David W. Embley - Böcker

Conceptual modeling has long been recognized as the primary means to enable so- ware development in information systems and data engineering. Nowadays, conc- tual modeling has become fundamental to any domain in which organizations have to cope with complex, real-world systems. Conceptual modeling fosters communi- tion between information systems developers and end-users, and it has become a key mechanism for understanding and representing computing systems and environments of all kinds, including the new e-applications and the information systems that support them. The International Conference on Conceptual Modeling provides the premiere - rum for presenting and discussing current research and applications in which the - jor emphasis is on conceptual modeling. Topics of interest span the entire spectrum of conceptual modeling including research and practice in areas such as theories of c- cepts and ontologies underlying conceptual modeling, methods and tools for devel- ing and communicating conceptual models, and techniques for transforming conc- tual models into effective implementations. Moreover, new areas of conceptual mod- ing broaden its application to include interdependencies with knowledge-based, lo- cal, linguistic, and philosophical theories and approaches. The conference also makes major strides in fostering collaboration and exchange between academia and industry. In this year’s conference, research papers focused on XML, Web services, business modeling, conceptual modeling applied to human-computer interaction, quality in conceptual modeling, conceptual modeling applied to interoperability, requirements modeling, reasoning, the Semantic Web, and metadata management. The call for papers attracted 158 research papers, whose authors represent 27 differentcountries.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Conceptual Modeling, ER '97, held in Los Angeles, California, USA, in November 1997.The 32 revised full papers presented in the book were carefully selected from a total of 93 submissions. Also included are two full invited papers.The volume is divided in topical sections on automated design, temporal modeling, languages, activity modeling, applied modeling, object-oriented modeling, theoretical issues in modeling, experience and applications, distributed systems, integration, and tools.

This book constitutes the refereed joint proceedings of three workshops held during the 18th International Conference on Conceptual Modeling, ER '99, in Paris, France, in November 1999.The 30 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from a total of around 70 submissions. The book is divided into sections on evolution in object databases; constraining change; conceptual modeling of change; methodologies for reverse engineering; systems migration; modeling, navigation, and interaction; directions in Web modeling; modeling Web information; and modeling Web applications.

Conceptual modeling is about describing the semantics of software applications at a high level of abstraction in terms of structure, behavior, and user interaction.Embley and Thalheim start with a manifesto stating that the dream of developing information systems strictly by conceptual modeling – as expressed in the phrase “the model is the code” – is becoming reality. The subsequent contributions written by leading researchers in the field support the manifesto's assertions, showing not only how to abstractly model complex information systems but also how to formalize abstract specifications in ways that let developers complete programming tasks within the conceptual model itself. They are grouped into sections on programming with conceptual models, structure modeling, process modeling, user interface modeling, and special challenge areas such as conceptual geometric modeling, information integration, and biological conceptual modeling.The Handbook of Conceptual Modeling collects in a single volume many of the best conceptual-modeling ideas, techniques, and practices as well as the challenges that drive research in the field. Thus it is much more than a traditional handbook for advanced professionals, as it also provides both a firm foundation for the field of conceptual modeling, and points researchers and graduate students towards interesting challenges and paths for how to contribute to this fundamental field of computer science.