The Chris Date Seminar: The Closed World of Databases meets the Open World of the Semantic Web

12 October, 06 09:00 AM - 13 October, 06 05:00 PM

e-Science Institute, 15 South College Street, Edinburgh

Any slides or other material generated as a result of this event can be found at: www.nesc.ac.uk/action/esi/contribution.cfm?Title=701

Exploiting scientific data inevitably involves scientists sharing their data. However to share their data, which is frequently stored in databases, requires understanding the semantics of the data to be shared. An earlier workshop, RDF, Ontologies and Meta-Data Workshop, investigated experiences in using semantic web technologies to aid in the sharing and integration of scientific (and other) information, through the use of meta-data, OWL, RDF and globally unique identifiers such as Life Science Identifiers (LSIDs) and identified some problems worthy of further exploration. It was noted that the database community traditionally operates under the closed world assumption (CWA), while the semantic web community an open world assumption (OWA) therefore this workshop will explore some of the issues surrounding this area. Chris Date will present the database perspective and speakers from the semantic web and the scientific user community will give their views on the issues The workshop will begin by reviewing the CWA and the OWA from both communities and discuss the implications for data processing when the two worlds meet such as how to interpret the results of queries returned from a database as opposed to those returned from a reasoning engine. The problem of nullology, i.e. the study of the empty set will be presented and how this should be interpreted will be discussed. The important issue of missing information is something that can be interpreted differently between the CW and OW therefore how to deal with it and in fact the question of what is missing information will be explored. Finally the identification of objects or concepts is a common issue in both databases and the semantic web and poses many challenging problems. Issues that may be discussed include the mechanisms for identifying objects or concepts, how they may be referenced, do the approaches differ between databases and the semantic web and if so can they work together effectively? Of course many of these topics are related and discussion sessions will give participants a chance to explore the issues currently facing them in exploiting their data.

This workshop will bring together researchers from the database and the semantic web with emphasis on scientific applications to present the approaches from the 2 communities and to discuss the implications of combining these two worlds when sharing and integrating data. The workshop will be of interest to scientists and researchers in both database and semantic web communities and to and data managers responsible for managing scientific data where semantic web technologies are being used along with database technologies.

Target Audience

The workshop will be of interest to researchers in both communities and to scientists and data managers responsible for managing data where semantic web technologies are being used along with database technologies.

Programme

A full agenda will be developed on the Research Theme’s wiki page at: http://wiki.esi.ac.uk/The_Closed_World_of_Databases_Meets_the_Open_World_of_the_Semantic_Web

Registration for this event is now closed. To enquire about an application or to cancel a previous application please contact NeSC Administration.

Important Dates

04 Sep - Registration Opens
11 Oct - Registration Deadline
11 Oct - Date we will respond to your application by (Please note this is the latest date we will respond to your application. It is normal policy for us to respond within 5 working days where possible.)
12 Oct - Event Starts at 09:00hrs

Enquiries

Enquiries should be made directly to our Conference Administrator.

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