[esip-semanticweb] Fwd: Announcement for the ESIP Semantic Web cluster

[Peter Fox]

FYI
---Peter.

     CALL FOR PAPERS - FIRST CALL
1st ACM SIGSPATIAL International Workshop on Spatial Semantics and Ontologies (SSO) 2011
     Tuesday November 1, 2011
http://ontolog.cim3.net/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?SocopWorkshops/Spatial_Semantics_And_Ontologies_2011

In Conjunction with the 19th ACM SIGSPATIAL International Conference on Advances in Geographic Information Systems (ACM SIGSPATIAL GIS 2011) 
     Chicago, Illinois U.S.A.
     http://acmgis2011.cs.umn.edu/

Workshop Overview
Semantic technologies are a new and emerging area. Semantics, ontologies, and the Semantic Web are just starting to be practiced by the spatial and the computer science communities. Geospatial applications needing semantics are still being identified for problems such as references to location, geographic scale, locational analysis, spatial data user interface, and many more. The design and development of tools to meet application needs are active and challenging research areas. Although the medical and life sciences formed the early domains to promote and use semantic technologies, there is now strong interest in researching what is needed in the spatial and geospatial domains. The purpose of this workshop is to promote research regarding semantics as it pertains to the spatial domain.

Suggested Paper Topics (other topics are welcome):
* Research regarding semantics and geospatial data
* Systems using semantic technology in the geospatial domain
* Research in computer architectures that incorporate semantic components
* Technology to create and integrate geospatial ontologies
* Handling spatial data within semantic languages or semantics within spatial languages
* Semantic and ontology research and application in cyberinfrastructure and distributed systems
* Survey specifying the value-added use of geospatial ontologies
* One or more use cases delineating semantic needs for geospatial data, even if solutions do not yet exist

Paper Submission
Authors are invited to submit full, original, unpublished research papers that are not being considered for publication in any other forum. Manuscripts should be submitted in PDF format and formatted using the ACM camera-ready templates available at: 
http://www.acm.org/sigs/pubs/proceed/template.html
All submissions will be reviewed by three members of the program committee. 

At least one author must register to present an accepted paper. Registration is through the main ACM SIGSPATIAL site. We are working on the possibility of having selected papers be considered for journal publication. 
Papers should be about 8 pages for more complete work. Shorter papers for other work are also acceptable. This allows for high quality research papers and also the presentation of new ideas, started work, and use cases. For example, because of the newness of the field, the presentation of use cases needing semantic solutions would be of value in addition to completed work. Submission is at https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=sso2011

Workshop Presentations
Because the spatial area together with semantics is emerging in the computer science realm, we would like to give an increased number of people an opportunity to present. To accommodate this, there will also be time for lightning talks for the audience to make comments or quickly present their work.

Dates
Submissions: 21 July
Acceptances: 22 August
Camera Ready:  5 September

Workshop Chairs 
Nancy Wiegand, University of Wisconsin - Madison, USA, wiegand at cs.wisc.edu
Dalia Varanka, United States Geological Survey, dvaranka at usgs.gov
Gary Berg-Cross, Engineering Management & Integration, USA, gbergcross at gmail.com 

Initial Program Committee Members 
John Bateman, University of Bremen
Mike Dean, BBN Technologies
Max Egenhofer, Faculty Spatial Information Science and Engineering, University of Maine
Fred Fonseca, Information Sciences and Technology, Penn State University
Mark Gahegan, Director, Centre for eResearch & School of Environment, University of Auckland, New Zealand
Jianya Gong, Wuhan University, China
Mike Gruninger, Semantic Technologies Laboratory, University of Toronto
Krzysztof Janowicz, GeoVISTA Center, Pennsylvania State University
Craig Knoblock, Information Sciences Institute, University of Southern California
Dave Kolas, BBN Technologies
Sergei Levashkin, Centro de InvestigaciÛn en ComputaciÛn, Mexico City, Mexico
Lynn Usery, United States Geological Survey
James Wilson, James Madison University
Naijun Zhou, University of Maryland College Park