Description
Reactivity on the Web, the ability to detect simple and composite events that occur on the Web and respond in a timely manner, has recently emerged as an issue of concern in Web and Semantic Web circles such as the W3C and several international Semantic Web research initiatives such as REWERSE (Reasoning on the Web with Rules and Semantics). Although a common perception of the Web is that of a distributed information system giving rise to access data in a read only manner, many Web-based systems need to have the capability to update data found at (local or remote) Web resources, to exchange information about events (such as executed updates), and to detect and react not only to simple events but also to complex, real-life situations. The issue of updating data plays an important role, for example, in e-commerce systems receiving and processing buying or reservation orders, and e-learning systems selecting and delivering teaching materials depending on the students' performances on tests. The issues of notifying, detecting, and reacting upon events of interest are now beginning to play an increasingly important role within business strategy on the Web and event-driven applications are being more widely deployed: Terms such as zero latency enterprise, the real-time enterprise and on-demand computing are being used to describe a vision in which events recognised anywhere within a business, can immediately activate appropriate actions across the entire enterprise and beyond. Businesses that are able to react to events quickly and take appropriate decisions are likely to have a competitive advantage.
The issue of automatic reaction in response to events of interest has its roots in the field of active databases; in particular, the issue of detecting composite events has received considerable attention. However, differences between (generally centralised) active databases and the Web, where a central clock and a central management are missing, give reasons for developing new approaches. Moreover, approaches that cope with existing and upcoming Semantic Web technologies (by gradually evolving together with these technologies) are more likely to leverage the Semantic Web endeavour. Along this line, of crucial importance for the Web and the Semantic Web is the lightness of technologies' usage (in particular the languages' usage) that should be approachable also by non-programmers.
The objectives of the workshop 'Reactivity on the Web' are to support and disseminate ongoing research work on Web reactivity, but also to offer a forum for communicating visionary ideas that could entail enhancements of the actual Web with (re)active capabilities.