchange data and perform 
work over the existing Web infrastructure. This produces the need for 
scalable and dynamic systems that support collaborative work with 
distributed and heterogeneous knowledge.

With this workshop we address the need to extend existing middleware 
layers with semantic technologies to support future knowledge-centred 
information systems and their Web-based collaboration with other 
systems, abstracted from data and process models. Such semantically 
extended middleware can be applied in any context which involves large 
scale knowledge-based collaboration, such as in the biomedical and life 
sciences field or emergency planning, as well as facilitate new forms of 
intelligent Web-scale coordination of processes (a step towards the 
Service Web) which are currently not envisioned precisely because
such a semantically-capable middleware layer is not existent.

We plan to dedicate one session to the application of semantic 
extensions of middleware to life science, healthcare or emergency 
management applications. In these application areas the use of semantic 
technologies shows some of the most advanced progress. Researchers in 
these domains deal with large scale data integration and service 
cooperation on all levels and stages of their work.
This more application-driven view on the requirements and solutions to 
semantic middleware approaches allows for advanced insights in the work 
of related fields. This is an important issue on the way towards 
semantic extensions to middleware for large and complex networked 
knowledge systems.

TOPICS AND APPLICATIONS
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We welcome original academia and industry papers or project descriptions 
that propose innovative approaches to extend middleware systems to 
support semantically-expressed data and processes.

The topics of interest of this workshop include but are not limited to:
* Extensions of existing middleware such as Web services, Grid systems,
   tuplespaces, message oriented middleware etc. with semantic technologies
* Development and engineering of semantic extensions to middleware
* Ontologies and metadata schemes for use with semantic extensions to 
capture  aspects of middleware layer functionality
* Reasoning approaches to efficiently support the functionality of 
semantic  extensions
* Scalable solutions to support large scale mediation, collaboration and
   coordination of heterogeneous data and processes
* Practical experiences in using semantic extensions of middleware to 
realize large scale knowledge systems
* Studies on the potential uptake of semantic extensions to current 
middleware and backwards compatibility
* Semantic middleware solutions for life science, healthcare and 
emergency management
* Experience reports on semantic approaches to large scale life science,
   healthcare and emergency management applications

IMPORTANT DATES
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Abstract Submission Deadline    June 15, 2008
Paper Submission Deadline       June 30, 2008
Acceptance Notification         August 15, 2008
Camera Ready Due                August 25, 2008
Registration Due                August 25, 2008
OTM Conferences                 November 9 - 14, 2008

SUBMISSION AND PROCEEDINGS
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All submitted papers will be carefully evaluated based on originality,
significance, technical soundness, and clarity of expression. All 
submissions must be in English. Submissions should be in PDF format and 
must not exceed 10 pages in the final camera-ready format. Detailed 
formatting instructions can be found at:
http://www.springer.de/comp/lncs/authors.html

The final proceedings will be published by Springer Verlag as LNCS. 
Failure to commit to presentation at the conference automatically 
excludes a paper from the proceedings.

Papers submitted to SEMELS’08 must not have been accepted for 
publication elsewhere or be under review for another workshop or 
conference. Failure to comply with the formatting instructions for 
submitted papers will lead to the outright rejection of the paper 
without review.

The paper submission site is located at:
http://www.cs.rmit.edu.au/fedconf/semels/2008/papers/

ORGANIZERS
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Elena Simperl, Semantic Technology Institute, University of Innsbruck, 
Austria
Reto Krummenacher, Semantic Technology Institute, University of 
Innsbruck, Austria
Lyndon Nixon, Dept. Computer Science, Free University Berlin, Germany
Emanuele Della Valle, CEFRIEL - Politecnico di Milano, Italy
Ronaldo Menezes, Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, FL, USA

CONTACT
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Reto Krummenacher
University of Innsbruck (Semantic Technology Institute)
Technikerstr. 21a,
6020 Innsbruck, Austria
E reto.krummenacher at sti-innsbruck.at
T +43 512 507 6452
F +43 512 507 9872