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Klaus-Dieter Schewe, Software Competence Center Hagenberg, Johannes-Kepler-University Linz, Austria
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ABSTRACT
Modelling information systems in general is a complex endeavour, as systems comprise many different aspects such as the data, functionality, interaction, distribution, context, etc., which all require different models. In addition, models are usually built on different levels of abstraction and the switch from one of these levels to another one should be seamless.
The talk will focus on business process modelling, and outline the horizontal integration of models for control flow, message flow, event handling, interaction, actors, data handling and exception handling. The method is based on Abstract State Machines (ASMs), which are used to formally define the semantics of each of the individual models, while horizontal integration is accomplished by strict refinement of the ASMs. Furthermore, vertical integration is achieved by further refining the involved ASMs in a development process that is targeting the executable specification of a workflow engine that is enriched with components for data and dialogue handling and exception processing. Throughout the process rigorous quality assurance methods will be applied.
The area of business processes is used as a sample for seamless horizontal and vertical model integration on the formal basis of ASMs. The same approach has already been used in different contexts showing the correct compilation of Java, C# and Prolog programs. It therefore looks promising to emphasize the approach as a general method for model integration.
SPEAKER BIOGRAPHY
Klaus-Dieter Schewe studied Mathematics and Computer Science at the University of Bonn, Germany. He received his PhD in Mathematics 1985 from University of Bonn, and his DSc in Theoretical Computer Science 1995 from Brandenburgian University of Technology. In between he worked 5 years in industry and industrial research with Bosch, Philips and others. He was Associate Professor for Computer Science at Clausthal University of Technology from 1994 until 1999, and Full Professor for Information Systems at Massey University, New Zealand 2000-2008. He led the New Zealand Information Science Research Centre 2002-2010. Since 2010 he is the scientific director of the Software Competence Center Hagenberg, honorary Professor at Johannes-Kepler-University Linz and director of the Christian Doppler Laboratory for Client-Centric Cloud Computing in Hagenberg, Austria.
His main research interest are in mathematical and logical aspects of Software Science, formal specification and semantics, complex data structures and database theory, and internet-enabled systems including cloud computing, web services and web information systems. He is co-founder of conference and workshop series such as Foundations of Data and Knowledge Systems (FoIKS), Semantics of Data and Kowledge Bases (SDKB), Asia-Pacific Conference on Conceptual Modelling (APCCM) and Conceptual Modelling of Services (CMS). To date he has published over 260 articles in journal and conference proceedings. In New Zealand he received twice rewards as "Distinguished Researcher".
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Tova Milo, Tel Aviv University, Israel
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ABSTRACT
Many popular sites, such as Wikipedia and Tripadvisor, rely on public participation to gather information---a process known as crowd data sourcing. While this kind of collective intelligence is extremely valuable, it is also fallible, and policing such sites for inaccuracies or missing material is a costly undertaking. In this talk we will examine how database technology can be put to work to effectively gather information from the public, efficiently moderate the process, and identify questionable input with minimal human interaction. We will consider the logical, algorithmic, and methodological foundations for the management of large scale crowd-sourced data as well as the development of applications over such information.
SHORT BIO
Tova Milo received her Ph.D. degree in Computer Science from the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, in 1992. After graduating she worked at the INRIA research institute in Paris and at University of Toronto and returned to Israel in 1995, joining the School of Computer Science at Tel Aviv university where she is now a full Professor and Department head. Her research focuses on advanced database applications such as data integration, XML and semi-structured information, Data-centered Business Processes and Crowd-sourcing, studying both theoretical and practical aspects.
Tova served as the Program Chair of several international conferences, including PODS, ICDT, VLDB, XSym, and WebDB. She is a member of the VLDB Endowment and the ICDT executive board and is an editor of TODS, the VLDB Journal and the Logical Methods in Computer Science Journal. She has received grants from the Israel Science Foundation, the US-Israel Binational Science Foundation, the Israeli and French Ministry of Science and the European Union. She is an ACM Fellow and a recipient of the 2010 ACM PODS Alberto O. Mendelzon
Test-of-Time Award and of the prestigious EU ERC Advanced Investigators grant.
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Trevor Bench-Capon, University of Liverpool, UK
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ABSTRACT.
Policy making typically involves the choice of actions which are designed to promote certain social values in the current situation. The public may respond to policy proposals by objecting to particular aspects and Governments present justifications of their policies to the public intended to meet these objections. Also members of the public may propose policies of their own, often as part of a public consultation exercise. Here the Government needs to respond by assimilating and aggregating the proposals they receive, and by offering individual critiques explaining why they might not be adopted. Currently these functions are supported by petitions, discussion groups and similar, but this can make formulation, understanding, aggregation and comparison very hard. In this talk I will show how these tasks can be supported by a computational model of argument in the form of an argumentation scheme for practical reasoning, and critical questions designed to challenge instantiations of this scheme. I will discuss the various kinds of knowledge captured in the model. I will also describe two implemented systems, designed to be accessed over the internet, one to support the justification of, and to organise objections to, Government policy proposals and the other to support the construction of policy proposals by members of the public and their automatic critique based on the position of the Government.
SPEAKER BIOGRAPHY.
Trevor Bench-Capon read Philosophy and Economics at St John's College Oxford, where he also took a D. Phil. He worked for 6 years in the Department of Health and Social Security, in policy and computer branches before going to Imperial College, London to research into logic programming applied to legislation. He was appointed lecturer in Computer Science at the University of Liverpool in 1987, Senior Lecturer in 1992, Reader in Computer Science in 1999, and Professor of Computer Science in 2004. He retired in September 2012, and is now an Honorary Visiting Professor in the Department. He has published over 200 peer reviewed articles. He remains interested in all aspects of advanced informatics systems, particularly their application to law and e-democracy. Current focus is on dialogue and argument.
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Roland Traunmüller, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria
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ABSTRACT.
The term “Electronic Government” became used Nineties turning a new century and so has been used already for more than a Decade. So it may be the right moment to hold on, to regard the actual state and to consider prospects and future developments. So advancement envisaged for a next Decade may comprise: a proactive Government, having interoperability and identity management in the broad, using collaborative platforms, relaying on social media and mobile Government, progressing with Open Government Data, exploiting Big Data, etc.
SPEAKER BIOGRAPHY.
Roland Traunmüller is Professor Emeritus with the Institute for Informatics in Business and Government at Linz University, Austria. Prof. Traunmüller has worked in the field of Information Systems and applications of information technology in Government for three decades. In Austria Prof. Traunmüller heads the Forum e-Government, in Germany he is member of the steering body e-Government within the German Computer Society. Within DEXA Prof. Traunmüller founded in 2002 the EGOV conference series as annual meeting of the European R&D Community.
In addition he has been involved in various consulting activities and boards on the national and international level (Ministries, EU, UNO, and UNESCO). In recognition of his work official acknowledgements have come in. In recognition of his work official acknowledgements have come in. So for founding the e-Government R&D Community he got 2006 the “Prometheus” – an Award dedicated by the North-American Society on Digital Government and by the European Community for e-Government. He also got the Roland Wagner Award – an international award on computers helping people with special need. Lately the Republic of Austria honoured the Life-work of Prof. Traunmüller with awarding to him the Big Silber Medal of the Republic Austria.