>>> Call for Papers <<< FOIS-2001 International Conference on Formal Ontology in Information Systems October 17-19, 2001 Ogunquit, Maine http://www.fois.org Sponsored by ACM ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Research on ontology is becoming increasingly widespread in the Computer Science community. Its importance has been recognized in fields as diverse as e-commerce, enter- prise and information integration, qualitative modeling of physical systems, natural language processing, knowledge engineering, database design, geographic information science, libraries, and intelligent information access. Insights in this field have potential impact on the whole area of information systems. In order to provide a solid general foundation for this work, it is important to focus on the common scientific principles and open problems arising from current tools, methodologies, and applications of ontology. We envision FOIS to be a unique gathering whose essential character is strongly interdis- ciplinary, and truly unlike any other conference. The program committee includes representatives of three broad disciplines: computer and information science, philosophy, and linguistics, and includes researchers from sub-areas as diverse as formal ontology, knowledge engineering, logic, database design, natural language processing, library sci- ence, knowledge representation, descriptive metaphysics, and geographic information systems. Although the primary focus of the conference is on theoretical issues, those interested in methodology, concrete applications, top-level ontologies, web and e-commerce content standards, and enterprise modeling are encouraged to participate. The conference will take place at the Cliff House Hotel, amidst the striking Atlantic Coast Scenery of Maine. Conference Chair Nicola Guarino, LADSEB-CNR, Italy guarino@ladseb.pd.cnr.it Program Chairs Chris Welty Vassar College Computer Science Dept. Poughkeepsie, NY 12604-0462 USA weltyc@cs.vassar.edu +1-914-437-5992 Fax: +1-914-437-7498 Barry Smith Seminar Philosophie, Universitaat Koblenz, Rheinau 56075 Koblenz, Germany on sabbatical from: Dept. of Philosophy, University of Buffalo USA phismith@buffalo.edu ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Call for Papers 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 out of scope. Topic areas of particu- lar interest to the conference are: 1. Theoretical Issues * Foundations: mereology, constitution, identity, integrity, dependence, causality, vagueness, granularity * Kinds of entity: particulars vs. universals, continuants vs. occurrents, abstracta vs. concreta, attributes, relations, qualities, quantities, events, tropes or moments, states, situations, environments * Matter, space, time, motion, change, natural kinds, organisms, artifacts * The ontology of social reality: legal and administrative entities, artistic expressions * Cognitive foundations of ontologies, cross-cultural ontologies 2. Application Areas * Knowledge organization, integration and standardization * Intelligent information access * B2C and B2B e-commerce * Information systems design * Knowledge engineering * Conceptual modeling * Qualitative modeling * Lexical semantics * Terminology integration * Product knowledge integration * Geographic information systems * Legal information systems * Business information systems * The ontology of information, information processing, and software products 3. Tools and Methodologies * Kinds of ontology: top-level ontologies, domain ontologies, task ontologies, application ontologies, ontology standards * Ontological and linguistic instruments for conceptual analysis * Methodologies for ontology development, maintenance, and integration ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Dates and Further Information Electronic abstracts: 11 April, 2001 Final submissions: 17 April, 2001 Acceptance Notification: 2 July, 2001 Submitted papers must not exceed 10 pages. Abstracts should be between 10-20 lines. Electronic submissions are preferred, see the conference web page or contact one of the program chairs for further information.