From crabapple.srv.cs.cmu.edu!fs7.ece.cmu.edu!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!uunet!munnari.oz.au!bunyip.cc.uq.oz.au!news.qut.edu.au!zahirt Tue Aug 24 18:27:10 EDT 1993 Article: 18527 of comp.ai Xref: crabapple.srv.cs.cmu.edu comp.ai:18527 Newsgroups: comp.ai Path: crabapple.srv.cs.cmu.edu!fs7.ece.cmu.edu!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!uunet!munnari.oz.au!bunyip.cc.uq.oz.au!news.qut.edu.au!zahirt From: zahirt@qut.edu.au (Zahir Tari) Subject: CoopIS: Call for Paper Message-ID: <1993Aug23.042313.28864@news.qut.edu.au> Sender: news@news.qut.edu.au (USENET News System) Organization: Queensland University of Technology X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL5 Date: Mon, 23 Aug 93 04:23:13 GMT Lines: 289 CALL FOR PAPERS SECOND INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON COOPERATIVE INFORMATION SYSTEMS (CoopIS-94) Formerly "Intelligent & Cooperative Information Systems (ICICIS)" May 17-20, 1994 Royal York Hotel, Toronto, Canada Supported by the Information Technology Research Centre of Ontario In cooperation with IEEE CS, ACM SIGOIS (pending approval), and ACM SIGMOD TSUNAMI - THE TIDAL WAVE IS HERE -------------------------------- Within most organizations, worldwide, mission critical information systems (ISs) already cooperate or are being converted to do so to meet basic business requirements. Due to the lack of appropriate concepts, techniques, and tools, this is being done using primitive means thereby creating problems that will dwarf those of current legacy information systems. This conference is devoted to addressing this tidal wave facing the information systems community. COOPERATIVE INFORMATION SYSTEMS: THE NEXT GENERATION AND THE CHALLENGE ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The paradigm for the next generation of ISs will involve large numbers of ISs distributed over large, complex computer/communication networks. This ranges from the vast and visionary Electronic Superhighway, to the large and complex billing system of a telephone company, an even to the small patient information system in a one-doctor office. Such ISs will manage or have access to large amounts of information and computing services. They will support individual or collaborative human work. Computation will be conducted concurrently over the network by software systems that range from conventional to advanced application systems including expert systems, and multiagent planning systems. Information and services will be available in many forms through legacy and new information repositories that support a host of information services. Communication among component systems will be done in a centralized or distributed fashion, using communication protocols that range from conventional ones to those based on distributed AI. We call such next generation ISs Cooperative Information Systems (CIS). Soon, the operation of a one-doctor office may critically depend on its ISs' ability to cooperate with foreign ISs not just for reimbursement (i.e., required by insurance organizations) but also for patients (e.g., exchanging information in medical crises). Demand for more efficient processes and use of all resources will come from economic and business conditions (e.g., competition, imperative for wider marketplaces, and cooperation and distribution in the production of goods and services) that have led to downsizing and re-engineering . IS technology, one of the largest costs of many organizations, can be the problem, or part of the solution. The demands are pervasive from vast organizations to very small. The requirements span conventional organizational and legal boundaries such as countries, companies (e.g., virtual companies), disciplines (e.g., concurrent engineering spanning a products entire life span). The CIS paradigm is evolving to meet these demands thus raising challenges for the supporting technologies. Unlike previous major computing advances based on single technologies, the CIS paradigm will evolve from the integration of many, currently disjoint technologies. Database Systems will contribute information management techniques, particularly for distributed or heterogeneous databases, as well as efficient implementation techniques for information bases. Artificial Intelligence will contribute knowledge representation and reasoning techniques, on the one hand, and distributed problem solving and planning techniques in a multiagent environment on the other. Operating Systems will contribute resource management techniques over large distributed computer/communications networks. Programming Languages will contribute languages and type/object systems for cooperative programming. Software/Knowledge/Information Engineering will contribute design and development environments/shells and methodologies for CIS development and evolution. Computer Communications will provide the necessary underlying communication and interconnection technology. Other relevant technologies include: Computer Supported Cooperative Work, Distributed Computing, Organizational Computing, and Interoperability. The challenge is to effectively combine these technologies and their contributions to meet CIS requirements. A significant challenge is to overcome the existing boundaries to achieve a common understanding of the relevant issues. CIS will become reality through research in concepts, methodologies, techniques, and tools for the efficient - and transparent - integration of computing resources that are accessible over large computer/communications networks which may become indistinguishable from the CISs themselves. More important is the technology transfer and communication required between the significant, practical situations, which exemplify the requirements, and the research community that tries to address them. But most important is an increased common understanding across the existing boundaries as to the nature of the problems, the requirements, and adequate approaches to address them. THE CONFERENCE -------------- The CoopIS-94 conference will provide a forum for the presentation and dissemination of this research covering all aspects of CIS conception, requirements, functionality, implementation, deployment, and evolution. The CoopIS-94 conference programme will include technical sessions, invited presentations, panels, and tutorials that deal with CISs and the integration of relevant technologies. In addition, CoopIS-94 plans to host special sessions on the industrial applicability of CIS technology. Further information about the conference and its programme can be obtained from the General and Program Co-Chairs and by anonymous FTP from ftp.gte.com (132.197.8.2) under directory pub/coopis. TOPICS OF INTEREST (not limited to:) ------------------ CIS Systems Issues: o CIS Principles - cooperation, intelligence, autonomy o CIS Architectures and communication protocols - novel open architectures, blackboard systems, multiagent planning frameworks, speech acts, advanced information services in support of interoperability o Core Technology for CIS - open distributed computing architectures, type systems, object models and advanced transaction models for interoperability, advanced query models and languages, active databases o CIS Implementation Techniques - novel programming languages for CISs, interoperability issues in distributed heterogeneous information bases, multi-database transaction scheduling and execution, rule bases o Integration Challenges - interoperability, multiple paradigms, forms of transparency, object and transaction model integration, global information (e.g., schemas, directories, repositories), semantic interoperability, negotiation, optimization (e.g., queries, indexing, ...) CIS Modelling, Migration, and Evolution: o CIS Applications - current and future o Information Modeling and Reasoning techniques for CISs - multiple perspective representations, non-deductive forms of inference (inductive, analogical, case-based, ...), multiagent planning and problem solving o Advanced CIS Programming - workflows, transactions, information requests, policy/rule-driven systems, mega-programming, multiple programming paradigms o Information Engineering for CIS - information acquisition, classification and retrieval techniques and tools, information sharing and management o Re-Engineering - concepts, tools, and methodologies; re-engineer legacy and new information systems into CISs o CIS Evolution - concepts, tools, and techniques for CIS design, development, and maintenance o Information Agents - novel models and organizations, application of information agent technology in virtual laboratories, concurrent engineering and other groupware frameworks. INFORMATION FOR AUTHORS ----------------------- Authors must clearly relate the contribution of their work to the concept of CIS, rather than just describing aspects of a component technology (e.g., state assumptions or definitions as to the nature of CISs). Papers which illustrate their results in terms of an CIS application or address technology integration issues leading to CISs are particularly welcome. Submission must be identified as one of three different categories: visions, research, and experience. Vision papers should present stimulating challenges, ideas, or visions that lead to exciting and valuable CIS research directions. Vision papers will be evaluated with respect to innovation, realizable applications and technologies, and technical challenges posed (e.g., that do not currently admit of solutions). Research papers should advance the state of the art of CIS and will be evaluated using conventional scientific criteria. Experience papers should describe the practical applications of CIS concepts or methods. They will be evaluated in terms of lessons learned, research issues raised, and solutions to realistic challenges, such as those of legacy information systems. Five copies of original and compelling unpublished papers up to 5000 words that are not under consideration for publication elsewhere during the reviewing period should be sent to the appropriate Programme Committee Co-Chair. Restricted electronic submission may be acceptable. For instructions contact the American PC Co-Chair. Submissions must include contact information (contact name, postal and e-mail address, and phone number), a 100-word abstract, and explicitly indicate the paper category (vision, research, or experience). The edited proceedings of CoopIS-94 will appear as a book from a major international publisher. Selected articles will be considered for publication in the International Journal of Intelligent and Cooperative Information Systems. IMPORTANT DATES --------------- December 1, 1993 paper, panel, and tutorial submissions due February 1, 1994 notification of acceptance March 1, 1994 camera-ready version due GENERAL CHAIR ------------- John Mylopoulos Dept. Computer Science University of Toronto 6 King's College Road, Toronto M5S 1A4, Canada jm@cs.toronto.edu PROGRAM CO-CHAIRS ----------------- America (North & South) Europe & Middle East Far East, Africa, Australia Michael L. Brodie Matthias Jarke Mike P. Papazoglou Distributed Object Informatik V School of Computing Department Information Systems GTE Laboratories Incorporated RWTH Aachen Queensland Univ. Technology 40 Sylvan Road Ahornstr. 55 GPO Box 2434 Waltham, MA 02254, USA 52074 Aachen, Germany Brisbane QLD 4001, Australia brodie@gte.com jarke@informatik.rwth-aachen.de mikep@fitmail.fit.qut.edu.au PROGRAM COMMITTEE ----------------- Philip A. Bernstein (USA) Robert Meersman (Holland) Patrick Bobbie (USA) John Mylopoulos (Canada) Alexander Borgida (USA) Wolfgang Nejdl (Germany) Manfred Broy (Germany) Anne Ngu (Australia) Tung Bui (Hong-Kong) Maurizio Panti (Italy) Umeshwar Dayal (USA) Charles Petrie (USA) Misbah Deen (UK) Andreas Reuter (Germany) Lois M.L. Delcambre (USA) Daniel R. Ries (USA) Eric Dubois (Belgium) Bob Rockwell (Germany) Ahmed K. Elmagarmid (USA) Marek E. Rusinkiewicz (USA) Opher Etzion (Israel) Hans Schek (Switzerland) Less Gasser (USA) Gunter Schlagter (Germany) Igor Hawryszkiewycz (Australia) Timos Sellis (Greece) Karen Huff (USA) Amit P. Sheth (USA) Michael N. Huhns (USA) Abraham Silberschatz (USA) Yahiko Kambayashi (Japan) Evangelos Simoudis (USA) Dimitri Karagiannis (Austria) Stefano Spaccapietra William Kent (USA) (Switzerland) Steven C. Laufmann (USA) Ronald Stamper (Holland) Ron Lee (Holland) Michael Stonebraker (USA) Maurizio Lenzerini (Italy) Zahir Tari (Australia) Victor Lesser (USA) Patrick Valduriez (France) Fred Lochovsky (Hong-Kong) Carson Woo (Canada) Vincent Lum (Hong-Kong) Yelena Yesha (Baltimore) Frank A. Manola (USA) Norihiko Yoshida (Japan) Louis Marinos (Germany) John Zeleznikow (Australia)