Appel: International Conference on Formal Ontology in Information Systems

Wed Jan 21 17:09:52 UTC 2004

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                 **** FOIS-2004 CALL FOR PAPERS ****

   International Conference on Formal Ontology in Information Systems
                         http://www.fois.org

                 November 4-6, 2004, Torino (Italy)

Conference Description
----------------------

Just as ontology developed over the centuries as part of philosophy,
so in recent years ontology has become intertwined with the
development of the information sciences. Researchers in such areas as
artificial intelligence, formal and computational linguistics,
biomedical informatics, conceptual modeling, knowledge engineering and
information retrieval have come to realize that a solid foundation for
their research calls for serious work in ontology, understood as a
general theory of the types of entities and relations that make up
their respective domains of inquiry. In all these areas, attention has
started to focus on the content of information rather than on just the
formats and languages in terms of which information is
represented. The clearest example of this development is provided by
the many initiatives growing up around the project of the Semantic
Web. And as the need for integrating research in these different
fields arises, so does the realization that strong principles for
building well-founded ontologies might provide significant advantages
over ad hoc, case-based solutions. The tools of Formal Ontology
address precisely these needs, but a real effort is required in order
to apply such philosophical tools to the domain of Information
Systems. Reciprocally, research in the information science raises
specific ontological questions which call for further philosophical
investigations.  The purpose of FOIS is to provide a forum for genuine
interdisciplinary exchange in the spirit of a unified ontological
wanalysis effort. Although the primary focus of the conference is on
theoretical issues, methodological proposals as well as papers dealing
with concrete applications from a well-founded theoretical perspective
are welcome.

Invited Speakers
-----------------
Peter Gärdenfors, Lund University Cognitive Science, Sweden
Amie Thomasson, Department of Philosophy, University of Miami, USA

Deadlines and Further Information
---------------------------------
Abstracts: May 3, 2004
Final submissions: May 7, 2004
Acceptance Notification: June 25, 2004
Submission of camera-ready paper: July 30, 2004

Proceedings will be published by IOS Press and available at the
conference.

Submission is a two-step procedure: first abstracts, then full
papers. Submitted papers must not exceed 5000 words (including
bibliography). Abstracts should be less than 300 words. Electronic
submission via the website is strongly preferred; if unavailable,
submission via email or postal mail is possible. For details see:
http://www.fois.org or contact one of the program chairs.

Chairs
------
Conference Chair:

Nicola Guarino (ISTC-CNR, Trento, Italy) nicola.guarino at loa-cnr.it

Program Chairs:

Achille Varzi (Columbia University, New York, USA)
achille.varzi at columbia.edu

Laure Vieu (IRIT-CNRS, Toulouse, France) laure.vieu at irit.fr

Local Chairs:

Maurizio Ferraris (University of Torino, Italy) ferraris at cisi.unito.it

Leonardo Lesmo (University of Torino, Italy) lesmo at di.unito.it

Topics
------

We seek high-quality papers on a wide range of topics. While authors
may focus on fairly narrow and specific issues, all papers should
emphasize the relevance of the work described to formal ontology and
to information systems. Papers that completely ignore one or the other
of these aspects will be considered as lying outside the scope of the
meeting.

Topic areas of particular interest to the conference are:

Foundational Issues

- Kinds of entity: particulars vs. universals, continuants
vs. occurrents, abstracta vs. concreta, dependent vs. independent,
natural vs. artificial

- Formal relations: parthood, identity, connection, dependence,
constitution, subsumption, instantiation

- Vagueness and granularity

- Identity and change

- Formal comparison among ontologies

- Ontology of physical reality (matter, space, time, motion, ...)

- Ontology of biological reality (genes, proteins, cells, organisms,
...)

- Ontology of mental reality and agency (beliefs, intentions and other
mental attitudes; emotions, ...)

- Ontology of social reality (institutions, organizations, norms,
social relationships, artistic expressions, ...)

- Ontology of the information society (information, communication,
meaning negotiation, ...)

- Ontology and Natural Language Semantics, Ontology and Cognition

Methodologies and Applications

- Top-level vs. application ontologies

- Ontology integration and alignment; role of reference ontologies

- Ontology-driven information systems design

- Requirements engineering

- Knowledge engineering

- Knowledge management and organization

- Knowledge representation; Qualitative modeling

- Computational lexica; Terminology

- Information retrieval; Question-answering

- Semantic web; Web services; Grid computing

- Domain-specific ontologies, especially for: Linguistics, Geography,
Law, Library science, Biomedical science, E-business, Enterprise
integration, ...

Programme Committee (to be confirmed)
--------------------

Bill Andersen, OntologyWorks, USA

Nicholas Asher, Dept of Philosophy, University of Texas at Austin, USA

Nathalie Aussenac-Gilles, Research Institute for Computer Science,
CNRS, Toulouse, France

John Bateman, Dept of Applied English Linguistics, University of
Bremen, Germany

Brandon Bennett, Division of Artificial Intelligence, University of
Leeds, UK

Andrea Bottani, Dept of Philosophy, University of Bergamo, Italy

Joost Breuker, Dept of Computer Science & Law, University of
Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Roberto Casati, Jean Nicod Institute, CNRS, Paris, France

Werner Ceusters, Language & Computing, Belgium

Tony Cohn, Division of Artificial Intelligence, University of Leeds,
UK

Robert Colomb, School of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering,
University of Queensland, Australia

Ernest Davis, Dept of Computer Science, New York University, USA

Randall Dipert, Dept of Philosophy, State University of New York,
Buffalo, USA

Martin Dörr, Institute of Computer Science, FORTH, Heraklion, Greece

Carola Eschenbach, Dept for Informatics, University of Hamburg,
Germany

Jérôme Euzenat, INRIA Rhône-Alpes, Grenoble, France

Christiane Fellbaum, Cognitive Science Laboratory, Princeton
University, USA & Berlin Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and
Humanities, Berlin, Germany

Maurizio Ferraris, Dept of Philosophy, University of Torino, Italy

Antony Galton, School of Engineering and Computer Science, University
of Exeter, UK

Aldo Gangemi, Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies, CNR,
Rome, Italy

Peter Gärdenfors, Lund University Cognitive Science, Sweden

Pierdaniele Giaretta, Dept of Philosophy, University of Padova, Italy

Michael Gruninger, Institute for Systems Research, University of
Maryland College Park, USA & National Institute for Standards and
Technology, USA

Nicola Guarino, Institute of Cognitive Sciences and Technologies, CNR,
Trento, Italy

Patrick J. Hayes, Institute for Human and Machine Cognition,
University of West Florida, USA

Heinrich Herre, Institute of Informatics, University of Leipzig ,
Germany

Jacques Jayez, ENS-Humanities, Lyon, France

Ingvar Johansson, Institute for Formal Ontology and Medical
Information Science, University of Leipzig, Germany

Hannu Kangassalo, Dept of Computer and Information Sciences,
University of Tampere, Finland

Fritz Lehmann, USA

Leonardo Lesmo, Dept of Computer Science, University of Torino, Italy

Bernardo Magnini, Centre for Scientific and Technological Research,
ITC, Trento, Italy

David Mark, Dept of Geography, State University of New York, Buffalo,
USA

William E. McCarthy, Department of Accounting, Michigan State
University, USA

Robert Meersman, Dept of Computer Science, Free University of
Brussels, Belgium

Chris Menzel, Dept of Philosophy, Texas A&M University, USA

Friederike Moltmann, Dept of Philosophy, Stirling University, UK

Philippe Muller, Research Institute for Computer Science, University
of Toulouse III, France

John Mylopoulos, Dept of Computer Science, University of Toronto,
Canada

Sergei Nirenburg, Dept of Computer Science & Electrical Engineering,
University of Maryland Baltimore County, USA

Leo Obrst, MITRE, USA

Massimo Poesio, Dept of Computer Science, University of Essex, UK

Ian Pratt-Hartmann, Dept of Computer Science, University of
Manchester, UK

James Pustejovsky, Dept of Computer Science, Brandeis University, USA

Steffen Schulze-Kremer, German Resource Center for Genome Research,
Berlin, Germany

Peter Simons, School of Philosophy, University of Leeds, UK

Barry Smith, Dept of Philosophy, State University of New York,
Buffalo, USA & Institute for Formal Ontology and Medical Information
Science, University of Leipzig, Germany

John Sowa, USA

Veda Storey, Dept of Computer Information Systems, Georgia State
University, USA

Mike Uschold, The Boeing Company, USA

Achille Varzi, Dept of Philosophy, Columbia University, USA

Laure Vieu, Research Institute for Computer Science, CNRS, Toulouse,
France

Yair Wand, Management Information Systems Division, University of
British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada

Chris Welty, IBM Watson Research Center, USA Roel Wieringa, Computer
Science Department, University of Twente, The Netherlands

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