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International Workshop on Semantic-Based Software Development

Overview

Software systems are intrinsically complex from a number of perspectives. The level of complexity is increasing due to the growing need to integrate different and diverse systems in order to achieve organizational goals (evolving toward ecosystems as an ideal). Effective integration may be argued as important as, from a knowledge-based perspective of organizations, the effectiveness of services rendered by resources depends upon how they are combined and applied. Consequently, systems development and re-engineering must focus on ways of dealing with the complexity of modern software systems in an effective manner. Since software systems, in essence, model real world phenomena, it is necessary to adopt modeling and development techniques founded on semantics. Broadly speaking, semantics enable the precise mapping between complex real world phenomena and their modeled counterparts and/or enable the (dynamic) mapping/integration between different representations (and understandings) of real world phenomena.

In recent years, ontologies have emerged as the prime focus of semantic modeling, with the main focus on the development of representation languages and the resulting ontologies. Limited work has been carried out within the software engineering community in relation to the development of semantic-based systems – though research into the modeling, alignment and evolution of ontologies has progressed significantly among the Semantic Web community. It would seem plausible that languages, tools and techniques developed to achieve the objectives of the Semantic Web could be integrated within the software development process as a means to produce more flexible and adaptive systems. Numerous challenges exist however, as the development of semantic-based systems will have to manage things that exist (ontology), specific organizational knowledge of what exists (epistemology) and the required organizational action (pragmatics). With that in mind, this workshop aims to bring together researchers and practitioners with diverse cultural and professional backgrounds in order to discuss and analyze the different perspectives, issues and challenges of Semantic-Based Systems Development. 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:

  • Ontological modeling paradigms
  • Development approaches for semantic-based systems (e.g., methods, process and tool support)
  • Resolution of semantic mismatches
  • Persisting semantic models
  • Automated ontology generation and management
  • Ontology languages (e.g., RDF, OWL and UML)
  • Ontological engineering
  • Semantic Web services
  • Mapping of semantic models with system models
  • Extracting (business) semantics from legacy systems
  • Semantic transformation, hence semantic discovery and semantic improvement
  • Visual modelling of semantic models
  • Navigation through semantic models
  • Methods and techniques for doing any of the above

Important Dates

Description
 
Dates
 
Paper submission deadline
 
September 1, 2007
 
Notification to authors
 
September 10, 2007
 
OOPSLA reduced registration rates
September 13, 2007
Submission of revised papers
 
October 1, 2007
 
Accepted papers uploaded here
 
October 8, 2007
 
Workshop
 
October 22, 2007
 

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.
 

Program

The following papers will be presented:


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 Based Software Development;
  • Improve the State-of-the-Art in Semantic Based Software Development;
  • 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 Based Software Development 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 OOPSLA 2007 web site.