CFP: AAAI Fall Symposium on Integrating Logical Reasoning into Everyday Applications

                            CALL FOR PAPERS
 
                      AAAI Fall 2006 Symposium on
        Integrating Logical Reasoning into Everyday Applications
 
                          October 13-15, 2006
                Hyatt Crystal City, Arlington, Virginia
 
                  http://logic.stanford.edu/everyday/
 
 
Dates:
  May 1, 2006 = abstracts / papers due
  May 22, 2006 = notification of acceptance
  October 13-15, 2006 = symposium in Arlington, Virginia
 
 
Applications such as email clients, Web browsers, spreadsheets and personal
finance programs have become an integral part of modern daily life. The user
base of some of these programs are in the hundreds of millions of users.
 
Logical reasoners can aid the users of these programs in several ways.
Firstly, they can automate routine, repetitive, or tedious tasks, freeing
the user from doing so himself. Secondly, they can script time-critical
actions to be taken by the application, even if the user is unavailable or
not fast enough to do so himself. Finally, they can be used to constrain
aspects of the program's behavior to meet the user's needs.
 
For example, email filtering rules save the user from having to send email
from a known spammer to the trash can and can take timely action such as
automatically forwarding important email to a coworker while the user is
disconnected from the Internet. Or logical rules can specify constraints on
what type of music an mp3 player should play during particular times of the
day, or what types of programs a digital video recorder should record.
 
Enhancing such applications with logical reasoning brings the potential to
spread the use of logic beyond the confines of specialized applications and
into the mainstream of computing.
 
One application that has garnered attention recently is the logical
spreadsheet. Logical spreadsheets have the potential of providing end users
with automated support for making complex decisions based on symbolic
reasoning in the same simple manner as current spreadsheets allow them to
make complex decisions based on numerical data.
 
Looking to the future, the promise of the Semantic Web has opened up the
possibility of "Scripting the World," as logical rules can reference
arbitrary conditions on the Web and produce corresponding side-effects on
the Web. Furthermore, the Semantic Desktop movement promises to integrate
ontologies and metadata into the everyday desktop environment.
 
This symposium is concerned with all aspects of making logic accessible to
everyday users, and in incorporating logical reasoners into everyday
applications. Such applications include, but are not limited to: email
clients, spreadsheets, Web browsers, multimedia players, digital video
recorders, digital calendars, digital address books, internet telephony
applications, financial and accounting applications, and word processors.
 
Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
 
  * Extensions of everyday applications to incorporate logical reasoners
  * Logical reasoning in applications that utilize the Semantic Web /
    Semantic Desktop
  * User interfaces for viewing / editing logical rules
  * Cognitive studies of everyday users using logical rules
  * Computational aspects of incorporating logical rules into applications
  * Cross-application scripting with logical rules
  * Incorporating logical rules into procedural application scripting
    languages
  * Paraconistent and defeasible logical reasoning in applications
  * Automatic and semi-automatic means of generating and modifying logical
    rules in applications
 
We will accept the following submissions:
 
  * Full papers (8 pages)
  * Short papers for the poster session (2 pages)
  * Short papers on unrealized ideas (2 pages)
  * Demonstration proposals (2 pages)
 
Organization (Alphabetical):
 
  Michael Kassoff (Stanford University)
  Heiner Stuckenschmidt (University of Mannheim)
  Andre Valente (Knowledge Systems Ventures)
  Michael Witbrock (Cycorp)
 
Program Committee:
 
  Eyal Amir (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign)
  Richard Benjamins (ISOCO, Spain)
  Hans Chalupsky (ISI)
  Tim Finin (University of Maryland)
  Lalana Kagal (MIT)
  Holger Knublauch (TopQuadrant)
  Luke McDowell (US Naval Academy)
  Eyal Oren (DERI Galway, Ireland)
  Filip Perich (Shared Spectrum Company)
  Leo Sauermann (DFKI, Germany)
  Michael Sintek (DFKI, Germany)
  Warner ten Kate (Philips Research)
  Frank van Harmelen (VU Amsterdam)
 
For further information please email everyday "at" cs.stanford.edu