CALL FOR PAPERS: ONTOLOGIES FOR THE INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY (OIC 2008)

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Call for Papers

OIC 2008: ONTOLOGIES FOR THE INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY

Towards Effective Exploitation and Integration of Intelligence Resources

George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia

December 3-4, 2008

(A classified event is scheduled for December 5 for those with TS/SCI  
clearances only. For further information contact: oic-2008-ts-sci@cox.net 
)

The tasks of collecting, analyzing, and disseminating intelligence  
grow more complex with every year, the emergence of new technologies  
and new types of threats. New approaches are required to enable  
greater flexibility, precision, timeliness and automation of analysis  
in response to rapidly evolving threats.  Ontology-based technology as  
applied in areas such as bioinformatics has demonstrated the  
possibility of gains along all of these dimensions. The time is ripe  
to extend these gains to other spheres.

This conference will bring together experts on ontology-based  
technology with particular experience in the problems facing the  
intelligence community. It will feature invited talks from prominent  
ontologists and intelligence community leaders, as well as submitted  
papers focusing especially on the creation of public-domain ontology  
resources to support the work of intelligence analysts.

Submissions are invited of short papers in pdf format (up to 1500  
words) designed to serve as the basis for 20-minute oral presentations  
at the conference. Accepted papers will be published (at speaker  
discretion) in the proceedings, in both an online version and a  
printed version to be distributed at the meeting. The authors of  
selected papers will be invited to submit longer versions for  
publication in Volume 2 of the series on Semantic Technology,  
Information Sharing and Intelligence Analysis.

Papers may address a wide variety of issues addressing the ontology  
needs of the intelligence community. We are especially interested in  
papers on the following topics:

- Ontologies and reasoning under conditions of uncertainty
- Ontological issues related to source credibility and evidential  
pedigree
- Ontological issues related to the use of images and other kinds of  
sensing devices
- Creating an interoperable suite of public-domain ontologies relevant  
to intelligence analysis covering areas such as:
    * Social networks
    * Ethnicity, religion and politics
    * Spatial and temporal phenomena
    * Conditions that foster or inhibit outbreak of violence
    * Infrastructure with
    * Biology and health
    * Emergency Response
- Usability issues relating to ontology technology

Important dates:

Submissions due: July 27, 2008
Notification of acceptance: August 29, 2008
Camera-ready papers due: October 31, 2008

Further information will be provided in due course at http://c4i.gmu.edu/OIC08

For inquiries please write to the conference co-chairs:

Kathryn Blackmond Laskey
C4I Center and SEOR Department
4400 University Drive, MS 4B5
George Mason University
Fairfax, VA 22030-4444
klaskey@gmu.edu

Duminda Wijesekera
Department of Computer Science
4400 University Drive, MS 4A5
George Mason University
Fairfax, VA 22030-4444
dwijesek@gmu.edu


Preliminary Scientific Committee

Bill Andersen (Ontology Works)
Selmer Bringsjord (Rensselaer Polytechnic University)
Dennis Buede (Innovative Decisions, Inc.)
Werner Ceusters (University at Buffalo)
Randall Dipert (University at Buffalo)
Kathleen Stewart Hornsby (University of Iowa)
Terry Janssen (Lockheed Martin Corporation)
Kathryn Blackmond Laskey (George Mason University, co-chair)
Kevin Lynch (CIA)
Dan Maxwell (Innovative Decisions, Inc.)
Leo Obrst (MITRE Corporation)
Steven Robertshaw (UK Defence Science and Technology Laboratory)
Barry Smith (University at Buffalo)
Duminda Wijesekera (George Mason University, co-chair)