Call for Papers
---------------

Dear all,

The first KISS workshop on "fundamental principles for designing DSLs and
interoperability between DSL tools" was held last month at ASWEC on the Gold
Coast in Australia.

With 10 attendees the workshop had the flavour of an intimate working session,
and there was ample opportunity to talk about specific practical issues that
affect those trying to achieve interoperability within tool chains in model
driven software environments. The best way to obtain an overview of the topics
of discussion is to take a look at the working documents that are now published
on the KISS web site (http://www.industrialized-software.org/kiss-initiative).

I particularly liked the presentation by James Steel and Robin Drogemuller on
Building Information Modelling and the IFC standard. If you ever have the need
to refer to a practical example of non-UML-based modelling languages that are
widely used across an entire industry, the IFC standard is worthwhile refering
to. Of course it also provides further evidence of the typical problems
encountered when attempting to develop industry standards, and evidence of the
timeliness for reaching agreement on a set of fundamental principles for
modelling language design
(http://www.industrialized-software.org/fundamental-principles-for-modeling-lang\
uage-design), such that the most costly and time consuming interoperability
problems can be avoided.

Please note that there will be further KISS workshops and related events every
few months, and that the results presented to date will be updated based on the
results of further discussion and practical work. For example, Sofismo is
currently implementing the open source Gmodel meta modelling language that I
proposed at ASWEC, and the related specification on the KISS web site is being
updated in tandem with the implementation. Practical demonstrations of Gmodel
and related interoperability tooling are planned for further KISS workshops.

I'd like to invite you to submit a position paper (2 to 13 pages) and to attend
the upcoming workshops at

1. Code Generation 2009 in Cambridge
(workshop 16. June, submission deadline 30. May)
http://www.industrialized-software.org/kiss-cg-2009

2. Automated Software Engineering in Auckland
(16. or 17. November, submission deadline 31. July)
http://www.industrialized-software.org/kiss-ase-2009.

3. Further venues to be confirmed
(Q4 2009 and Q1/Q2 2010)
http://www.industrialized-software.org/kiss-initiative

In contrast to yearly events, the KISS workshops are intended as working
sessions that are used to iteratively present work in progress, and to
incorporate the feedback received in practical implementations that conform to
KISS values and fundamental principles.

Lastly, please don't forget disseminating information about the planned KISS
workshops to your colleagues. A formal CfP for dissemination within your
organization is attached below.

Best regards,

-- Jorn

Jorn Bettin
www.sofismo.ch - Software is Models!
Saegestrasse 50, 5600 Lenzburg, Switzerland

---------------
Call for Papers
---------------

KISS Workshop on Fundamental Aspects of DSL Interoperability

Cambridge, United Kingdom, 16 June 2009 @ Code Generation 2009
http://www.industrialized-software.org/kiss-cg-2009

Auckland, New Zealand, 16 or 17 November 2009 @ ASE 2009
http://www.industrialized-software.org/kiss-ase-2009


Background and Aims
-------------------

The main motivation for the use of a DSL is the desire to express
problems in a compact form that reflects the natural terminology
of human domain experts, and that is easily accessible to software
tools. In short, DSLs are raising the level of abstraction of
software specifications and of knowledge representation in general.
When DSLs are used to formalize the results of domain analysis,
the result is a clean separation of concerns in the problem space.
The value of a DSL increases with the intuitiveness of the concrete
syntax. Visual and graphical elements may be needed to increase
usability, and often such languages are referred to as domain
specific modelling languages (DSML).

The level of interoperability between current DSL tools is
comparable to the level of interoperability between CASE tools
in the 90s. To increase the popularity of DSL based approaches,
this needs to change. With the extensive use of outsourcing and
with the increasing investment in open-source software, software
development has become highly decentralized, and an assumption
that all parties in a global software supply chain will use
identical tooling is simply not realistic. As a result today's
software supply chains are much less automated than supply chains
in other, more mature industries.

In order to increase awareness about the role that domain specific
modeling languages can play in capturing, preserving, and exploiting
knowledge in virtually all industries, it is necessary to establish
a strong consensus on the fundamental values and principles that
underpin the use of domain specific modeling languages.

KISS aims to provide guidelines to support the use of domain specific
methods and technologies in industry. In particular, KISS will
support the construction of tool-chains that are built by third
parties using components consisting of a mixture of commercial and
open-source DSL tools.

The KISS series of conference workshops and related events is used
to incrementally create a consensus that can be expressed in a form
similar to the agile manifesto and the fundamental agile principles.

Objectives
----------

1. To achieve a strong consensus on fundamental values and principles
for designing and using Domain Specific Languages.

2. To progress towards interoperability between DSL tools through the
use of open-source technologies.

Topics of Interest
------------------

* Fundamental values and principles for designing and using domain
specific modeling languages (DSMLs).

* Classification of the different kinds of DSML tool components, and
the artefacts created and exchanged between DSML tool components.

* Descriptions of existing or planned industrial projects that
illustrate the need for improved DSML tool interoperability.

* Evaluations of existing meta-meta model implementations, comparisons
of meta-meta model implementations, and proposals of new meta-meta
models that are conducive for improving DSML tool interoperability.

* Proposals for useful levels of DSML tool interoperability.

* Case studies of attempts (successful or not) to increase
interoperability between two or more DSML tools.

* Concrete tool interoperability requirements from organizations that
use DSMLs.

* Building an open community that owns interoperability standards for
DSML tools.

* Approaches that can be used for practical certification of tools
with respect to interoperability levels.

Important Dates
---------------

See schedules published on the workshop web pages
http://www.industrialized-software.org/kiss-cg-2009
http://www.industrialized-software.org/kiss-ase-2009
http://www.industrialized-software.org/kiss-initiative

Submission Guidelines
---------------

The workshop accepts two types of submissions within the aims and
scope of KISS: reflective and proposals. A reflective submission
describes research or experience within the topics of interest
of the workshop. A proposal submission describes an approach or a
framework that the authors claim will contribute to the overall
objectives of KISS.

* For both types of papers, the length of the paper should be at
least 2 pages and should not exceed 13 pages using the correct
style (including references and appendices).

* The first page should begin with the title of the paper, author
names (contact author underlined), affiliations, and e-mail
addresses, followed by an abstract of no more than 150 words.

* In order to be considered for publication authors should use the
Springer format: follow the instructions at
http://www.springer.de/comp/lncs/authors.html ).

* Position papers may be submitted after the deadline and will be
circulated as input to the workshop. Papers submitted after the
deadline cannot be considered for publication in the workshop
proceedings.

Please mail your submission to Jorn Bettin (jbe at sofismo dot ch).

Publication
-----------

Accepted papers in the correct format will be published in the
workshop proceedings which will be distributed on registration.
The organizers are investigating the publication of the best papers
in a special issue of a suitable journal.

Workshop Organizers
-------------------

See the list of organizers for specific events on the KISS web site
http://www.industrialized-software.org/kiss-cg-2009
http://www.industrialized-software.org/kiss-ase-2009
http://www.industrialized-software.org/kiss-initiative

International Programme Committee (Provisional)
------------------------------

* Jorn Bettin, Sofismo, Switzerland.
* Tony Clark, Thames Valley University, UK.
* Craig Cleaveland, Whitebirch Software, United States.
* William Cook, University of Texas Austin, United States.
* Mark Dalgarno, Software Acumen, United Kingdom.
* Keith Duddy, Smart Services CRC, Australia.
* Jack Greenfield, Microsoft, United States.
* John Hosking, University of Auckland, New Zealand.
* Pavel Hruby, CSC , Denmark.
* Steven Kelly, MetaCase, Finland.
* Anneke Kleppe, Capgemini, The Netherlands
* Richard Paige, University of York, UK.
* Derek Roos, Mendex, The Netherlands.
* Bran Selic, Malina Software, Canada.
* Shane Sendall, Snowie Group, Switzerland.
* Peer Törngren, IBM, Sweden.
* Laurence Tratt, Bournemouth University, UK.
* Jim van Dam, HiPeS, The Netherlands.
* Markus Völter, independent consultant, Germany.
* Jos Warmer, Ordina, The Netherlands.
* James Willans, Independent Consultant, UK.