NEEDHAM, Mass., June 11, 2004 -- The WebSim Partnership -- the Object Management Group(TM) (OMG(TM)), Open GIS Consortium (OGC), Simulation Interoperability Standards Organization (SISO), and Web3D Consortium -- announced today that they are co-hosting a second annual Workshop on Web Enabled Modeling and Simulation. The four organizations agreed last year to collaborate on open, non-proprietary standards for Modeling and Simulation (M&S) and related technologies. Sponsored by General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems, the workshop will illuminate the current state of the technology and help establish a plan for going forward. The Workshop on Web Enabled Modeling and Simulation will take place on October 12-15, 2004 at the Sheraton National Hotel in Arlington, VA. For more details and to register for the workshop, visit: http://www.websim.net.

Background

Technologies such as the World Wide Web, and Global Grid Computing, and Utility Computing are transforming the way that computing services are provided to the vast collection of user communities. The Model Driven Architecture offers a model-based approach to developing simulation systems based on evolving service-oriented architectures that support these services. The Modeling and Simulation (M&S) community is in the process of transforming itself to take advantage of these and other emerging technologies that will enhance the ability of M&S tools to support the needs of its user community.

Call for Proposals

The WebSim Partnership invites presentations on all aspects of M&S in the World Wide Web context. Presentations must describe relevant work and will be evaluated for technical contribution, originality, and significance to the web enabled M&S environment. Following the workshop, all presentations will be published in proceedings and will be the basis of a paper summarizing the results of the workshop and detailing the next steps for the WebSim Partnership as it goes forward.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

Simulation in the Systems Engineering Process

How can modeling and simulation be used to enhance the systems engineering process?

Given that the user's perception of a system or capability is primarily visual, how can M&S be used as a substitute for the Concept of Operations (CONOPS)?

How can that M&S-based CONOPS be used to drive the design process and/or vice versa?

Modeling in the Systems/Software Engineering process

How can Model Driven Architecture (MDA) be best applied in the development of M&S capabilities?

What enhancements, if any, should be made to MDA and/or the Unified Modeling Language (UML)?

Are there examples of M&S applications that were developed using MDA? If so, what are the benefits and/or pitfalls in its use?

Global Grid Computing and Utility Computing Technologies

How does one make the best use of the emerging global Global grid Grid C omputing and utility Utility computing Computing technologies in a web-based web based simulation capability?

What are the impediments to the use of these for web-based web based enabled M&S?

"Real-Time Simulation"

How do we implement simulation so as to use sensor data (e.g., data from the OGC postulated sensor web), fixed data in data bases and elsewhere, and other situational data in the assistance of incident managers and military tactical commanders in their decision making?

Definition of M&S Services

World Wide Web, Global Grid Computing and Utility Computing, Global Information Grid, and other web-based web based architectures have one thing in common: they all are evolving towards service architectures.

In order to ensure composability and orchestration of M&S web services to fulfill operational user requirements, items of interest include, but are not limited to:

Applicable M&S service definitions 
Necessary meta data and meta models 
Service description languages 
Challenges 
What hard challenges does the web enabled M&S community face? 
How should we, as a community, take on those challenges? 
Web Sim Demo Day

On Thursday, October 14th , the conference organizers also seek candidates interested in demonstrating the current state of capabilities for web-based M&S. On Thursday, October 14th this year, we are asking interested parties to demonstrate their web-based web based modeling and simulation capabilities as well as the supporting web services infrastructure necessary to advance truly web-based web based M&S capabilities. In addition to provided live demonstrations, presenters are encouraged to discuss their views on major challenges and opportunities that should be addressed to help further advance and accelerate capability development and deployment.

The goals of WebSim Demo Day are to:

Illustrate modeling and simulation capabilities available today

Encourage dialog on where the technology, policy and standards infrastructure needs to go in the future

Provide an opportunity for networking and discussion

Provide input to a closing panel discussion on the “way forward” for web-based web based modeling and simulation. The demonstrations and discussion from Demo Day will be captured and provided to conference attendees on digital media.

Demo Day Agenda:

8:30 AM – 11:00 AM Presenters provide live demonstrations of web-based web based modeling and simulation capabilities, along with supporting infrastructure. Presenters are to will be selected by the WebSim program committee.

1:00 PM – 2:00 PM Presenters will be available individually to demonstrate their capabilities, and to address questions by attendees.

2:30 PM – 4:00 PM Panel discussion on major obstacles and opportunities for web based Modeling and Simulation. The panel will be comprised of all presenters from the morning session.

Individuals wishing to individually demonstrate their capabilities must pay a table top fee of $800, which will include 2 admissions to the Workshop. Exhibiters will be assessed a $200 fee for each additional person. Network access will be provided free of charge .

Workshop Format

The entire event will comprise 4 days, the first of which will be a series of tutorials on topics related to the technologies of the members of the WebSim Partnership. Specific topics to be presented will be announced at a later date. The remainder of the workshop will include both refereed and invited presentations that will be published on the WebSim Partnership web site ( http://www.websim.net). In line with the previous workshop there will be substantial time allocated for discussions as part of the panel sessions. Thursday will be dedicated to the WebSim Demo Day as noted above.

Abstract and Presentation Submissions

Presentations for the 2nd Annual WebSim Workshop will be selected on the basis of evaluations of an abstract (of no more than 600 words) of each proposed presentation. Each abstract will be evaluated by the Program Committee for technical content, originality, and significance to the web enabled M&S environment. The Program Committee will then invite the authors of those selected to provide their presentations, which must be publishable by the WebSim Partnership. All presentations will be included in the workshop proceedings and will be the basis of a paper summarizing the results of the workshop and detailing the next steps for the WebSim Partnership, which will be published on the WebSim web site.

Abstracts will be reviewed by at least 3 experts and should be submitted in PDF or DOC format to WebSim_2004_Abstracts@websim.net. Accepted presentations and author biographical information with respect to the authors must be provided prior to the workshop (see dates below) in PowerPoint format at an email address to be provided at the time of notification of acceptance.

Proposals for the WebSim Demo Day should also be submitted ed in either PDF or DOC format to WebSim_2004_Abstracts@websim.net and include:

A description of the capabilities to be demonstrated 
Demonstration connectivity requirements 
Your biographical summary 
Presentation audio/visual requirements. 
Dates
Abstract submission: 
 Friday, July 16, 2004
 
Abstract notification: 
 Monday, August 2, 2004
 
Proposals for Demo Day: 
 Friday, July 30, 2004
 
Demo Day notification of acceptance: 
 Monday, August 30, 2004
 
Final Presentation Submissions: 
 Monday, September 10, 2004
 

Organizing & Program Committees
General Chair: Kevin Loughry, OMG, kevin@omg.org 

Program Chair: Katherine L. Morse, SAIC, morsek@saic.com

Organizing Committee
Johnny Garcia, General Dynamics AIS, john.garcia@gd-ais.com
Sharon Hardy, Gray Research, Sharon.Hardy@gray-research.com
Charles Heazel, Lockheed-Martin, cmheazel@earthlink.net
Katherine L. Morse, SAIC, morsek@saic.com
Shel Sutton, MITRE, shel@mitre.org

Program Committee 
Don Brutzman, NPS MOVES Institute, brutzman@nps.edu
Johnny Garcia, General Dynamics AIS, john.garcia@gd-ais.com
Sharon Hardy, Gray Research, Sharon.Hardy@gray-research.com
Charles Heazel, Lockheed-Martin, cmheazel@earthlink.net
John Holmes, Qinetiq, jeholmes@qinetiq.com
Kevin Loughry, OMG, kevin@omg.org
Shel Sutton, MITRE, shel@mitre.org
Andreas Tolk, VMASC, atolk@odu.edu
Fred Waskiewicz, OMG, wask@omg.org

About the WebSim Partners:

The Object Management Group (OMG) is an open membership, not-for-profit consortium that produces and maintains computer industry specifications for interoperable enterprise applications.

OGC is an international voluntary consensus standards organization of more than 250 companies, government agencies and universities participating in a consensus process to develop publicly available geoprocessing interface specifications. OpenGIS Specifications support interoperable solutions that "geo-enable" the Web, wireless and location-based services, and mainstream IT.

The Simulation Interoperability Standards Organization (SISO) focuses on facilitating simulation interoperability and component reuse across the DoD, other government, and non-government applications.

The Web3D Consortium is a member-funded, not-for-profit industry consortium committed to the creation and deployment of open, royalty-free standards that enable the communication of real-time 3D across applications, networks, and XML web services.

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About The OMG

With well-established standards covering software from design and development, through deployment and maintenance, and extending to evolution to future platforms, the Object Management Group (OMG) supports a full-lifecycle approach to enterprise integration which maximizes ROI, the key to successful IT. OMG's standards cover multiple operating systems, programming languages, middleware and networking infrastructures, and software development environments. OMG's Modeling standards, the basis for the MDA, include the Unified Modeling Language (UML) and Common Warehouse Metamodel (CWM). CORBA, the Common Object Request Broker Architecture, is OMG's standard open platform with hundreds of millions of deployments running today.

Headquartered in Needham, MA, USA, with a U.S. government representative in Washington, DC, and international marketing representatives in Japan, the UK, and Germany, the Object Management Group is an international, open membership, not-for-profit computer industry specifications consortium. OMG member companies write, adopt, and maintain the organization's standards following a mature, open process. All current OMG specifications may be downloaded without charge from the organization's website, www.omg.org; the site also provides additional information about OMG and its activities. For information on joining the OMG, or questions not addressed on the website, please contact OMG headquarters by email at info@omg.org, by phone at +1-781-444 0404, or by fax at +1-781-444 0320.

 Open GIS Consortium, Inc.
     Mark E. Reichardt, 301-840-1361
     mreichardt@opengis.org
     or
     Object Management Group
     Nancy Lenehan, 781-444 0404 ext. 142
     pr@omg.org