DAI-List Digest Friday, 6 March 1992 Issue Number 71 Topics: CFP for GWAI'92 Workshop on Supporting Collaborative Work CFP for Workshop on Information Technologies and Systems Workshop on Mathematical Organization Theory CFP for Workshop on Application Aspects of DAI at ECAI92 CFP for Minitrack on Blackboard Architectures and Applications Please send submissions to DAI-List@mcc.com. Send other requests, such as changes in your e-mail address, to DAI-List-Request@mcc.com. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ From: Donald Steiner Subject: GWAI'92 Workshop Date: Thu, 27 Feb 92 13:28:50 GMT Stefan Kirn and I would like to announce the following GWAI'92 Workshop, of potential interest to the DAI, CSCW, and HCI communities. Supporting Collaborative Work Between Human Experts and Intelligent Cooperative Information Systems Stefan Kirn Donald Steiner FernUniversitaet Hagen Siemens AG Praktische Informatik I c/o DFKI Postfach 940 Postfach 2080 D-5800 Hagen-1 D-6750 Kaiserslautern Germany Germany Kirn@fernuni-hagen.de steiner@dfki.uni-kl.de Future generations of information processing systems will involve large numbers of "agents" with significant intelligence being distributed over large computer / communications networks. In such environments, tasks will be defined by one or more agents, and will be executed by groups of problem solvers acting autonomously, cooperatively, or collaboratively, depending upon the requirements of the problem under consideration. This perspective includes a need to efficiently and transparently use all computing resources (e.g., processing, knowledge, and data) that are available over a network. We call these systems "Intelligent Cooperative Information Systems" (ICIS). Much research is already being conducted in the fields of Distributed / Federated Databases, Artificial Intelligence, and Distributed AI on the one hand, and in the areas of Office Information Systems, Distributed Decision Support, and CSCW on the other. However, with regard to collaboration between human experts and ICISs, some important shortcomings must be recognized. We still lack the capabilities to effectively support human experts working together with ICISs. We do not even clearly know what the requirements are, in order to support interaction of experts with ICISs! Relevant topics of interest in these considerations are: - Explanation facilities helping humans understand network-wide processes of cooperative problem solving - Tools and techniques enabling users to "discover" useful knowledge provided by remote knowledge based systems - Facilities reducing the restrictions arising from the a priori autonomy (e.g., in design and implementation) of the agents being integrated in an ICIS - Coordination mechanisms discovering / avoiding harmful interdependencies between the interactions among different (a priori independent) ICIS users or between a user-ICIS dialog and the ICIS-internal cooperative problem solving - Architectures of (intelligent) human-computer-interfaces to ICIS On the other hand, investigations are required into limitations that the special characteristics of ICIS impose upon user-ICIS collaboration. Some important topics in this area are: - Possibilities / limitations of distributed knowledge base updates - Control of user access to (parts of) knowledge bases (access rights, concurrency control, etc.) - Interfaces to knowledge bases providing remote users / other software agents with facilities for evaluating the contents of the local knowledge base (independent from the standard interface to the local system) - Handling / scheduling of a user's dialog with remote knowledge based systems made necessary by the interactive style of problem solving used by an agent working on the user's request We would like to address the above mentioned issues in a workshop to take place as part of the "German Workshop on AI'92" (GWAI'92), to be held from August 31 - September 4, 1992, in Bonn, Germany. Participants of the workshop will present current research work in the relevant areas. Further, during the workshop we would like the participants to target a specific problem (to be circulated preceding the workshop) and analyse it with regard to a view towards its solutions. The results of the workshop will then be made available to the AI, HCI, and CSCW communities. Participation in the workshop will be by invitation (based on submission of papers to the program committee). Pre-proceedings will be available at the workshop. Depending on the quality of submissions, a subsequent book publication is intended. Unpublished full papers (up to 5000 words / 10 pages) are invited that address the topics listed above (related subjects may be addressed as well). Theoretical, empirical and applied research will be considered. Papers are to be submitted by June 15th, 1992 (email preferred). Each paper will be considered by at least two referees. Notification of acceptance will occur by July, 15th. To be included in the pre-proceedings, the final version (incorporating reviewer feedback) should be received by August 15th, 1992. The workshop will take place as part of GWAI'92 from August 31 - September 4, 1992 in Bonn, Germany. Submissions of papers as well as any further communications should be directed to the contact person, Dr. Stefan Kirn, at Dr. Stefan Kirn FernUniversitaet Hagen Praktische Informatik I Postfach 940 D-5800 Hagen-1 Tel: +49 2331 987 2726 (Kirn) +49 2331 987 311 (secretary) Fax: +49 2331 987 314 email: kirn@fernuni-hagen.de ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Date: Sat, 29 Feb 92 10:22:28 -0600 From: abw@emx.utexas.edu (Andrew B. Whinston) Subject: WITS 92 CALL FOR PAPERS 2nd Workshop on Information Technologies and Systems (WITS'92) Improving Organization Productivity Through Information Systems Technology The 2nd Workshop on Information Technologies and Systems (WITS'92) will be held in Dallas, Texas, 12-13 December 1992. The purpose of the workshop is to promote discussion and interaction among members of the Information Systems community with research interests in developing cutting-edge information technologies and systems. We are particularly interested in exchanging research ideas and results which will, not only contribute to the academic research frontier, but also benefit the business community in the foreseeable future. TOPICS We solicit papers describing original ideas and new results on the foundations of information technologies and their applications. The papers should address the problems of theory, development, and deployment of information technologies and systems. Suggested topics include, but are not limited to: Database and Knowledge-based Systems; Data Management; Collaborative and Group Systems; Heterogeneous Database Systems; Interoperability of data and knowledge bases; Object-Oriented Systems; Office Automation Systems; User Interface tools. CO-CHAIRPERSONS Veda C. Storey Andrew Whinston Wm.E. Simon Graduate School Dept. of Management Science & IS of Business Administration University Texas at Austin University of Rochester CBA5.202 Rochester, NY 14627 Austin, Texas 78712-1175 INSTRUCTIONS Authors are invited to submit an abstract limited to ten pages, double-spaced. The abstracts should be submitted, via e-mail, by 1 August 1992 to the following address: wits@emx.utexas.edu. Selection for publication in the proceedings and presentation at the conference will be based on originality and contribution to the field. The authors of selected abstracts will be invited to submit a full paper paper following the workshop for editing and future publication. PROGRAM COMMITTEE Terence Barron, U. of Rochester Hemant Bhargava, Naval Postgraduate Sch Chee Ching, Arizona State James Clifford, New York Uni. Ivan Darius, Sematech/Texas Instruments Prabuddha De, U. of Dayton James Courtney, Texas A&M Wen-Ling Hsu, Siemens Research Michael Mannino, U. of Washington Levent Orman, Cornell Uni. Peng-Si Ow, IBM Corp. Michael Prietula, Carnegie Mellon Uni. Franz Joseph Radermacher, FAW-Ulm Sudha Ram, U. of Arizona Carlos Scheel, Monterey Inst. of Tech. Olivia Sheng, U. of Arizona Kar Yan Tam, Hong Kong U. of Sc.& Tech. Mohan Tanniru, Syracuse Uni. Richard Wang, M.I.T. Carson Woo, U. of British Columbia IMPORTANT DATES Deadline for submission: 1 August 1992 Notification of acceptance: 1 October 1992 Camera-Ready Copy Due: 1 November 1992 Conference: 12-13 December 1992 Location: Hyatt Regency Hotel, Dallas, Texas ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Date: Sat, 29 Feb 1992 12:52:34 -0500 (EST) From: Michael Prietula Subject: WORKSHOP NOTICE... TIMS College on Organizations is sponsoring a Workshop on Mathematical Organization Theory April 25-26, 1992 Marriott Orlando World Center PURPOSE You are invited to participate in the Workshop on Mathematical Organization Theory. The purpose is twofold: first, to present the latest developments in both mathematical and computational organization theory, and second, to critique the contribution of mathematical and computational models to organization theory and explore its future. RATIONALE A fundamental perspective for the multiperson organization has been characterized on the principles of bounded rationality and satisficing. Recent advances in cognitive science, for example, have provided us with richer and more precise models of intelligent agents. Organizational theorists now have the opportunity to combine these models with more traditional models of organizations to address such issues as coordination, negotiation, organizational design, organizational communication, and organizational learning. The purpose of the workshop is to explore these opportunities. Focal topics for discussion at this workshop include: ~ models of organizational design ~ models of situated/social cognition ~ extra-cognitive issues (e.g., emotion, power) ~ coordination theory ~ models of organizational learning/unlearning ~ cognitive-social networks ~ cognitive models of organizations ~ distributed artificial intelligence ARRANGEMENTS The Workshop will be held on Saturday (April 25, 1992) from 8:30am to 6pm, and on Sunday (April 26, 1992) from 8:30am to 1pm at the Marriott Orlando World Center (1-800-228-9290). Coffee and a continental breakfast will be served on both days. REGISTRATION The registration fee for the Workshop is $60.00. To register, please use the registration form for the TIMS/ORSA meeting in Orlando. The form will be published in the OR/MS TODAY and in the meeting bulletin. Payment for the Workshop should be included with your registration fee for the joint national meeting. In order to prepare a description of participants' interests, please submit a 1-2 page abstract (e-mail preferred) of your research by April 1, 1992 to one of the Workshop organizers: Professor Kathleen M. Carley Social and Decision Sciences Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, PA 15213 kathleen.carley@centro.soar.cs.cmu.edu FAX: 412-268-6938 Professor Michael J. Prietula Center for the Management of Technology Graduate School of Industrial Administration Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, PA 15213 mp2j+@andrew.cmu.edu FAX: 412-268-6837 PRESENTERS AND DISCUSSANTS: 1. Richard Burton (Duke University) 2. Panagiotis Kouvelis (Duke University) 3. Arie Lewin (Duke University) 4. Bernardo Huberman (Xerox PARC) 5. Les Gasser (University of Southern California) 6. Kevin Crowston (University of Michigan) 7. Theresa Lant (New York University) 8. Michael Masuch (University of Amsterdam) 9. Raimo Hamalainen (Helsinki University of Technology 10. Eduardo Salas (Naval Training Systems Center) 11. Benn Konsynski (Harvard Business School/Emory University) 12. Al Wallace (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute) 13. Massimo Warglien (Universita Degli Studi di Venezia, Italy) 14. David Kleinman (University of Connecticut) 15. Dave Krackhardt (Carnegie Mellon University) 16. Shyam Sunder (Carnegie Mellon University) 17. Linda Argote (Carnegie Mellon University) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Date: Tue, 3 Mar 1992 09:42 CET From: THIES WITTIG ATLAS ELEKTRONIK GMBH Subject: DAI Workshop at ECAI92 Workshop on: Application Aspects of Distributed Artificial Intelligence at the 10th European Conference on Artificial Intelligence Vienna, 4 August 1992 Call for Participation Workshop Organ- Distributed Artificial Intelligence (DAI) is izer: increasingly receiving attention not only from AI researchers but also from applications. T. Wittig However, a number of key issues in this field Atlas Elektro- are still under strong discussion amongst nik researchers. To enable a real break-through Sebaldsbruecker into applications, a consensus on these issues Heerstr 235 is important. A pragmatic way to attempt this D-2800 Bremen is by investigating applications or application 44 areas and to abstract the derived requirements into theories and concepts. The key issues to Phone:+49-421- be discussed at this workshop are 4572465 Fax: +49-421- o Coordination and negotiation among heterogene- 4573756 ous agents, E-Mail: o Accessing and integrating knowledge and data t_wittig@euro- residing in agents, kom.ie o Architectures and implementation environments, and o Human Interaction in Multiagent Systems Programme The intention of this workshop is to achieve a Committee common understanding of these issues and iden- tify topics and directions of further research J. Ayel and development work in the field of applied Universite de MultiAgent Systems (MAS). Savoie Chambery Workshop Format Y. Demazeau This is a closed one-day workshop with partici- CNRS/IMAG/LIFIA pation by invitation only. Participants must Grenoble submit a short technical paper in the form of an extended abstract (three pages) describing L. Gasser original work on applications. A small number USC of theoretical contributions will also be Los Angeles considered. The workshop will be structured according to W. Meyer the three main issues, each with a paper pre- Technical sentation and a panel discussion. The paper University presentations will be short, concentrating on Hamburg-Harburg results and identifying problem areas as well as future directions. One characteristic appli- R. Milne cation each should be presented in more detail AI Intelligent providing the basis for a panel discussion. The Applications panel will consists of the authors of the Ltd papers presented and of members of the organiz- Livingston ing committee. Village Issues K.J. Mueller DFKI Coordination Knowledge and Cooperation Types Saarbruecken Coordination and Negotiation activities in multiagent systems should be as independent P. Raulefs of the domain of the individual agents as Intel AI Lab possible. To what extent can negotiation Santa Clara protocols and their selection be defined domain independent, what knowledge is re- K. Sundermeyer quired, and can typical 'Cooperation Types' be Daimler Benz defined ? Forschungslabor Berlin Common Knowledge Representations and Informa- tion Modeling In a heterogeneous community of agents prob- lems of exchanging (domain related) knowledge between agents arise. To what extent can a general common knowledge representation be defined and are the ongoing activities (e.g., KIF) broad enough to cope with real-life problems. Apart from exchanging knowledge, the need to access domain information across the community exists. In a heterogeneous MAS one will find quite different databases. How can these be accessed efficiently and is a global informa- tion model feasible ? Architectures and Implementation Systems Deadlines A multitude of architectures and implementa- tion systems in DAI exist, from operating Contributions system like approaches to pure language ori- must be re- ented descriptions. Can we find a taxonomy of ceived by the these approaches with respect to application organizer by areas or application requirements (e.g., in April 30. terms of response time, number of agents involved, complexity of agents, etc.) and can we expect some standard to evolve in the future ? Human Interaction in Multiagent Systems Human interaction in multiagent systems can be quite different compared to single systems: the user can also be seen as an agent working cooperatively with the others. Despite of this, the user may still want to maintain supervisory functions, as for example inspec- tion of domain data within specific agents or overriding decisions made by agents. What are the latest developments in this area and what progress has been made. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Date: Tue, 03 Mar 92 13:33:33 CDT From: Ajay Vinze Subject: Minitrack on Blackboard Architectures and Applications 26TH HAWAII INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON SYSTEM SCIENCES (HICSS-26) CALL FOR PAPERS AND REFEREES MINITRACK ON BLACKBOARD ARCHITECTURES AND APPLICATIONS POIPU BEACH, KAUAI, HAWAII - JANUARY 5-8, 1993 Objective of the Minitrack: The minitrack on Blackboard Architectures and Applications is being offered for the second time at the HICSS conference. The response to this minitrack at HICSS-25 was very positive. The purpose of the minitrack is to address the different facets of the blackboard paradigm, of particular interest are efforts in the areas of real-time systems, extensions to development environments, novel applications, and advanced architectures for such systems. Papers for this minitrack should be oriented toward either the application or the advancement of the blackboard approach. The conference proceedings are published by the IEEE Computer Society. This conference is jointly sponsored by the University of Hawaii, Pacific Research Institute for Information Systems in cooperation with the ACM and the IEEE Computer Society. A SELECT SET OF PAPERS IN THIS MINITRACK WILL BE CONSIDERED FOR INCLUSION IN THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EXPERT SYSTEMS WITH APPLICATIONS (SPECIAL ISSUE ON BLACKBOARD SYSTEMS) Instructions for Submitting Abstracts: (Abstract submission is optional) Each abstract submitted for review is limited to no more than 2 pages (1.5-spaced) or 5 e-mail screens and should provide the following information: Title, author(s), institution, telephone number, e-mail address Brief description of the research Expected contribution of the research effort Instructions for Submitting Papers: Submit 6 copies of the full paper consisting of 22-26 double-spaced word-processed pages including tables, figures, and appendices to either Ajay Vinze or Arun Sen the minitrack co-chairs. The manuscript should not be submitted to more than one HICSS mini-track, nor should it be in review for a journal. Two title pages should be submitted. The first includes the title of the paper, full name of all authors, and their complete addresses including affiliation(s), telephone numbers, e-mail addresses, and the second which contains only the title of the paper. The first page of the manuscript should include the title and a 300-word abstract of the paper. Deadlines: April 1, 1992: Abstracts submitted to the minitrack chair for indication as to appropriateness for the mini-track (OPTIONAL) April 15, 1992: Notification of abstract evaluation June 5, 1992: Full papers should be sent directly to either one of the minitrack co-chairs August 31, 1992: Notification of accepted papers will be mailed to the author October 1, 1992: Accepted manuscripts, in camera ready form, are due November 15, 1992: At least one author must register for the conference Send all correspondence to: AJAY VINZE or ARUN SEN, HICSS Minitrack Department of Business Analysis and Research College of Business Administration Texas A&M University College Station, TX 77843-4217 Telephone: (409) 845-1616 FAX: (409) 845-5653 E-mail (Bitnet): VINZE@TAMCBA or SEN@TAMCBA