20.103 cfp: Exploring the limits of global models for integration and use of historical and scientific information

From: Humanist Discussion Group (by way of Willard McCarty willard.mccarty_at_kcl.ac.uk>
Date: Tue, 11 Jul 2006 09:06:33 +0100

               Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 20, No. 103.
       Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London
  www.kcl.ac.uk/schools/humanities/cch/research/publications/humanist.html
                        www.princeton.edu/humanist/
                     Submit to: humanist_at_princeton.edu

         Date: Tue, 11 Jul 2006 08:29:11 +0100
         From: Willard McCarty <willard.mccarty_at_kcl.ac.uk>
         Subject: cfp: Exploring the limits of global models for
integration and use of historical and scientific information

HUMANISTs may be interested in this workshop. It will focus on
theoretical aspects of integration issues for ontologies and
conceptual models (such as the CIDOC CRM, http://cidoc.ics.forth.gr/)
for cultural content. Still time to submit -- and I hear the location is nice.
-- Allen H Renear <renear_at_uiuc.edu>

Call for Papers

Workshop on
Exploring the limits of global models for integration and use of
historical and scientific information

October 23-24 2006
ICS-FORTH, Heraklion, Crete, Greece

Effective large scale information integration requires an agreement
on the common semantics of the data structure elements and other
categories employed. Recently, there has been increasing doubt about
the possibility of global ontological models. However, knowledge
integration based on mere similarity of categories, such as "inexact
equivalence" does not allow for precise, global querying advanced
reasoning, or interoperability. On the other hand, practical core
ontologies such as CIDOC/CRM (ISO/PRF 21127) demonstrate a
surprisingly wide validity over multiple domains. This workshop
explores the limits of such global models for integrating and making
use of historical and scientific information, in order to enhance
both, our theoretical understanding of the limits of ontological
agreement in a specific application setting, and our practical
understanding of how to implement effective large scale knowledge
integration services and exploit the power of global models.

The application of formal ontologies in cultural domains such as
museums, libraries, and archives, the semantic web, and other related
areas, inevitably raises difficult theoretical problems which appear
to complicate the development of practical ontologies. For instance,
these problems affect directly the performance of information
systems, when there is no agreement on the identity and unity of
referred items, such as:

* Does Tut-Ankh Amun still exist (i.e. as a mummy)?

* Is Luther's translation an expression of the Holy Bible or another work?

* Is Caesar's coming to the Curia a part of the event of his murder?

How can the respective ontological choices be objectified, and how
can they be reconciled in practical applications? To which degree
compatible generalizations of a model can compensate inconsistencies
following the widening of the scope of a model? What are the limits
of ontology harmonization? Which kinds of concepts tend to be
globally compatible and which not, and in which sense? This workshop
elicits contributions related to studies, experiences and practical
and theoretical solutions around the above problems. As well as
formal information systems approaches to these problems we welcome
contributions based on perspectives from philosophy, from cognitive
science, and from the social sciences.

On the other side, this workshop elicits contributions about the
application and prospects and limits of domain overarching
information integration, in particular with respect to cultural
heritage and scientific information. Issues in this area include...

* Models for the semantic interoperability and integration of
scientific and cultural information and possibly other disciplines.

* The long-term preservation and future interoperability of data
structure semantics.

* Scalable information architectures, linking and reasoning services
under semantic models, in particular scalable solutions.

The following topics are of particular interest:

* Philosophical implications or controversies with respect
ontological choices of the CIDOC CRM, FRBR and other core ontologies
for information in libraries, archives, museum and scientific data
repositories.

* Identity and temporal existence of conceptual items. Identity of
Works. Can works or texts gain or lose non-relational properties? Is
identity based on the continuity of tradition or essential properties?

* Work as continuant versus Work as occurrent.

* Identity and substance of events, parts of events, spatiotemporal
limits of events in non-discrete models compatible with the nature of
historical records.

Methods for managing the practical needs of information systems...

* Objective criteria for selecting and justifying ontological choices
in information systems

* Harmonization of ontologies. Can Digital Libraries be based on one
global information model, or why not?

* Integrating cultural and scientific heritage: Scientific records as
historical data. Integrated access and (re)use. E-science metadata.
The relevance of factual knowledge for e-science.

* Preservation of data structure semantics -- interoperability with the future.

* Knowledge extraction and core ontologies.

* Document linking and semantic relationships.

Organizers: CIDOC CRM Special Interest Group, ICS-FORTH, DELOS
Network of Excellence.

Workshop Chairs: Martin Doerr and Allen Renear

Submission Information:

Proposals 1000-1750 word extended abstraact
              (excluding bibliography and a 100-300 word short abstract)

Due August 1st 2006.

Notification of Acceptance: August 25th.

Format: PDF. With author's contact information (including phone
numbers and email addresses) clearly evident near the top of the proposal.

Email proposal as an attachment to Allen Renear (renear_at_uiuc.edu) cc
to Martin Doerr, martin_at_ics.forth.gr. Receipt of submissions will be
acknowledged.

The authors of the best contributions will be invited to submit full
papers for a special issue in the Journal for Applied Ontologies.

Dr Willard McCarty | Reader in Humanities Computing | Centre for
Computing in the Humanities | King's College London | Kay House, 7
Arundel Street | London WC2R 3DX | U.K. | +44 (0)20 7848-2784 fax:
-2980 || willard.mccarty_at_kcl.ac.uk www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/wlm/
Received on Tue Jul 11 2006 - 05:19:19 EDT

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