CALL FOR PAPERS

WORKSHOP ON HEALTH CARE AND LIFE SCIENCES DATA INTEGRATION FOR THE SEMANTIC WEB

held in conjunction with

THE 16th INTERNATIONAL WORLD WIDE WEB CONFERENCE

MAY 8-12, 2007

BANFF, ALBERTA, CANADA

Biomedical researchers need to be able to access all relevant data in order to make well-informed decisions. In order for this objective to be reached, data about genes, proteins, pathways, diseases, and chemical compounds must be effectively integrated and available to the scientist. Yet the integration of disparate biomedical data continues to be a challenge to achieve. Difficulties with data integration stem from the fact that many biomedical research disciplines require the integration of data sets that have been produced by using different experimental/clinical protocols, across many groups, that are using heterogeneous data formats, and are referring to the data at different levels of abstraction. Further challenges include inconsistent use of terminology and identifiers, rapidly increasing data volumes, and the growing diversity in data types and formats.

In the hope of easing the effort of data integration many life science researchers are exploring the use of the Semantic Web. The benefits promised by the Semantic Web include aggregation of heterogeneous data using explicit semantics, simplified annotation and sharing of findings, the expression of rich and well-defined models for data aggregation and search, easier reuse of data in unanticipated ways, and the application of logic to infer additional insights.

To help realize the vision of the Semantic Web, W3C has established the Semantic Web Health Care and Life Sciences Interest Group (HCLSIG), which is chartered to develop and support the use of Semantic Web technologies to improve collaboration, research and development, and innovation adoption in the of health care and life science domains. As a part of realizing this vision, we are organizing the first workshop on the Semantic Web for Health Care and Life Sciences Data Integration for the Semantic Web in conjunction with WWW 2007.

The workshop will foster discussion and exchange of ideas relating to the use of the Semantic Web for data integration in health care and life sciences.

Audience:

The workshop encourages participation from both academia and industry with an emphasis on the theoretical and practical aspects of applying Semantic Web technologies to the challenges of health care and the life sciences. We encourage participation from:

• Universities, Research Institutes and Centers
• Health Care, Clinical, and Life Science Consortia
• Pharmaceuticals and Biotechnology Companies
• IT Solution Vendors
• Government Agencies

We invite papers that focus on the application of the Semantic Web to health care and/or life sciences.

Topics of Interest:

· Integration of health care and/or life science data using Semantic Web technologies.

· Semantics of health care and/or life science data

· Semantic Web applications for health care and/or life science data

· Semantic Web Services

· Ontology-based data integration

· RDF/OWL data querying languages

· Experience using triple stores

Submissions:
Prospective authors are invited to submit research or demo papers in any of the areas listed above. Research papers should be 8-10 pages in length and demo papers 1-2 pages in length. Instructions for preparing the papers (in Word and Latex format) are available at the following Web site: http://www2007.org/submission.php. All papers must be written in English and submitted in PDF format in the same style as the main WWW2007 conference papers via the EasyChair system (details to be announced).

E-mail any one of workshop organizers for questions relating to the submission of papers.

Important Dates:
Paper submission: http://www.mp2kmag.com February 7, 2007.
Notification of acceptance: February 21, 2007

Final version of accepted papers: February 28, 2007
Workshop date: May 9, 2007 (this may change)

Organizing Committee:
Kei Cheung, Yale Center for Medical Informatics, Yale University

(kei.cheung@yale.edu)

http://blog.new-eastside.com University

(huajunsir@zju.edu.cn)

Yimin Wang, Institute AIFB, University of Karlsruhe

(ywa@aifb.uni-karlsruhe.de)

Joanne Luciano, Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School

(jluciano@genetics.med.harvard.edu)

Susie Stephens, Oracle

(susie.stephens@oracle.com)

Vipul Kashyap, Partners HealthCare System

(vkashyap1@partners.org)

For more information on the workshop, the http://news.mapvisitors.com
following workshop link at the conference Web page at http://www2007.org/
- posted by Eric Frost @ 4:59 PM

 
Ascendix Technologies Announces the Release of Real Estate Advantage™ - THE Commercial Real Estate Solution for Microsoft CRM

Dallas, Texas (December 12th, 2006) – Ascendix Technologies, in accordance with their vertical strategy, has announced the release of Real Estate Advantage™, targeted at those companies that are in the business of buying, selling, servicing or investing in commercial real estate. Real Estate Advantage™, awarded Microsoft's certification for the Microsoft® Dynamics™ platform, is a specialized CRM solution helping commercial (office, retail and industrial) real estate companies manage assets, leases, tenants, vendors and prospects in marketing, service, sales and support functions. http://blog.new-eastside.com More effectively managing these complex business relationships helps real estate companies reach their business objectives of becoming more productive, efficient and profitable.

Built on the Microsoft® Dynamics™ CRM 3.0 platform, Real Estate Advantage leverages the tools your organization already uses, such as Microsoft Outlook, Excel, Word, MapPoint and SharePoint, increasing the intuitiveness and adoption rates that so often plague CRM implementations. In addition, the Microsoft® Dynamics™ CRM 3.0 platform maximizes the investment you have already made in infrastructure using tools such as Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft® SQL Server, Active Directories and .Net frameworks.

"Selecting Microsoft® Dynamics™ CRM 3.0 as the platform for Real Estate Advantage™ seemed like a natural fit for this vertical offering, considering the abundant usage of the tools like Outlook and Excel already in use at many, if not all, of the target firms. We simply did not want to force anyone to change to a whole new set of tools, http://www.mapforums.com but rather to augment that which they already have. With ten years of CRM implementation experience, laser-like focus on commercial real estate and the robust partnership with Microsoft®, we have created a value proposition that simply does not exist in the marketplace today," stated Wes Snow, President and CEO of Ascendix Technologies, Inc.

"Our partnership with Ascendix exemplifies the Microsoft® vision we are bringing to fruition of 'Integrated Innovation,' leveraging Microsoft Dynamics™ CRM 3.0." stated Darlene Perfetto, Director Dynamics ISV Business Development, Microsoft Corporation. http://news.mapvisitors.com "With the inclusion of dynamic Web services, tight integration with Microsoft Office and the Microsoft development environment (Microsoft Visual Studio® 2005), Microsoft® CRM 3.0 was an obvious choice for Ascendix to use as a platform to bring its Real Estate Advantage™ solution to market in a limited amount of time. Microsoft® CRM 3.0 is the obvious choice for ISVs to build industry leading vertical customer relationship management (CRM) solutions."

Ascendix will be unveiling the Real Estate Advantage™ solution through a series of regional product launch events, with locations tentatively set for Dallas, Irvine, Las Vegas, Chicago, New York and Boston. The first launch event is slated for February 6th in Dallas, Texas at the Microsoft offices in Las Colinas.

About Ascendix Technologies – Ascendix Technologies, Inc., a Microsoft® Certified Gold Partner, is a privately held corporation located in Dallas, TX. Founded in 1996 by Todd Terry and Wes Snow, the company is celebrating its 10th year in business focused solely on the implementation of CRM systems for companies in both the mid and enterprise market space. In 2003, Ascendix turned to a vertical strategy, quickly carving out a niche in the alternative investment products, financial services and commercial real estate industries. For more information, please visit Ascendix on the web at www.ascendix.com .
- posted by Eric Frost @ 2:28 PM