Early Registration ends: OCT. 18, FINAL CFP: FOIS 2006 - Nov. 9-11, Baltimore, MD, USA

*** EARLY REGISTRATION EXTENDED TO OCTOBER 18. This is also the cutoff
date for the special 
conference rate at the Inn at the Colonnade conference hotel. So hurry
to register and reserve 
your room, to obtain best rates. ***

=============================================

FINAL Call for Participation

FOIS-2006 <http://www.formalontology.org/fois-2006/fois-2006.htm/> 

International Conference on Formal Ontology in Information Systems

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

Early registration is through October 18, 2006.
Late registration will begin October 19, 2006. 

The conference hotel is: Inn at The Colonnade.
<http://www.doubletree.com/en/dt/hotels/index.jhtml?ctyhocn=BWICUDT>
The Inn at the Colonnade is right off the John Hopkins University
campus, about a 5-10 min walk from the conference location, the new
Charles Commons facility.

To register for FOIS 2006, please enter the appropriate information at
the registration website
<https://www.seattletech.com/registration/index.php?%20confno=584&stgun
iv=119&PAYMENTS=TRUE> .

November 8, 2006: Co-located Workshop: Biomedical Ontology in Action
<http://www.imbi.uni-freiburg.de/medinf/kr-med-2006/>  (separate
registration required).

________________________________

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. 

________________________________

Organizing Committee

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) guarino@loa-cnr.it

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

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

Important Dates

Early registration is through October 18, 2006.

Late registration will begin October 19, 2006. 
FOIS-06 Conference: November 9-11, 2006 
________________________________

Programme Committee

*	Bill Andersen (Ontology Works, 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 (New York State Center of Excellence in
Bioinformatics and Life Sciences, SUNY at Buffalo) 
*	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) 
*	Jérôme Euzenat (INRIA Rhône-Alpes) 
*	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) 
*	Bernardo Magnini (Centre for Scientific and Technological
Research, ITC, Trento, Italy) 
*	David Mark (Department of Geography, State University of New
York, Buffalo, USA) 
*	William McCarthy (Michigan State University) 
*	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) 
________________________________

Co-located Workshop: Biomedical Ontology in Action
<http://www.imbi.uni-freiburg.de/medinf/kr-med-2006/> .

November 8, 2006, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.

Workshop organized by the National Center for Ontology Research (NCOR)
and the Working Group on Formal (Bio-)Medical Knowledge Representation
of the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA).

Co-located with FOIS 2006. 

Please note that this workshop requires separate registration and
separate payment of the Workshop fees at the above site.
________________________________

Registration

Academic:
Early: $250
Late: $300
Onsite: $350

Corporate / Government:
Early $300
Late: $400
Onsite: $450

Student:
Early: $50
Late: $75
Onsite: $100

Early registration is through October 18, 2006.
Late registration will begin October 19, 2006. 

To register for FOIS 2006, please enter the appropriate information at
the registration website
<https://www.seattletech.com/registration/index.php?%20confno=584&stgun
iv=119&PAYMENTS=TRUE> .
________________________________

Accommodation

Hotel: Inn at The Colonnade
<http://www.doubletree.com/en/dt/hotels/index.jhtml?ctyhocn=BWICUDT> :
http://www.doubletree.com/en/dt/hotels/index.jhtml?ctyhocn=BWICUDT.
This is the conference hotel. The Inn at the Colonnade is right off the
John Hopkins University campus, about a 5-10 min walk from the
conference location, the new Charles Commons facility. Special
conference hotel rate is $129. Mention that you are part of the FOIS
conference.
________________________________

Conference Location

The conference will take place at the very new Charles Commons facility
of Johns Hopkins University. Charles Commons featuresconference space,
a central dining facility, and a major campus bookstore. 

Charles Commons is located at 33rd Street between Charles and St. Paul
Streets, Baltimore, Maryland. The address is: Charles Commons, John
Hopkins University, 3301 North Charles Street, Baltimore, Maryland
21218

Some links for John Hopkins University <http://www.jhu.edu/> :

John Hopkins University Main (Homewood) Campus Map.
<http://www.jhu.edu/~tour/map.html>  

John Hopkins University Map (pdf).
<http://webapps.jhu.edu/jhuniverse/information_about_hopkins/visitor_in
formation/how_to_get_here/homewood_campus/pdf/campus_map_0206.pdf>  

Visitor Information for Johns Hopkins University.
<http://webapps.jhu.edu/jhuniverse/information_about_hopkins/visitor_in
formation/how_to_get_here/homewood_campus/pdf/campus_map_0206.pdf>  

Driving directions to John Hopkins University, and additional maps.
<http://webapps.jhu.edu/jhuniverse/information_about_hopkins/visitor_in
formation/how_to_get_here/homewood_campus/index.cfm>  

Johns Hopkins University, Wikipedia entry.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johns_Hopkins_University>  
________________________________

Sponsors

Ontology Works, Inc. <http://www.ontologyworks.com/>  is a leading
source of ontology construction software, ontology-based database
software, and ontology-based information integration software.
________________________________

Baltimore

The following are some useful links for information about the city of
Baltimore, Maryland. 
The Official Home Page of the City of Baltimore, Maryland
<http://www.ci.baltimore.md.us/> .
Baltimore Area Convention and Visitors Association
<http://www.baltimore.org/> 
Wikipedia - Baltimore, Maryland
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltimore,_Maryland> .
________________________________

Programme

Provisional FOIS-06 schedule
<http://www.comp.leeds.ac.uk/brandon/FOIS-06/schedule.html> .
________________________________

Accepted Papers

List of accepted papers
<http://www.comp.leeds.ac.uk/brandon/FOIS-06/accepted/accepted.html> .
________________________________ 


_____________________________________________ 
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

Received on Saturday, 7 October 2006 02:45:00 UTC