CFP: The First International Workshop on Semantic Web and Web 2.0 in Architectural, Product and Engineering Design (ISWC2007) August 2, 2007

A product or architectural design development is the realization of complex, interactive and dynamic design processes requiring a good balance of creativity and adaptability. In essence, product development brings together integrated product teams, information, resources and artefacts. In view of greater competitiveness in business environments, the reuse of previous proven designs is increasingly important. A challenge arises since typical design organizations contain a large number of design documents and drawings that are stored across distributed and heterogeneous information systems. Efficient approaches to ensure interoperability, successful retrieval and integration of disparate information are the core issues in current design management systems. Accordingly, interest in the Semantic Web and in Web 2.0 has increased within the design research community.

The Semantic Web is important, as it is a key element for streamlining complex design processes, for sharing design knowledge, and for improving collaboration within distributed design teams. Web 2.0 is important, as it supports the social aspects of design processes and enriches formal design knowledge with dynamic, designer-centred experience. However, introducing such techniques into engineering organizations often proves difficult due to their complex and interconnected business processes. As a result, it is difficult to identify any significant progress within the design community regarding the applications of both techniques to real projects. Collective discussions among practitioners and researchers regarding how best to improve design practices using both techniques would be helpful. In addition, a discussion of how healthcare and software engineering researchers have exploited these techniques for medical and software development applications, respectively, would be of interest to many engineering designers and researchers in design and knowledge management.

This workshop aims to encourage the design research community to exploit Semantic Web and Web 2.0 techniques, facilitate communication between researchers and practitioners, and identify key research and implementation issues. In this workshop, the focus will be on practical applications and techniques for improving design processes. Such emphasis is particularly important and timely since more design organisations are considering moving toward using the Semantic Web in their businesses processes.

Official Website: http://www-edc.eng.cam.ac.uk/~shk32/ws.html