Appel: Chapter Proposals on Conversational Agents and Natural Language Interaction

[Thierry Hamon]

Date: Wed, 11 Nov 2009 10:57:37 +0100
From: Diana Pérez Marín <diana.perez at urjc.es>
Message-ID: <4AFA8A91.4060809 at urjc.es>

Apologies for multiple posting. Please distribute this CfC to your
colleagues and further interested people.
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Conversational Agents and Natural Language Interaction: Techniques and 
Effective Practices
A book edited by Dr. Diana Perez-Marin and Dr. Ismael Pascual-Nieto
Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, Spain

We cordially invite you to submit a chapter for the forthcoming
Conversational Agents and Natural Language Interaction: Techniques and
Effective Practices book to be published by IGI Global
(http://www.igi-global.com/requests/details.asp?ID=754)

-------------
Introduction
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Human-Computer Interaction can be understood as two potent information 
processors (a human and a computer) trying to communicate with each
other using a highly restricted interface. Natural Language (NL) 
Interaction, that is, to let the users express in natural language could 
be the solution to
improve the communication between human and computers. Conversational 
agents exploit NL technologies to engage users in text-based 
information-seeking and task-oriented dialogs for a broad range of 
applications such as e-commerce, help desk, Web site navigation,
personalized service, and education.

The benefits of agent expressiveness have been highlighted both for
verbal expressiveness and for non-verbal expressiveness. On the other
hand, there are also studies indicating that when using conversational
agents mixed results can appear. These studies reveal the need to
review the research in a field with a promising future and a great
impact in the area of Human-Computer Interaction.

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Objective of the Book
------------------------
The main objective of the book is to identify the most effective
practices when using conversational agents for different applications.
Some secondary objectives to fulfill the main goal are:

- To gather a comprehensive number of experiences in which
  conversational agents have been used for different applications

- To review the current techniques which are being used to design
  conversational agents

- To encourage authors to publish not only successful results, but
  also non-successful results and a discussion of the reasons that may
  have caused them

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Target Audience
------------------
The proposed book is intended to serve as a reference guide for
researchers who want to start their research in the promising field of
conversational agents. It will not be necessary that readers have
previous knowledge on the topic.

Recommended topics include, but are not limited to, the following:
1. Fundamental concepts
- Definition and taxonomy of conversational agents
- Motivation, benefits, and issues of their use
- Underlying psychological and social theories
2. Design of conversational agents
- Techniques
- Frameworks
- Methods
3. Practices
- Experiences of use of conversational agents in:
- E-commerce
- Help desk
- Website navigation
- Personalized service
- Training or education
- Results achieved
- Discussion of the reasons of their success of failure
4. Future trends
- Issues that should be solved in the future
- Expectations for the future

-----------------------
Submission Procedure
-----------------------
Researchers and practitioners are invited to submit on or before
December 16, 2009, a 2-3 page chapter proposal clearly explaining the
mission and concerns of his or her proposed chapter. Authors of
accepted proposals will be notified by January 16, 2010 about the
status of their proposals and sent chapter guidelines. Full chapters
(8,000–10,000 words) are expected to be submitted by April 16,
2010. All submitted chapters will be reviewed on a double-blind review
basis. Contributors may also be requested to serve as reviewers for
this project.

----------
Publisher
----------
This book is scheduled to be published by IGI Global (formerly Idea
Group Inc.), publisher of the “Information Science Reference”
(formerly Idea Group Reference), “Medical Information Science
Reference,” “Business Science Reference,” and “Engineering Science
Reference” imprints. For additional information regarding the
publisher, please visit www.igi-global.com. This publication is
anticipated to be released in 2011.

-----------------
Important Dates
-----------------
December 16, 2009: Proposal Submission Deadline
January 16, 2010: Notification of Acceptance
April 16, 2010: Full Chapter Submission
June 30, 2010: Review Results Returned
July 30, 2010: Final Chapter Submission
September 30, 2010: Final Deadline

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Editorial Advisory Board Members
--------------------------------------
Dr. Rafael Calvo, University of Sydney, Australia
Dr. Diane Inkpen, University of Ottawa, Canada
Dr. Pamela Jordan, University of Pittsburgh, U.S.A.
Dr. Ramón López Cózar, Universidad de Granada, Spain
Dr. Max Louwerse, University of Memphis, U.S.A.
Dr. José Antonio Macías, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain
Dr. Mick O’Donnell, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain
Dr. George Veletsianos, University of Manchester, U.K.
Incompleted list, full list to be announced on November, 16

--------------------------
Inquiries and submissions
---------------------------
Please send all inquiries and submissions (preferably through e-mail)
to:

Dr. Diana Perez-Marin, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Spain
Email: diana.perez at urjc.es

and

Dr. Ismael Pascual Nieto, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, Spain
Email: ismael.pascual at uam.es

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