Appel: Special issue on Formal Ontologies for Communicating Agents

[Thierry Hamon]

Date: Wed, 20 Sep 2006 17:40:10 +0200
From: fomi <fomi at loa-cnr.it>
Message-Id: <def3040e03a26c3cfcdec591f86e08a1 at loa-cnr.it>
X-url: http://www.loa-cnr.it/esslli06/
X-url: http://www.applied-ontology.org/


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CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS
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Following FOCA, workshop held at ESSLLI from July 31 to August 4, 2006  
(http://www.loa-cnr.it/esslli06/):


Formal Ontologies for Communicating Agents, special issue for the  
journal Applied Ontology (http://www.applied-ontology.org/)


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GUEST EDITORS OF THE SPECIAL ISSUE:

Roberta Ferrario (ferrario at loa-cnr.it)

Laurent Prevot (prevotlaurent at gate.sinica.edu.tw)

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PURPOSE OF THE SPECIAL ISSUE :

Following the workshop "Formal Ontologies for Communicating Agents"
that took place within the last ESSLLI summer school in Malaga, we
would like to invite contributions for a special issue of the
international journal ''Applied Ontology''.

We especially invite the authors of the paper presented at FOCA 2006
to submit an extended version of their contribution. However, anyone
is invited to submit a relevant contribution for the topic of the
special issue described below.

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DESCRIPTION:

In recent years lots of efforts have been devoted to formal studies of
human and artificial agent communication. Research advancements have
been achieved along three main lines: (i) agent's internal states and
dynamics, (ii) social interaction and conventional communicative
patterns, (iii) semantics-pragmatics interface - especially in the
dialogue context (i.e. the interplay between the semantic content of
messages and the communicative acts themselves). There is a recent
trend of studies trying to integrate these approaches in many ways. On
the other hand, formal ontology has been consecrated as a good
solution for comparing and integrating information and thus its
application to this specific domain is very promising . More
precisely, an ontological analysis of the fundamental ingredients of
interaction and communication will make explicit the hidden
ontological assumptions underlying all these proposals.

Ontology has also proven to be a very powerful means to address issues
related to the exchange of meaningful communication across autonomous
entities, which can organize and use information heterogeneously.  The
purpose of this special issue is therefore to gather contributions
that (i) take seriously into account the ontological aspects of
communication and interaction and (ii) use formal ontologies for
achieving a better semantic coordination between interacting and
communicating agents.

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MAIN TOPICS:

We encourage contributions concerning the two main areas listed below
with a particular attention to explore the interplay between
ontological analysis and its applications in practical cases.

* Ontological aspects of interaction and communication
    - Ontological analysis of interaction and communication
    - Studies on the structure and coherence of interaction
          - Logical models for communicative acts
    - Primitives of interaction and communication
    - Formal semantics of dialogue (dealing with ontological issues)
    *Semantic coordination through formal ontologies
    - Dialogue semantics and formal ontology
    - Dynamic ontology sharing
    - Ontological primitives for meaning negotiation, ontological   
      alignment and semantic interoperability
        - Ontology evolution through communication
        - Concrete problems and experiences in terminological  
          disambiguation and integration

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ABOUT THE JOURNAL:

Although a formal contribution is not an absolute requirement for
contributing to Applied Ontology, the contributors should keep in mind
the aim and scope of Applied Ontology, an interdisciplinary journal of
Ontological Analysis and Conceptual Modeling.

Applied Ontology is a new journal whose focus is on information
content in its broadest sense. As the subtitle makes clear, two broad
kinds of content-based research activities are envisioned: ontological
analysis and conceptual modeling. The former includes any attempt to
investigate the nature and structure of a domain of interest using
rigorous philosophical or logical tools; the latter concerns the
cognitive and linguistic structures we use to model the world, as well
as the various analysis tools and methodologies we adopt for producing
useful computational models, such as information systems schemes or
knowledge structures.

Applied Ontology is the first journal with explicit and exclusive
focus on ontological analysis and conceptual modeling under an
interdisciplinary view. It aims to establish a unique niche in the
realm of scientific journals by carefully avoiding unnecessary
duplication with discipline-oriented journals. For this reason,
authors will be encouraged to use language that will be intelligible
also to those outside their specific sector of expertise, and the
review process will be tailored to this end. For example, authors of
theoretical contributions will be encouraged to show the relevance of
their theory for applications, while authors of more technological
papers will be encouraged to show the relevance of a well-founded
theoretical perspective. Moreover, the journal will publish papers
focusing on representation languages or algorithms only where these
address relevant content issues, whether at the level of practical
application or of theoretical understanding. Similarly, it will
publish descriptions of tools or implemented systems only where a
contribution to the practice of ontological analysis and conceptual
modeling is clearly established.



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SUBMISSION DETAILS:

Submissions, that will undergo a peer-reviewing process, must be sent
electronically through the journal's website
(http://www.applied-ontology.org/) by the deadline listed below.
Detailed instructions for authors are available from the same website.

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IMPORTANT DATES:

Submissions		December 20, 2006
Notification		February 21, 2007
Camera-ready		April 25, 2007
Special Issue		Winter 2007

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