FOIS-2004 **Approaching Deadline** FOIS-2004 **Approaching Deadline** FOIS-2004 **Approaching Deadline** FOIS-2004 **Approaching Deadline**

APOLOGIES FOR MULTIPLE COPIES

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Call for Papers
FOIS-2004 International Conference on Formal Ontology in Information Systems
http://fois2004.di.unito.it/
November 4-6, 2004, Torino (Italy)
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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 analysis 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.
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Invited Speakers
Peter Gärdenfors, Lund University Cognitive Science, Sweden
Amie Thomasson, Department of Philosophy, University of Miami, USA
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Deadlines and Further Information
Abstracts due 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://fois2004.di.unito.it/
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Conference Chair
Nicola Guarino (ISTC-CNR, Trento, Italy) 
nicola.guarino@loa-cnr.it
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Program Chairs
Achille Varzi (Columbia University, New York, USA)
achille.varzi@columbia.edu
Laure Vieu (IRIT-CNRS, Toulouse, France) 
laure.vieu@irit.fr
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Local Chairs
Maurizio Ferraris (University of Torino, Italy) 
ferraris@cisi.unito.it
Leonardo Lesmo (University of Torino, Italy) 
lesmo@di.unito.it
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Publicity Chair
Jos Lehmann (ISTC-CNR, Rome, Italy) 
joslehmann@www.ip.rm.cnr.it
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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 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, Ebusiness, Enterprise integration, ...
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Programme Committee
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
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
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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Received on Friday, 16 April 2004 10:15:18 UTC