Third Call for Papers
International Workshop on
Fact-Oriented Modeling
(ORM 2008)
Monterrey, Mexico
November 12-14, 2008
Held in conjunction with OTM’08 (Nov 9-14)
http://www.cs.rmit.edu.au/fedconf
Proceedings will be published by Springer Verlag
Paper Submission Deadline: 2008 June 30
(abstracts due June 15)
Background:
Following successful workshops held in Cyprus (2005), France (2006) and Portugal (2007), this is the fourth in a series of fact-oriented modeling workshops run in conjunction with the OTM conferences. Fact-oriented modeling is a conceptual, natural language based approach to modeling and querying the information semantics of business domains in terms of the underlying facts of interest, where all facts and rules may be verbalized in language readily understandable by users of those business domains.
Unlike Entity-Relationship (ER) modeling and UML class diagrams, fact-oriented modeling treats all facts as relationships (unary, binary, ternary etc.). How facts are grouped into structures (e.g. attribute-based entity types, classes, relation schemes, XML schemas) is considered a design level, implementation issue that is irrelevant to the capturing of essential business semantics. Avoiding attributes in the base model enhances semantic stability and populatability, as well as facilitating natural verbalization and thus more productive communication with all stakeholders. For information modeling, fact-oriented graphical notations are typically far more expressive than those provided by other notations. Fact-oriented textual languages are based on formal subsets of native languages, so are easier to understand by business people than technical languages like OCL. Fact-oriented modeling includes procedures for mapping to attribute-based structures, so may also be used to front-end other approaches.
Though less well known than ER and object-oriented approaches, fact-oriented modeling has been used successfully in industry for over 30 years, and is taught in universities around the world. The fact-oriented modeling approach comprises a family of closely related “dialects”, the most well known being Object-Role Modeling (ORM), Cognition enhanced Natural language Information Analysis Method (CogNIAM) and Fully-Communication Oriented Information Modeling (FCO-IM). Though adopting a different graphical notation, the Object-oriented Systems Model (OSM) is a close relative, with its attribute-free philosophy. In December 2007, the Semantics of Business Vocabulary and Business Rules (SBVR) proposal was adopted by the Object Management Group, becoming the latest addition to the family of fact-oriented approaches.
Commercial tools supporting the fact-oriented approach include the ORM solution within Microsoft’s Visio for Enterprise Architects, the CogNIAM tool Doctool, and the FCO-IM tool CaseTalk. Free ORM tools include InfoModeler and Infagon, as well as various academic prototypes. DogmaStudio is an ORM-based tool for specifying ontologies. NORMA, an open-source plug-in to Visual Studio, is currently under development to provide deep support for second generation ORM. Various SBVR tools are also currently under development. General information about fact-orientation and SBVR, respectively, may be found at www.ORMFoundation.org and http://omg.org/technology/documents/bms_spec_catalog.htm#SBVR.
Goals and Topics:
The main goal of this workshop is to provide a forum for practitioners and researchers interested in fact-oriented modeling methods to meet, and exchange research and implementation ideas and results. It also provides this group of practitioners/researchers an opportunity to present their research papers and experience reports, and to take part in open discussions. Relevant topics include (but are not limited to) theoretical and/or empirical exploration of fact-oriented modeling methods, as well as case studies and experience reports related to:
Intended Audience:
The workshop is primarily aimed at researchers and practitioners interested in conceptual modeling approaches for the analysis and design of information systems and ontologies, including modeling of data, processes and events. Attendees familiar with fact-oriented approaches have the opportunity to update and deepen their knowledge and expertise in this area. Attendees less familiar with fact-oriented approaches have an ideal opportunity to learn about the approach from world experts in the area, and adopt or adapt the many benefits of the approach.
Workshop co-chairs:
|
Terry Halpin Neumont University USA |
Sjir Nijssen PNA The Netherlands |
|
Important Dates (2008):
Abstracts due: June 15
Papers due: June 30
Acceptance Notification: August 13
Camera-ready copies: August 25
Registration due: TBA
OTM Conferences: November 9 - 14
Submission Guidelines:
All submitted papers will be evaluated by at least three members of the program committee, based on originality, significance, technical soundness, and clarity of expression. Submissions must be in English, and may be of two kinds: Full Papers or Short Papers, both of which may discuss industrial experience or academic research. Full Papers should not exceed 5,000 words (excluding references and appendices), and should not exceed 10 pages in the final camera-ready format (see later). Short papers should not exceed 5 pages in the final camera-ready format. Full papers are normally allocated 45 minutes for presentation. Short papers are normally allocated at most 30 minutes for presentation. Only electronic submissions in Adobe PDF format are acceptable. The paper submission site is located at:
http://www.cs.rmit.edu.au/fedconf/orm/2008/papers/
On the original submission, include a cover page with title of paper as well as the authors’ names, affiliations, phones, faxes, and email addresses. The total number of words in the paper (excluding cover page, tables, and references) should be indicated on the cover page. The second page should begin with the title of the paper followed by author names and affiliations and an abstract of no more than 150 words.
The proceedings will be published by Springer Verlag in their LNCS (Lecture Notes in Computer Science) series. The final paper (if accepted) should be formatted using the Springer LNCS style, as described at http://www.springer.de/comp/lncs/authors.html. Failure to commit to presentation at the workshop automatically excludes a paper from the proceedings.
Program committee:
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Roel Baardman |
BonusAdvies, The Netherlands |
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Guido Bakema |
HAN University of Applied Science, The Netherlands |
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Herman Balsters |
University of Groningen, The Netherlands |
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Linda Bird |
National E-Health Transition Authority, Australia |
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Anthony Bloesch |
Microsoft Corporation, USA |
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Scott Becker |
Orthogonal Software, USA |
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Peter Bollen |
Maastricht University, The Netherlands |
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Lex Bruil |
ING Netherlands |
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Andy Carver |
Neumont University, USA |
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Don Baisley |
Microsoft Corporation, USA |
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Donald Chapin |
Business Semantics, UK |
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Dave Cuyler |
Sandia National Laboratories, USA |
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Olga De Troyer |
Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium |
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Jan Dietz |
Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands |
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Gordon Everest |
University of Minnesota, USA |
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Ken Evans |
ORM Foundation, United Kingdom |
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Mario Gutknecht |
Commerzbank, Frankfurt, Germany |
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John Hall |
Model Systems, UK |
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Pat Hallock |
InConcept, USA |
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Terry Halpin |
Neumont University, USA |
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Hank Hermans |
Statistics Netherlands, The Netherlands |
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Stijn Hoppenbrouwers |
Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands |
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Mike Jackson |
Birmingham City University, United Kingdom |
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Mustafa Jarrar |
University of Cyprus, Cyprus |
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Elisa Kendall |
Sandpiper Software, USA |
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Mark Linehan |
IBM, USA |
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Inge Lemmens |
PNA, The Netherlands |
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Bodil Madsen |
Copenhagen Business School, Denmark |
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Robert Meersman |
Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium |
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Tony Morgan |
Neumont University, USA |
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Maurice Nijssen |
PNA, The Netherlands |
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Sjir Nijssen |
PNA, The Netherlands |
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Anita Nuopponen |
University of Vaasa, Finland |
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Baba Piprani |
SICOM, Canada |
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Erik Proper |
Radboud University and Capgemini, The Netherlands |
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Bob Quast |
City of The Hague, The Netherlands |
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Ron Ross |
Business Rules Solutions, USA |
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Jos Rozendaal |
UCademy BV, Velserbroek, The Netherlands |
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Gerhard Skagestein |
University of Oslo, Norway |
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Sylvie Spreeuwenberg |
LibRT, The Netherlands |
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Peter Spyns |
Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium |
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Deny Smeets |
HAN University of Applied Science, The Netherlands |
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Hanne Thomsen |
Copenhagen Business School, Denmark |
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Joost van Griethuysen |
MMJ Engineering, The Netherlands |
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Jan Vanthienen |
Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium |
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Remco van Voorthuizen |
ADP, The Netherlands |
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Jos Vos |
ABP/AMC, Heerlen, The Netherlands |
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Gerd Wagner |
Brandenburg Technical University Cottbus, Germany |
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Theo van der Weide |
Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands |
For more information on the workshop, please contact:
Prof. Terry Halpin
e-mail: terry@neumont.edu
fax: + 1 801 302 2811
tel: +1 801 302 2820