DAI-List Digest Wednesday, 7 October 1992 Issue Number 94 Topics: CFP for Social Science Perspectives on Information Systems CFP for Simulating Societies '93 New Book Available - Decentralized Artificial Intelligence 3 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. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Date: Mon, 5 Oct 92 00:21:59 -0500 From: Rob Kling Subject: CFP for Social Science Perspectives on Information Systems Call for Papers SOCIAL SCIENCE PERSPECTIVES ON INFORMATION SYSTEMS A Special Issue of The ACM Transactions on Information Systems (TOIS) The ACM Transactions on Information Systems (TOIS) announces a Special Issue devoted to the applications of theories and methods of the social sciences to understand the development, social organization, role, and impacts of information systems in organizations. Possible topics include studies of the social processes of implementing large scale information systems, the relationship of information systems developments to changes in organizational strategy, the role of information systems in changing the organization of work, the ways that information systems fit or help change organizational cultures, and the social dynamics of groups that develop or use information systems. Empirical studies which carefully examine key social processes that influence the nature or impacts information systems are of particular interest, whether they use qualitative or quantitative data. Theoretical papers can also be appropriate if they carefully use empirical materials to help illustrate and explain the value of the theoretical position which is advanced. Authors should take special care in indicating the ways that their papers help advance the research frontiers. The special issue editor will be particularly sympathetic to papers that develop new empirical or theoretical directions, as long as the rationale for and value of the innovations is well developed. The TOIS editors consider information systems to be a label with broad meanings, and includes: electronic mail, books, libraries, classrooms, museums, decision and meeting support systems, and entertainment systems, as well as more traditional transaction processing systems and networks of such systems. The editor for this special issue is Professor Rob Kling Department of Information and Computer Science University of California, Irvine Irvine, Ca 92717 714-856-5955 kling@ics.uci.edu The special issue will be published in July 1994. In order to allow adequate time for review, revisions, and publication, five copies of each paper must be submitted by February 26, 1993 to: Dr. Robert B. Allen Editor in Chief, TOIS Room 2A-367 Bell Communications Research, Inc. 445 South Street Morristown NJ 07960-1910 [201/829-4315 rba@bellcore.com] Please see the July 1990 issue of TOIS for guidelines about format. High quality papers that are submitted or revised late, or whose focus does not fit this special issue, might be accepted for publication in subsequent issues of TOIS. Papers will be reviewed as soon as they are received. Since some papers might require revision before final acceptance, time is being allowed for revision and re-review of promising papers. It would be advantageous for authors to submit papers as soon as possible to allow adequate time for reviews and possible revisions. Questions about the scope of the special issue should be directed to Professor Rob Kling. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ From: Doran J E Date: Tue, 6 Oct 92 09:19:49 BST Subject: CFP for Simulating Societies '93 Call for papers and participation for Simulating Societies '93 24-26 July 1993 Approaches to Simulating Social Phenomena and Social Processes Although the value of simulating complex phenomena in order to come to a better understanding of their nature is well recognised, it is still rare for simulation to be used to understand social processes. This symposium is intended to present original research, review current ideas, compare alternative approaches and suggest directions for future work on the simulation of social processes. It follows the first symposium held in April 1992 at the University of Surrey, UK. It is expected that about a dozen papers will be presented to the symposium and that revised versions will be published as a book. We are now seeking proposals for papers and for participation. Contributions from a range of disciplines, including sociology, anthropology, archaeology, ethology, artificial intelligence, and artificial life, are very welcome. Papers on the following and related topics are invited: * Discussions of approaches to the simulation of social processes such as those based on distributed artificial intelligence, genetic algorithms and neural networks, nonlinear systems, general purpose stochastic simulation systems, etc. * Accounts of specific simulations of processes and phenomena, at a macro or micro level. * Critical reviews of existing work that has involved the simulation of social processes. * Reviews of simulation work in archeology, economics, psychology, geography, demography, etc. with lessons for the simulation of social processes. * Arguments for or against simulation as an approach to understanding complex social processes. * Simulations of human, animal and 'possible' societies. 'Social process' may be interpreted widely to include, for example, the rise and fall of nation states, the behaviour of households, the evolution of animal societies, and social interaction. Registration, accommodation and subsistence expenses during the meeting will be met by the sponsors. Participants will need to find their own travel expenses. Proposals for papers are initially invited in the form of an abstract of no more than 300 words. Abstracts should be sent, along with a brief statement of research interests, to the address below by 15th March 1993. Authors of those selected will be invited to submit full papers by 1st June 1993. Those interested in participating, but not wishing to present a paper, should send a letter indicating the contribution they could make to the symposium, also by 15th March 1993. The organisers of the Symposium are Cristiano Castelfranchi (IP-CNR and University of Siena, Italy), Jim Doran (University of Essex, UK), Nigel Gilbert (University of Surrey, UK), and Domenico Parisi (IP- CNR, Roma, Italy). The symposium is sponsored by the University of Siena (Corso di laurea in Scienze della Comunicazione), the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (Istituto di Psicologia, Roma) and the University of Surrey. The meeting will be held at Certosa di Pontignano near Siena, Italy, a conference centre on the site of a 1400AD monastery. Proposals should be sent to: Prof Nigel Gilbert, Department of Sociology, University of Surrey, Guildford GU2 5XH, United Kingdom Tel: +44 (0)483 509173 Fax: +44 (0)483 306290 Email: gng@soc.surrey.ac.uk ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Date: Wed, 7 Oct 92 10:16:16 +0100 From: demazeau@leda.imag.fr (Yves Demazeau) Subject: Decentralized Artificial Intelligence 3 The papers presented at the 3rd European Workshop on Modelling Autonomous Agents in a Multi-Agent World have been revised, collected and structured in the following volume: DECENTRALIZED ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE 3, Werner, E. & Demazeau, Y., eds. North-Holland, 1992 ISBN 0-444-89661-9 CONTENTS Foreword Introduction "The Design of Multi-Agent Systems" E. Werner Communication "SANP: A Communication Level Protocol for Negotiations" M. Chang & C. Woo Psychology of Agent Plans and Intentions "Social Plans: a Preliminary Report" A. Rao, M. Georgeff & E. Sonenberg "Cooperative Problem-Solving Guided by Intentions and Perception" B. Burmeister, Kurt Sundermeyer "On Being Responsible" N. Jennings "A Model for Belief Revision in a Multi-Agent Environment" A. Dragoni Agent Psychlogy of Evaluations "Towards a Semantics of Desires" G. Kiss & H. Reichgelt "A Game Theoretic Approach to DAI and the Pursuit Problem" R. Levy and S. Rosenschein "The Role of Representation in Interaction: Discovering Focal Points Among Alternative Solutions" S. Kraus & J. Rosenschein Multi-Agent Organization "Collaborative Plan Construction for MultiAgent Mutual Planning" E. Osawa & M. Tokoro "Conversation for Organizational Activity" C. Numaoka "Boundaries, Identity, and Agreggation: Plurality Issues in Multi-Agent Systems" L. Gasser "Dependence Relations among Autonomous Agents" C. Castelfranchi, M. Miceli & A. Cesta Reactive and Deliberative Agents "Variable Coupling of Agents to their Environment: Combining Situated and Symbolic Automata" G. Kiss "Toward an Architecture for Adaptative, Rational, Mobiel Agents I. Ferguson "How to Move (Physically Speaking) in a Multi-Agent World" J.-C. Latombe Emergent and Real-Time Systems "Eco-Problem Solving Model: Results of the N-Puzzle" A. Drogoul & C. Dubreuil "Exploiting Emergent Behaviour in Multi-Agent Systems" P. Wavish "A DAI View on General Purpose Vision Systems" O. Boissier & Y. Demazeau "A Multi-Agent Analogical Representation for Physical Objects" L. Gambardella & M. Haex "Real-Time Performance of Intelligent Autonomous Agents" A. Collinot & B. Hayes-Roth