Conceptual modeling is fundamental to any domain where one must cope with complex real-world situations and systems because it fosters communication - tween technology experts and those who would bene?t from the application of those technologies. Conceptual modeling is the key mechanism for und- standing and representing the domains of information system and database - gineering but also increasingly for other domains including the new “virtual” e-environmentsandtheinformationsystemsthatsupportthem.Theimportance of conceptual modeling in software engineering is evidenced by recent interest in “model-drivenarchitecture”and“extremenon-programming”.Conceptualm- eling also plays a prominent rolein various technical disciplines and in the social sciences. The Annual International Conference on Conceptual Modeling (referred to as the ER Conference) provides a central forum for presenting and discussing current research and applications in which conceptual modeling is the major emphasis. In keeping with this tradition, ER 2005, the 24th ER Conference, spanned the spectrum of conceptual modeling including research and practice in areas such as theories of concepts and ontologies underlying conceptual m- eling, methods and tools for developing and communicating conceptual models, and techniques for transforming conceptual models into e?ective (information) system implementations. Moreover, new areas of conceptual modeling incl- ing Semantic Web services and the interdependencies of conceptual modeling with knowledge-based, logical and linguistic theories and approaches were also addressed.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 25th International Conference on Conceptual Modeling, ER 2006, held in Tucson, AZ, USA in November 2006. The 37 revised full papers presented together with two keynote talks, two panel session papers, six industrial papers, and five demo/posters papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 158 submissions.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 26th International Conference on Conceptual Modeling, ER 2007. Coverage in the papers includes data warehousing and data mining, design methodologies and tools, information and database integration, information modeling concepts and ontologies, integrity constraints, logical foundations of conceptual modeling, patterns and conceptual meta-modeling, semi-structured data and XML, as well as Web information systems and XML.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 29th International Conference on Conceptual Modeling, ER 2010, held in Vancouver, BC, Canada, in November 2010. The 32 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 147 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on business process modeling; requirements engineering and modeling 1; requirements engineering and modeling 2; data evolution and adaptation; operations on spatio-temporal data; demos and posters; model abstraction, feature modeling, and filtering; integration and composition; consistency, satisfiability and compliance checking; using ontologies for query answering; and document and query processing.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 27th International Conference on Conceptual Modeling, ER 2008, held in Barcelona, Spain, in October 2008. The 33 revised full papers presented together with 18 demo papers were carefully reviewed and selected from 178 submissions. The papers are organized in topical sections on novel semantics; ontology; patterns; privacy, compliance, location; process management and design; process models; queries; similarity and coherence; space and time; system design; translation, transformation, and search.

Business Information Systems: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools and Applications offers a complete view of current business information systems within organizations and the advancements that technology has provided to the business community. This four-volume reference uncovers how technological advancements have revolutionized financial transactions, management infrastructure, and knowledge workers.

We are pleased to present the proceedings of the workshops held in conjunction with ER 2005, the 24th International Conference on Conceptual Modeling. The objective of these workshops was to extend the spectrum of the main conferencebygivingparticipantsanopportunitytopresentanddiscussemerging hot topics related to conceptual modeling and to add new perspectives to this key mechanism for understanding and representing organizations, including the new “virtual” e-environments and the information systems that support them. To meet this objective, we selected 5 workshops: – AOIS 2005: 7th International Bi-conference Workshop on Agent-Oriented Information Systems – BP-UML 2005: 1st International Workshop on Best Practices of UML – CoMoGIS 2005: 2nd International Workshop on Conceptual Modeling for Geographic Information Systems – eCOMO 2005: 6th International Workshop on Conceptual Modeling - proaches for E-business – QoIS 2005: 1st International Workshop on Quality of Information Systems These 5 workshops attracted 18, 27, 31, 9, and 17 papers, respectively. F- lowing the ER workshopphilosophy, program committees selected contributions on the basis of strong peer reviews in order to maintain a high standard for accepted papers. The committees accepted 8, 9, 12, 4, and 7 papers, for acc- tance ratesof 44%,33%,39%,44%, and 41%,respectively. In total, 40 workshop papers were selected out of 102 submissions with a weighted averageacceptance rate of 40%.

Conceptual modeling represents a recent approach to creating knowledge. It has emerged in response to the computer revolution, which started in the middle of the 20th century. Computers, in the meantime, have become a major knowledge media. Conceptual modeling provides an answer to the difficulties experienced throughout the development of computer applications and aims at creating effective, reasonably priced, and sharable knowledge about using computers in business. Moreover, it has become evident that conceptual modeling has the potential to exceed the boundaries of business and computer usage. This state-of-the-art survey originates from the International Seminar on the Evolution of Conceptual Modeling, held in Dagstuhl Castle, Germany, in April 2008. The major objective of this seminar was to look into conceptual modeling from a historical perspective with a view towards the future of conceptual modeling and to achieve a better understanding of conceptual modeling issues in several different domains of discourse, going beyond individual (modeling) projects. The book contains 14 chapters. These were carefully selected during two rounds of reviewing and improvement from 26 presentations at the seminar and are preceded by a detailed preface providing general insights into the field of conceptual modeling that are not necessarily discussed in any of the chapters but nevertheless aid in conceptualizing the inner structure and coherence of the field. The chapters are grouped into the following three thematic sections: the evolution of conceptual modeling techniques; the extension of conceptual modeling to a service-oriented, peer-to-peer, or Web context; and new directions for conceptual modeling.

This book constitutes the refereed joint proceedings of seven international workshops held in conjunction with the 25th International Conference on Conceptual Modeling, ER 2006, in Tucson, AZ, USA in November 2006. The 39 revised full papers presented together with the outlines of three tutorials were carefully reviewed and selected from 95 submissions.

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.