CFP: International Conference on Formal Ontology in Information Systems (FOIS-2006)

Apologies for cross-postings; please send to interested colleagues.

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CALL FOR PAPERS

 

FOIS-2006

International Conference on Formal Ontology in Information Systems

http://www.formalontology.org/ <http://www.formalontology.org/> 

November 9-11, 2006
Baltimore, Maryland (USA)


Conference Description


Since ancient times, ontology, the analysis and categorisation of what
exists, has been fundamental to philosophical enquiry. But, until
recently, ontology has been seen as an abstract, purely theoretical
discipline, far removed from the practical applications of science.
However, with the increasing use of sophisticated computerised
information systems, solving problems of an ontological nature is now
key to the effective use of technologies supporting a wide range of
human activities. The ship of Theseus and the tail of Tibbles the cat
are no longer merely amusing puzzles. We employ databases and software
applications to deal with everything from ships and ship building to
anatomy and amputations. When we design a computer to take stock of a
ship yard or check that all goes well at the veterinary hospital, we
need to ensure that our system operates in a consistent and reliable
way even when manipulating information that involves subtle issues of
semantics and identity. So, whereas ontologists may once have shied
away from practical problems, now the practicalities of achieving
cohesion in an information-based society demand that attention must be
paid to ontology. 

Researchers in such areas as artificial intelligence, formal and
computational linguistics, biomedical informatics, conceptual modeling,
knowledge engineering and information retrieval have come to realise
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 is now being focused on the content of
information rather than on just the formats and languages used to
represent information. 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 realisation 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 sciences 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 effort towards solving the problems
of ontology, with an eye to both theoretical issues and concrete
applications. 

Program Chairs
Brandon Bennett (University of Leeds, UK) brandon@comp.leeds.ac.uk 
Christiane Fellbaum (Princeton University, USA and Berlin Brandenburg
Academy of Sciences and Humanities, Germany)
fellbaum@clarity.princeton.edu 

Conference Chair
Nicola Guarino (ISTC-CNR, Trento, Italy) nicola.guarino@isib.cnr.it 

Local Chair
Bill Andersen (OntologyWorks, USA) andersen@ontologyworks.com 

Publicity Chair
Leo Obrst (MITRE, USA) lobrst@mitre.org

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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 (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, ontology and epistemology, semiotics

Methodologies and Applications

*	Top-level vs. application ontologies 
*	Role of reference ontologies; Ontology integration and
alignment 
*	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, E-business,
Enterprise integration, ... 

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Deadlines and Further Information


Electronic abstracts: May 1, 2006
Final submissions: May 5, 2006
Acceptance Notification: June 26, 2006
Submission of camera-ready paper: July 28, 2006

Submitted papers must not exceed 5000 words (including bibliography).
Abstracts should be less than 300 words. Papers should be submitted
electronically; information will be provided on the conference web
page: http://www.formalontology.org/ .

Proceedings will be published and available at the conference.

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Programme Committee


*	Bill Andersen (OntologyWorks, USA) 
*	Nicholas Asher (Department of Philosophy, University of Texas
at Austin, USA) 
*	Nathalie Aussenac-Gilles (Research Institute for Computer
Science, CNRS, Toulouse, France) 
*	John Bateman (Department of Applied English Linguistics,
University of Bremen, Germany) 
*	Brandon Bennett (School of Computing, University of Leeds, UK) 
*	Stefano Borgo (Laboratory for Applied Ontology, ISTC-CNR,
Italy) 
*	Joost Breuker (Leibniz Center for Law, University of Amsterdam,
The Netherlands) 
*	Roberto Casati (Jean Nicod Institute, CNRS, Paris, France) 
*	Werner Ceusters (European Centre for Ontological Research,
Saarbrücken) 
*	Tony Cohn (School of Computing, University of Leeds, UK) 
*	Matteo Cristani (University of Verona, Italy) 
*	Ernest Davis (Department of Computer Science, New York
University, USA) 
*	Martin Dörr (Institute of Computer Science, FORTH, Heraklion,
Greece) 
*	Carola Eschenbach (Department for Informatics, University of
Hamburg, Germany) 
*	Christiane Fellbaum (Cognitive Science Laboratory, Princeton
University, USA and Berlin Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and
Humanities, Berlin, Germany) 
*	Antony Galton (School of Engineering and Computer Science,
University of Exeter, UK) 
*	Aldo Gangemi (Laboratory for Applied Ontology, ISTC-CNR, Roma,
Italy) 
*	Pierdaniele Giaretta (Department of Philosophy, University of
Verona, Italy) 
*	Michael Gruninger (University of Toronto, Canada) 
*	Nicola Guarino (Laboratory for Applied Ontology, ISTC-CNR,
Trento, Italy) 
*	Udo Hahn (Jena University, Germany) 
*	Jerry Hobbs (University of Southern California, USA) 
*	Eduard Hovy (University of Southern California, USA) 
*	Ingvar Johansson (Institute for Formal Ontology and Medical
Information Science, University of Saarbrücken, Germany) 
*	Werner Kuhn (IFGI, Muenster) 
*	Fritz Lehmann (USA) 
*	Alessandro Lenci (University of Pisa, Italy) 
*	Leonardo Lesmo (Department of Computer Science, University of
Torino, Italy) 
*	David Mark (Department of Geography, State University of New
York, Buffalo, USA) 
*	Claudio Masolo (Laboratory for Applied Ontology, ISTC-CNR,
Trento, Italy) 
*	Chris Menzel (Department of Philosophy, Texas A&M University,
USA) 
*	Simon Milton (Department of Information Systems, University of
Melbourne, Australia) 
*	Philippe Muller (Research Institute for Computer Science,
University of Toulouse III, France) 
*	John Mylopoulos (Department of Computer Science, University of
Toronto, Canada) 
*	Leo Obrst (The MITRE Corporation, USA) 
*	Barbara Partee (University of Massachusetts, USA) 
*	Massimo Poesio (Department of Computer Science, University of
Essex, UK) 
*	Ian Pratt-Hartmann (Department of Computer Science, University
of Manchester, UK) 
*	James Pustejovsky (Department of Computer Science, Brandeis
University, USA) 
*	David Randell (Imperial College London, UK) 
*	Robert Rynasiewicz (Johns Hopkins University, USA)
*	Barry Smith (National Center for Ontological Research and
Department of Philosophy, University at Buffalo, USA; Institute for
Formal Ontology and Medical Information Science, Saarbrücken, Germany) 
*	John Sowa (Vivomind Intelligence Inc., USA) 
*	Veda Storey (Department of Computer Information Systems,
Georgia State University, USA) 
*	Richmond Thomason (University of Michigan, USA) 
*	Mike Uschold (The Boeing Company, USA) 
*	Achille Varzi (Department of Philosophy, Columbia University,
USA) 
*	Laure Vieu (Research Institute for Computer Science, CNRS,
Toulouse, France) 
*	Chris Welty (IBM Watson Research Center, USA) 

_____________________________________________ 
Dr. Leo Obrst       The MITRE Corporation, Information Semantics 
lobrst@mitre.org    Center for Innovative Computing & Informatics 
Voice: 703-983-6770 7515 Colshire Drive, M/S H305 
Fax: 703-983-1379   McLean, VA 22102-7508, USA