CFP: Advances in Semantics for Web services Workshop at BPM 2006

["Huhns, Michael" <huhns@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

First Call for Submissions
Advances in Semantics for Web services Workshop
(semantics4ws'06)
http://events.deri.at/semantics4ws2006/

at the Fourth International Conference on Business Process Management
(BPM 2006)
http://bpm2006.tuwien.ac.at/
Vienna, Austria, September 4, 2006

The theme of semantics4ws'06 is "Semantic Web Service in Business
Processes"

GENERAL OVERVIEW

Web services have added a new level of functionality to the current Web
by taking a first step towards seamless integration of distributed
software components using Web standards. Nevertheless, current Web
service technologies around SOAP, WSDL and UDDI operate at a syntactic
level and, therefore, although they support interoperability (i.e.,
interoperability between the many diverse application development
platforms that exist today) through common standards, they still require
human interaction to a large extent. For example, the human programmer
has to manually search for appropriate Web services in order to combine
them in a useful manner, which limits scalability and greatly curtails
the added economic value of envisioned with the advent of Web services.

Recent research (to which we refer to as Semantic Web Services - SWS),
which draws on a variety of fields such as Semantic Web, knowledge
representation, formal methods, software engineering, process modeling,
workflow, and software agents, is gaining momentum, in particular in the
context of Web services usage. Research in the mentioned fields can be
exploited to automate Web services-related tasks, like discovery,
selection, composition, mediation, monitoring, and invocation, thus
enabling seamless interoperation between them while keeping human
intervention to a minimum.  Although several initiatives, like OWL-S,
WSMO, WSDL-S, or IRS, have emerged in this area aiming at addressing the
problem of semantics in Web services, many major challenges still need
to be addressed and solved in this field.

In this context, this workshop aims to provide a forum in which to focus
on selected core technical challenges for deployment of Semantic Web
Services, and reach a better understanding of the relationships between
commercial Web service standards, current SWS research efforts, and the
ultimate requirements for full-scale deployment of these
technologies. More specifically, this workshop aims to tackle the
research problems (as well as recent practical experiences) around
methods, concepts, models, languages and technology that enable
semantics in the context of Web services, as well as discussing recent
advances in semantics for Web services. Of particular interest are the
architectural, technical, and developmental foundations of SWS, and
showing how they combine synergistically to enable service automation on
the scale required by today's Internet-connected enterprises.

This proposed workshop aims to bring together researchers and industry
practitioners (e.g. leading modelers, architects, system vendors,
open-source projects, developers, and end-users) addressing many of
these issues (including recent developments in tools and techniques, and
real-world implementations of SWS applications), and promote and foster
a greater understanding of how semantics can assist automation in Web
services, thus helping people develop and manage services more
efficiently and effectively.

TOPICS

The following indicates the general focus of the workshop. However,
related contributions are welcome as well.

    * case studies for (semantic) Web services
    * OWL-S, WSMO, WSDL-S, IRS, SWSF-based systems and applications
    * static and dynamic logics for Web services and related aspects
    * ontologies for modeling (semantic) Web services
    * formal languages for describing (semantic) Web services
    * ontologies and languages for process modeling for (semantic) Web
services
    * ontological representation of quality of services (QoS), services
level agreements (SLAs),
      and non-functional properties (NFPs) of Web services
    * formal languages  for QoS, SLAs, and NFPs
    * reasoning tasks and their complexity in SWS
    * formal methods and their applications in Web services
    * validation and verification for Web services
    * advertising, discovery, matchmaking, selection, and brokering of
(semantic) Web services
    * data/process/protocol mediation in (semantic) Web services
    * composition, planning, and re-planning with (semantic) Web
services
    * execution and lifecycle management of (semantic) Web services
    * monitoring, adaptability, and recovery strategies for (semantic)
Web services
    * policies for (semantic) Web services
    * semantics in Web services contracts
    * security and privacy for (semantic) Web services
    * semantics for Grid services and e-Services
    * architectures for (semantic) Web services deployment
    * tools, middleware, and infrastructure for (semantic) Web services

WORKSHOP FORMAT AND ATTENDANCE
The program will occupy a full day, and will include presentations of
papers selected from the full papers category (see 'submissions' below).

Please note that at least one author of each accepted submission must
attend the workshop. The BPM 2006 conference formalities are applied
for fees and respective organizational aspects. Submission of a paper
is not required for attendance at the workshop. However, in the event
that the workshop cannot accommodate all who would like to participate,
those who have submitted a paper (in any category) will be given
priority for registration.

SUBMISSIONS
The workshop invites different types of contributions:
    * Papers
    * Demos
    * Posters / Position papers

Papers:The papers should not exceed 12 pages and should
have the Springer Lecture Notes of Computer Science (LNCS)
layout.

Demos: Detailed description plus sufficient number of screenshots
or a video of the demo are required. For paper-based submissions,
please follow the Springer LNCS layout. Please note that at the
workshop itself no technical support is provided except possibly
Internet connection and power (to be confirmed).

Posters/Position papers: The posters/position papers should not
exceed 5 pages and should have the Springer LNCS layout.

All contributions will be peer reviewed by a program committee
that will incorporate well recognized experts in the area of semantic
technologies and Web services.

All submissions should be formatted in Springer's LNCS style,
should be submitted in electronic format using the link:
http://www.easychair.org/semantics4ws2006/.

All accepted full papers and all position papers of attendees will
be published in the proceedings of the workshop. Workshop
proceedings will be published with Springer LNCS and will be
available at the workshop.

IMPORTANT DATES
Submissions: May 1, 2006
Acceptance: May 23, 2006
Final copy: June 7, 2006
Workshops day: September 4, 2006

ORGANIZING COMMITTEE
Steven Battle (Hewlett-Packard Labs, UK),
John Domingue (The Open University, UK),
David Martin (SRI International, USA)
Dumitru Roman (DERI Innsbruck, Austria)
Amit Sheth (University of Georgia, USA)

PROGRAM COMMITTEE (confirmed; to be extended)
- Rama Akkiraju, IBM, USA
- Abraham Bernstein, University of Zurich, Switzerland
- Carine Bournez, W3C, France
- Jorge Cardoso, University Mediera, Portugal
- Sanjay Chaudhary, DA-IICT, India
- Marin Dimitrov, Ontotext, Bulgaria
- Dieter Fensel, DERI, Austria
- Karthik Gomadam, University of Georgia, USA
- Michael Gruninger, University of Toronto, Canada
- Sung-Kook Han, Won Kwang University, South Korea
- Rick Hull, Lucent, USA
- Deepali Khushraj, Nokia, Finland
- Michael Kifer, State University of New York at Stony Brook, USA
- Michael Maximilien, IBM, USA
- Sheila McIlraith, University of Toronto, Canada
- Massimo Paolucci, DoCoMo Euro-Labs, Germany
- Monika Solanki, De Montfort University, UK
- Tony Shan, Wachovia Bank, USA
- Stuart Williams, HP Bristol, UK

Note: Check the workshop web site for frequent updates to the PC members
list.