OntoCom X
10th International Workshop on Ontologies and Conceptual Modeling

Schedule

11:00 - 12:30: Introduction and Research Paper Presentations

• Introduction to the Workshop (10 minutes)

• Ontological Issues in Conceptual Simulation Modeling (20 minutes)
  Gerd Wagner

• LegIOn-IDS: Legal Interoperability Ontology for International Data Spaces (20 minutes)
  Victor Oliveira, Patrício Alencar and João Moreira

• Middle Architecture Criteria (20 minutes)
  Giacomo De Colle, Mark Jensen, Carter-Beau Benson, John Beverley and Barry Smith

• Capabilities (20 minutes)
  John Beverley, Barry Smith, David Limbaugh and Peter Koch

12:30 - 14:00: Lunch

14:00 - 15:30: Keynote and Discussion

• Understanding the Variety of Domain Models: Views, programs, animations, and other models
  Henderik Proper
  
  Abstract: Humanity has long since used models, in different shapes and forms, to understand, redesign, communicate about, and shape, the world around us; including many different social, economic, biological, chemical, physical, and digital aspects. This has resulted in a wide range of modeling practices. When the models as used in such modeling practices have a key role to play in the activities in which these practices are ‘embedded’, the need emerges to consider the effectiveness and efficiency of such processes, and speak about modeling capabilities. In the latter situation, it also becomes relevant to develop a thorough understanding of the artifacts involved in modeling practices/capabilities.
  One context in which models play (an increasingly) important role is model-driven systems development, including software engineering, information systems engineering, business process engineering, enterprise engineering, and enterprise architecture management. In such a context, we come across a rich variety of modeling related artifacts, such as views, diagrams, programs, animations, specifications, etc.
  In this paper, which is actually part of an ongoing ‘journey’ in which we aim to gain deeper insights into the foundations of modeling, we take a fundamental look at the variety of modeling related artifacts as used in the context of model-driven (systems) development, while also presenting an associated framework for understanding, synthesizing the insights we obtained during the ‘journey’ so-far. In doing so, we will also argue that the aforementioned artifacts are actually specific kinds of models, albeit for fundamentally different purposes. The provided framework for understanding involves definitions of domain model, the Return on Modeling Effort (RoME), the conceptual fidelity of domain models, as well as views as a mechanism to manage the complexity of domain models.
  
  Bio: Prof. Dr. Henderik A. Proper, Erik for friends, is Full Professor in Enterprise and Process Engineering in the Business Informatics Group at the TU Wien. Erik has a mixed background, covering a variety of roles in both academia and industry. His core research drive is the development of theories that work. In other words, Erik focuses on research that leads to results that have both theoretical rigour and practical relevance. His general research interest concerns the foundations and applications of domain modelling; in particular in the context of enterprises. Over the past 20 years, he has applied this research drive and general research interest towards the further development of the field of enterprise design management, and enterprise modelling in particular. He is also co-initiator of the ArchiMate research project, which also resulted in the ArchiMate standard for enterprise architecture modelling. Erik is vice-chair of the IFIP 8.1 working group, while also being the representative for the Netherlands in IFIP's TC8 technical committee. He is also the Stellvertretender Sprecher (vice chair) of the EMISA working group of the German Computer Science Society (Gesellschaft für Informatik).

Theme of the Workshop

The International Workshop on Ontologies and Conceptual Modeling (OntoCom) is an academic workshop focusing on the practical and formal application of ontologies to conceptual modeling. 

The importance of conceptual modeling has grown over the years, and it is now common to find examples of conceptual models being developed and used in a range of diverse disciplines not related to computing including, for example, biology, business, construction and engineering. Among the reasons for this disciplinary expansion is also the increasing digitalisation of all aspects of modern life as well as the increased complexity that such digitalisation entails in terms of emerging needs and requirements. The natural consequence is a proliferation of conceptual models of multiple real-world domains which sooner or later require data and systems to interoperate and/or integrate. In this emerging scenario ontology-driven conceptual modeling becomes even more fundamental to modern life due to its intrinsic ability to represent reality in a theoretically and semantically consistent manner. Foundational (or upper ontologies) have the potential to resolve the difficult problems that derive from a lack of a consistent and sound ontological theory. The benefits that can derive from the application of a foundational ontology include improved mapping to the real world domain, increased level of communication and understanding among stakeholders, model reuse, semantic integration and interoperability and increased overall efficiency and effectiveness of information systems development and evolution. The application of foundational ontologies can also assist in overcoming the inscrutable nature of most mainstream artificial intelligence methods (i.e. neural networks and machine learning). 

We intend to bring together academics, researchers and practitioners (with a background in IS engineering and/or ontology development) to develop an agenda of future collaborations that combine research and industrial expertise. 

Contributions in the form of research, research-in-progress papers and practitioner reports are welcome.  Papers will be reviewed by at least two members of the program committee.

Topics

Topics for contributions include, but are not limited to:

• What is the relation between Ontological Semantics, Formal Semantics, Abstract and Concrete Syntax for Visual Conceptual Modeling Languages?

• What kind of Logical, Ontological and Epistemological Foundations are needed for Conceptual Modeling?

• How can fundamental theoretical research on Ontological Foundations for Conceptual

• Modeling and Empirical Research fit together?

• How can Formal Ontological Theories be used for the Analysis and Design of Conceptual Modeling languages (including Enterprise Modeling and Domain-Specific Modeling languages)?

• How researchers and practitioners in other domains not related to computer science and information systems (such as Bioinformatics) are using Ontologies?

• Is there a common notion of “Ontology” shared in all these domains, or are we including different notions under the same term (Ontology)?

• How does ontology inform the process of gathering requirements?

• How does ontology support architecture development directly from requirements specifications?

• How does ontology help in software design and its mapping to the architecture specification?

• How can ontologies be used as run-time artefacts or to inform the design of run-time artefacts?

• What is the role of ontology reasoning in the software engineering process?

• What is the role of ontology in model-driven development?

• How can ontology drive the development of service software?

• What are the methodological issues for Ontology-Driven CM and ISE?

• How can problems of semantic mismatch between traditional IS modeling paradigms, approaches, techniques, etc. and ontological modeling be overcome?

• How can ontology help in the design of development/modeling/programming languages?

• How can ontology enhance artificial intelligence?

Important Dates

• Workshop paper submission: 27 April 2024

• Workshop paper notification: 15 May 2024

• Camera-ready submission for paper (in post-conference proceedings): 30 June 2024

Submission

The workshop welcomes submissions of full and short papers. Submissions should present original work not currently under review or published elsewhere. Submissions can be regular research papers, research-in-progress papers, or practitioner reports. The respective lengths are:

• Regular: 10-14 pages (research papers)

• Short: 5-9 pages (research-in-progress papers and practitioner reports)

All accepted papers will be published in the Joint Ontology Workshops (JOWO) proceedings. At least one author of each accepted paper must register and participate in the workshop. 

Submissions must adhere to the one-column CEUR template. General information on CEUR proceedings can be found here: https://ceur-ws.org/HOWTOSUBMIT.html

Direct links to the MS Word and Latex templates are:

• MS Word: http://ceur-ws.org/Vol-XXX/CEURART.zip 

• Latex: https://www.overleaf.com/latex/templates/template-for-submissions-to-ceur-workshop-proceedings-ceur-ws-dot-org/wqyfdgftmcfw 

Papers should be submitted in PDF format using the EasyChair online submission system. 

Authors of accepted papers must provide the original source file and submit the author agreement form (https://ceur-ws.org/ceur-author-agreement-ccby-ntp.pdf?ver=2021-02-12)

Program Committee

• João Paulo Almeida (Federal University of Espírito Santo, Brazil)

• Mike Bennett (Hypercube, UK)

• Michael Dzandu (University of Westminster, UK)

• Salvatore Florio (University of Oslo, Norway)

• Pierre Grenon (National Center for Ontological Research, USA)

• Renata Guizzardi (University of Twente, Netherlands)

• Paul Johannesson (Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden)

• Jim Logan ( Dassault Systèmes, USA)

• Andrew Mitchell (BORO Solutions, UK)

• Thomas Moser (St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences, Austria) 

• Ítalo Oliveira (Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Italy)

• Jeffrey Parsons (Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada)

• Geert Poels (Ghent University, Belgium)

• Tiago Prince Sales (University of Twente, Netherlands)

• Pnina Soffer (University of Haifa, Israel)

• Marzieh Talebpour (University of Westminster, UK)

• Karsten Tolle (Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany)

Organizers

• Sergio de Cesare (University of Westminster, UK)

• Frederik Gailly (Ghent University, Belgium)

• Giancarlo Guizzardi (University of Twente, The Netherlands)

• Chris Partridge (University of Westminster, UK and BORO Solutions, UK)

• Oscar Pastor (Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, Spain)

For any queries please email Sergio de Cesare (s.decesare@westminster.ac.uk)