• ESWC 2005 Home
• Workshop description
• Workshop objectives
• Further information & submissions

• Date: 29 May 2005 (9.00 - 18.00)
• Programme & contributions
• Workshop proceedings (full)
• Workshop proceedings (Vol.137@CEUR.org)

About this workshop

The aim of this workshop is to look at how an "ordinary user" might be able to tap into the resources of the Semantic Web, find out about the value of these resources for their work practice or their general web use, and feel compelled to use and perhaps even contribute to Semantic Web resources.

A substantial part of current research is going into the creation and aggregation of semantic content. The content is necessary but insufficient condition for the Semantic Web. It is a "means" to improving the end user's interaction with knowledge repositories. Thus, this workshop considers not only the usual "What content?" and "How to author the content?" questions, but also "Why, for which purposes, and how could content be (re-)used and re-purposed?"

Users often move between several modalities and use tools, each designed for a particular purpose and audience. The pervasiveness of the standard Web is partly due to its appeal to non-specialists and immediate feedback when authoring HTML content. We want to look at the developments in making the Semantic Web more accessible and comprehensible to the end users. How can we facilitate the participation of these non-specialists in the development of the Semantic Web and its transplantation from a "research incubator" into everyday practice? What role does "instant gratification" to the user play in getting him or her involved in specifying and carrying out complex tasks within the Semantic Web? What tools and interfaces are likely to provide such a reward and thus help to break the barriers to the adoption of distributed environments and simplify interaction with large knowledge repositories?

Workshop objectives

Analyze state-of-the-art of Semantic Web applications with emphasis on end users

This perspective complements the traditional interest in the creation of machine-readable content. While such content is critical, what is needed to facilitate end users' "buy-in"?

Identify the use cases where Semantic Web applications offer tangible and immediate benefits to an "ordinary web user"

A vast part of content for the Semantic Web will have to be created by the end users. What are the application areas offering an immediate reward to the early adopters who contribute to the 'content creation'?

Discuss the challenges and limitations in practical deployment of applications for Semantic Web from the viewpoint of an "ordinary web user"

Formal semantic content has to deliver added value to users other than its creators. How can Semantic Web applications re-purpose and deliver the existing content thus compelling them to create more applications and/or content?

Guidelines for contributing to the workshop

The workshop shall run as a series of focused discussions on topics emerging from the thematic presentations. Submissions shall be prepared as for the main conference (see ESWS 2005 call for papers), and sent by email to Martin Dzbor. They will appear as workshop notes. Each discussant focus on the key aspects of the techniques or applications that are relevant to the topic of this workshop; incl. some of the issues mentioned below:

• What aspects of end user activity does the application/technique affect?
  
  
• Can you show/describe convincing use-case scenarios demonstrating the power and/or usefulness of your approach?
  
  
• Would it be possible to design this application with current "non-semantic" web?
  
  
• Why do we need Semantic Web for it?
  
  
• Which baseline technologies are used and how are they fused?
  
  
• What is its potential to improve/simplify user's task?
  
  
• How do we measure/evaluate effectiveness and success?