>>> Call for Papers <<<

                     FOIS-2001

      International Conference on Formal Ontology
                in Information Systems

			     (http://www.fois.org)

                  October 17-19, 2001
			        Ogunquit, Maine

			       Sponsored by ACM

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Conference Description:

Research on ontology is becoming increasingly widespread in the
computer science community.  Its importance has been recognized in
fields as diverse as e-commerce, enterprise and information
integration, qualitative modelling of physical systems, natural
language processing, knowledge engineering, database design,
geographic information science, libraries, and intelligent information
access.  Insights in this field have potential impact on the whole
area of information systems.  In order to provide a solid general
foundation for this work, it is important to focus on the common
scientific principles and open problems arising from current tools,
methodologies, and applications of ontology.

We envision FOIS to be a unique gathering whose essential character is
strongly interdisciplinary, and truly unlike any other conference. The
program committee includes representatives of three broad disciplines:
computer and information science, philosophy, and linguistics, and
includes researchers from sub-areas as diverse as formal ontology,
knowledge engineering, logic, database design, natural language
processing, library science, knowledge representation, descriptive
metaphysics, and geographic information systems.

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.
We also encourage those interested in top-level ontologies, web and
e-commerce content standards, and enterprise modeling to participate.

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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 out of scope.  Topic areas
of particular interest to the conference are: (1) Theoretical Issues,
(2) Application Areas, and (3) Tools and Methodologies

  (1) Theoretical Issues

      * Foundations: mereology, constitution, identity, integrity,
	    dependence, causality, vagueness, granularity
      * Kinds of entity: particulars vs. universals, continuants vs.
	    occurrents, abstracta vs. concreta, attributes, relations,
	    qualities, quantities, events, tropes or moments, states,
	    situations, environments
      * Matter, space, time, motion, change 
      * Natural kinds, organisms, artifacts 
      * The ontology of social reality: legal and administrative entities,
	    artistic expressions 
      * The ontology of information, information processing, and
	    software products 
      * Cognitive foundations of ontologies, elicited ontologies,
	    cross-cultural ontologies 
      * Kinds of ontology: top-level ontologies, domain ontologies,
	    task ontologies, application ontologies

  (2) Application Areas

      * Knowledge organization, integration and standardization 
      * Intelligent information access 
      * B2C and B2B e-commerce 
      * Information systems design 
      * Knowledge engineering 
      * Conceptual modelling 
      * Qualitative modelling 
      * Lexical semantics 
      * Terminology integration 
      * Product knowledge integration 
      * Geographic information systems 
      * Legal information systems 
      * Business information systems

  (3) Tools and Methodologies

      * Ontological and linguistic instruments for conceptual analysis
      * Methodologies for ontology development, maintenance, and
        integration 

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Deadlines:

  Electronic abstracts are due by 11 April, 2001
  Final submissions are due by 17 April, 2001

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Further Information:

Any inquiries related to the conference should be directed to the
program chairs:

  Barry Smith
  Seminar Philosophie, Universitaat Koblenz, Rheinau 
  56075 Koblenz, Germany 
  (on sabbatical from: Department of Philosophy, University of
  Buffalo, USA)
  Email phismith@buffalo.edu

  Chris Welty 
  Vassar College Computer Science Department 
  Poughkeepsie, NY 12604-0462, USA 
  Email: welty@cs.vassar.edu