Identity, Reference, and the Web (IRW 2006)

Co-located WWW 2006 Workshop

Edinburgh Scotland

1 Day within May 23rd-May 26th

Call for Papers

Goal and Theme:

Our goal for this workshop is to explore the nature of "identification" and "reference" on the Web, building on current work in Web Architecture, the Semantic Web and tagging, as well as current practice in XML and theory in philosophy and linguistics. This workshop should bring together researchers and practitioners from a variety of backgrounds in order to discuss and clarify these issues.

URIs are the primary mechanism for reference and identity on the Web. To be useful, a URI must provide access to information which is sufficient to enable someone or something to uniquely identify a particular thing and the thing identified might vary between contexts. There is no doubt that as mechanisms for identifying web pages the URI has been wildly successful. Currently, URIs can also be used to identify namespaces, ontologies, and almost anything. However, important questions about the interpretation,use, and meaning of URIs have been left unanswered, questions that have important ramifications for everything from search engines to philosophy. As soon as matters get complicated, there is little or no consensus on issues of identification and reference on the Web. Put simply, given a URI, how should the nature of its intended referent be known in an interoperable and preferably automatic manner?

This is not an easy question to answer: for example, the Semantic Web and "tagging" present two distinctly differing viewpoints. On the Semantic Web a URI identifies a single resource, while tagging relies on a more informal group consensus. Notions of identity will have even larger ramifications when privacy and trust become central issues for the Web. The management of this issue impacts practical issues of data integration on the Web and versioning and evolution for languages that use URIs, such as XML.

This workshop at WWW 2006 will offer an open forum to constructively discuss and make progress on these issues.

Paper Submission:

We are soliciting papers on this topic from a variety of perspectives, and welcome papers from a variety of disciplinary and interdisciplinary approaches, and practical experience from industry and standards work.

Topics Of Interest, but not limited to:

The nature of URIs and resources on the Web
Identification, perspectives and contexts
Model-theories for identity and reference on the Web
Philosophical analysis of issues of identity and reference on the Web
Linguistic theories of reference and identity on the Web
Tagging and Web 2.0 for identification
Concrete Standards for Identification
See Links for more information
- 'tdb' and URN and 'taguri' URI Scheme
- Subject Indicators for Topic Maps
- WPN RDDLs
- URIQA
- HTTP Status Codes
- MIME Types
- URNs and URLs
Impact of URIs Identification on Web Services and the Semantic Web
URI ownership and identification
How the Web Revolution effects traditional concepts of identify and reference
URI usage for language versioning and identification
Identity and Trust on the Web

Submission Instructions:

Submission Due Date: February 17th 2006

Notification of Acceptance: March 31st 2006
Workshop Date: To be announced

Submissions must conform to the ACM formatting guidelines for WWW2006 and must not exceed 10 pages, including all text, references, appendices, and figures. Submissions must be in Portable Document Format (PDF).

Papers are to be submitted to the workshop via e-mail by e-mailing

Comments will be given by three reviewers, including at least one specialist in Web architecture and one specialist on theories of reference and identity. For any questions, please contact the co-chairs.

Workshop Co-Chairs

Pat Hayes, Institute for Human and Machine Cognition
Harry Halpin, University of Edinburgh
Henry S. Thompson, World Wide Web Consortium and University of Edinburgh

Programme Committee

Currently still in formation...

Joshua Allen, Microsoft
Bill Andersen, Ontology Works
Kurt Cagle, Cagle Communications
Andy Clark, University of Edinburgh
Kendall Clark, University of Maryland
Dan Connolly, World Wide Web Consortium
Luciano Floridi, University of Oxford
Ewan Klein, University of Edinburgh
Graham Klyne, Nine by Nine
Chris Menzel, Texas A&M University
Alistair Miles, CCLRC
John Sowa, Vivomind Intelligence
Bernard Vatant, Mondeca

Schedule

To be announced

Here are some examples of questions. For a quiz by Tim Berners-Lee, see here

How does a URI authoritatively establish its meaning?
Is the "meaning" of a URI established by the owner of the URI, the model-theoretic definition of the URI in terms of the Semantic Web, it's "social meaning," or the document (information resource) it returns?
What does "identity" mean on the Web? Does anything have to be "on the Web" at all, and what does "on the Web" mean?
What things can and cannot "have identity" on the Web? Is a genera of such things useful, or even possible?
What sort of things can a URI dereference? Does dereference mean "returning something concrete" or is it an abstract relationship with no necessary grounding?
Is there a resource for "Moby Dick?" If so, does it have a URI(s)? If not, what is the preferred method of creating one?
How can I mint a URI that refers uniquely to myself, and maintain control of it?
Are some URIs ambiguous? Is this common?
How can one make sure one's URI interoperates well with other URIs that identify the same thing? Can or should this process be automated?
What are the concrete advantages of using centralized or decentralized identification systems?
Is there any reason to use a URN instead of a URL?
What sort of document or status code should a XML namespace or Semantic Web URI return?
What separates the Web from other forms of communication, and does this impact how traditional problems in linguistics and philosophy? For example, a URI implies access to a resource, which is not the case in linguistics.
What are the distinctions between representation on the Web and the use of the word "representation" in AI and philosophy? How are they the same, and how do they differ?
Has the Web changed our understanding of information? Is information theory and model theory strong enough foundations for the Web, and how should they be employed?
How are new technologies using URIs (Web Services, Semantic Web) in ways that are expanding, or breaking them? How can we layer these new technologies successfully on top of each other?
Does tagging present a more robust, albeit fuzzier, way to identify than URIs? Are there other alternative means of identification?
What advantages and disadvantages come into play with only looking at the content of documents on the Web, and ignoring URIs?
Does any of this matter, and what practical steps forward need to be taken? Or otherwise how can we close the debate, and make it clear that it does not matter?

Links

Here are some links of interest.