Reasoning Web 2008

Objectives

The Semantic Web is one of the major current endeavors of applied Computer Science. The Semantic Web aims at enriching the existing Web with meta-data and processing methods so as to provide web-based systems with advanced (so-called intelligent) capabilities, in particular with context-awareness and decision support.

The advanced capabilities required in most Semantic Web application scenarios primarily call for reasoning. Reasoning capabilities are offered by Semantic Web languages that are currently being developed. Most of these languages, however, are developed mainly from functionality-centered perspectives (e.g. ontology reasoning or access validation) or application-centered perspectives (e.g. Web service retrieval and composition). A perspective centered on the reasoning techniques (e.g. forward or backward chaining, tableau-like methods, constraint reasoning, etc.) complementing the above-mentioned activities appears desirable for Semantic Web systems and applications. The Summer School will be devoted to this perspective.

Just as the current Web is inherently heterogeneous in data formats and data semantics, the Semantic Web will be inherently heterogeneous in its reasoning forms. Indeed, any single form of reasoning turns out irrealistic in the Semantic Web. For instance, ontology reasoning in general relies on monotonic negation, while databases, Web databases, and Web-based information systems employ non-monotonic reasoning; constraint reasoning is used in dealing with time, while forward and/or backward chaining is the reasoning of choice in coping with database-like views.

Focus of Reasoning Web 2008

The "Reasoning Web" series of annual Summer Schools was started in 2005 on behalf of the work package "Education and Training (ET)" of the Network of Excellence REWERSE. The series was traditionally focussed on foundational issues concerning the development and the use of rule-based languages in the Semantic Web.

The Summer School Reasoning Web 2008 takes stock of the actual use of Semantic Web rule languages by presenting the state-of-the-art in research areas that constitute the current and the promising application fields for Reasoning on the Web.

Besides laying out the basic foundational material, Reasoning Web 2008 also presents a range of applications, helping students to find interesting topics for further research. Lecturers who are leading researchers in such diverse fields as Bioinformatics, Web Services, Multimedia, and Natural Language Processing, will point out which Semantic Web ideas and techniques have actually been adopted so far, which weren't (and why), and which application needs are still waiting to be tackled with semantic techniques.