IRList Digest Friday, 20 February 1987 Volume 3 : Issue 3 Today's Topics: Abstract - Recent article on The Memory Extender Personal Filing System - Paper on IR and Expert Systems (German) Announcement - Telesophy Project - Proposals to Host IJCAI-91? Call - Conference on Conceptual Information Processing - Workshop on Office Knowledge Seminar - What's in a Word? News addresses are ARPANET: fox%vt@csnet-relay.arpa BITNET: foxea@vtvax3.bitnet CSNET: fox@vt UUCPNET: seismo!vtisr1!irlistrq ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 22 Jan 87 00:43:29 est From: mccabe%hi.mcc.com@MCC.COM Subject: article in IJMMS I thought the following article, appearing in International Journal of Man-Machine Studies (1986), 25, 191-228 might be of interest to the readers of IRList: On the Applied Use of Human Memory Models: The Memory Extender Personal Filing System William P. Jones The benefits of electronic information storage are enormous and largely unrealized. As its cost continues to decline, the number of files in the average user's personal database may increase substantially. How is a user to keep track of several thousand, perhaps several hundred thousand, files? The Memory Extender (ME) system improves the user interface to a personal database by actively modeling the user's own memory for files and for the context in which these files are used. The ME system is similar, in many respects, to current spreading activation, network models of human memory. Files are multiply indexed through a network of variably weighted term links. Context is similarly represented and is used to minimize the user input necessary to disambiguate a file - either for purposes of storage or retrieval. Files are retrieved through a spreading-activation-like process. The system aims towards an ideal in which the computer provides a natural extension to the user's own memory. Any comments or questions are welcome. Thanks -bill William P. Jones Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation P.O. Box 200195 Austin, Texas 78720 512-338-3326 email address: mccabe@mcc.com ("mccabe" is a nickname) ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 13 Feb 87 13:30 CET From: "Friedr. Gebhardt" Subject: recent papers Dear Prof. Fox: ... My paper "Connections between information retrieval systems and expert systems" (I sent you the English abstract) is not available in English. Reference of the German paper: Querverbindungen zwischen Information-Retrieval- und Experten-Systemen. In: Nachrichten fuer Dokumentation 36 (1985), pp. 255 - 263. Within a couple months another paper will be published which, however, is probably outside the scope of IRList: Semantisches Wissen in Datenbanken - ein Literaturbericht. In: Informatik-Spektrum 10 (1987) (in German). If you are interested, I will send you an English abstract. Sincerely yours, Friedrich Gebhardt ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 29 Jan 87 11:52:25 est From: schatz@thumper.bellcore.com (Bruce R. Schatz) Subject: Telesophy Project [Extracted from WORKS Digest Tuesday, 10 Feb 1987 Volume 7 : Issue 2 - Ed] Readers of this newsgroup may be interested in the following: The Telesophy Project at Bell Communications Research is a research effort to understand how to provide uniform access to AnyThing AnyWhere and thus permit browsing the WorldNet. A telesophy system transparently stores and retrieves information of different types from different locations. We have built a prototype on Sun workstation hardware, which accesses multiple datatypes from multiple databases on multiple machines. A set of databases have been obtained, ranging from Netnews to journal citations to full-text magazines to color pictures, and we are beginning to use the system on a daily basis. The prototype attempts to achieve the full potential of networks of bitmapped workstations. It provides a content-addressable distributed file system coupled with local multi-media editing. Building such an end-to-end system requires finding some workable solution to a myriad of unsolved research problems. We are seeking new colleagues to help build the telesophy prototype. If interested, please contact me directly. A fuller description appears on misc.jobs. Bruce Schatz schatz@bellcore.com (decvax,ihnp4,ucbvax)!bellcore!schatz ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 19 Jan 87 18:19:59 est From: walker@FLASH.BELLCORE.COM Subject: REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS TO HOST IJCAI-91 OUTSIDE OF NORTH AMERICA PROPOSALS FOR SITES FOR IJCAI-91 SOLICITED The site for IJCAI-91 will be selected at the IJCAI-87 in Milan this coming summer (23-28 August). Because of the size of the conferences, it is now necessary to plan four years in advance. The selection process has become more complicated for the same reason. As a result, it will be necessary for countries that would like to host IJCAI-91 to submit detailed proposals describing their plans for the meeting and to prepare thorough budget estimates in advance. It will be necessary for an officially recognized AI organization in the country selected to sign an agreement with IJCAII that establishes a formal commitment to hold the conference and that defines mutual responsibilities. IJCAI conferences are organized every two years, usually in August, and they alternate between North America and other parts of the world. Since IJCAI-89 will be held in Detroit, Michigan, USA, IJCAI-91 will be held outside of North America. Proposals will be evaluated in relation to a number of site selection criteria: 1. National, regional, and local AI community support. 2. National, regional, and local government and industry support. 3. Accessibility, attractiveness, and desirability of proposed site. 4. Appropriateness of proposed dates. 5. Adequacy of conference and exhibit facilities for anticipated number of registrants (currently 7500-10000 for North America; 2000-3000 or more elsewhere, depending on the location). 6. Adequacy of residence accommodations and food services in a range of price categories. 7. Adequacy of budget projections. Prospective hosts should request a detailed list of site information required and a set of budget categories as soon as possible. Initial draft proposals should be submitted by 15 April 1987; final proposals must be distributed to the Executive Committee by 15 July 1987. Direct requests for proposal information to the IJCAII Secretary-Treasurer: Dr. Donald E. Walker (IJCAII) Bell Communications Research 435 South Street, MRE 2A379 Morristown, NJ 07960-1961, USA +1 201 829-4312 telex: 275209 BELL UR arpanet: walker@flash.bellcore.com usenet: {ucbvax, ihnp4, mcvax, or ... }!bellcore!walker ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 30 Jan 87 14:28:03 EST From: Jim Hendler Subject: Conference - Conceptual Information Processing [Excerpted from AIList by NL-KR editor] Call for Participation Fourth Annual Workshop on Theoretical Issues in Conceptual Information Processing Washington, D.C. June 4-5, 1987 Sponsored by American Association for Artificial Intelligence and University of Maryland Institute for Advanced Computer Studies Objectives: The goal of the investigations under the title "conceptual information processing" has been understanding intelligence and cognition computationally, rather than merely the construction of performance programs or formalization per se. Thus, this workshop will focus on an exploration of issues common to representation and organization of knowledge and memory for natural language understanding, planning, problem solving, explanation, learning and other cognitive tasks. The approaches to be covered are united by a concern with representation, organization and processing of conceptual knowledge with an emphasis on empirical investigation of these phenomena by experimentation and implementation of computer programs. Format: The TICIP workshop will be comprised of a combination of panels, invited paper presentations, and "debates" designed to encourage lively and active discussion. Not all participants will be invited to present, but all will be expected to interact. Attendance: In order to maximize the interactive nature of this workshop, attendance will be limited. Those interested in participating, either as speakers or audience, are asked to submit a one-page summary of work in this area. A small number of invitations will be extended to those who are interested in the area but have not yet contributed. Those interested in such an invitation should contact the Program Chair. A limited amount of financial assistance will be available to graduate students invited to participate. Review Process: Invitation will be based on an informal review of submissions by the Program Committee. Workshop Information: The conference chair is Prof. B. Chandrasekaran (Ohio State University). The program committee consists of Prof.s R. Alterman (Brandeis), J. Carbonell (CMU), M. Dyer (UCLA), and J. Hendler (U of Maryland, Chair). Submission: A one page abstract of recent work in the area should be submitted to the Program Chair. The deadline for these submissions is April 15, 1987. Applicants will be informed of their status soon thereafter. Send abstracts (but please, no papers) to: James Hendler Computer Science Department University of Maryland College Park, Md. 20742. hendler@brillig.umd.edu hendler@maryland ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 9 Feb 87 18:44:08 est From: rba@flash.bellcore.com Subject: call regarding workshop on office knowledge CALL FOR PARTICIPATION IFIP WG8.4 Workshop on Office Knowledge: Representation, Management and Utilization 17-19 August 1987 University of Toronto Toronto, Canada WORKSHOP CHAIRMAN PROGRAM CHAIRMAN Prof. Dr. Alex A. Verrijn-Stuart Dr. Winfried Lamersdorf University of Leiden IBM European Networking Center ORGANIZING CHAIRMAN Prof. Fred H. Lochovsky University of Toronto This workshop is intended as a forum and focus for research in the representation, management and utilization of knowledge in the office. This research area draws from and extends techniques in the areas of artificial intelligence, data base management systems, programming languages, and communication systems. The workshop program will consist of one day of invited presentations from key researchers in the area plus one and one half days of contributed presentations. Extended abstracts, in English, of 4-8 double-spaced pages (1,000-2,000 words) are invited. Each submission will be screened for relevance and potential to stimulate discussion. There will be no formal workshop proceedings. However, accepted submissions will appear as submitted in a special issue of the WG8.4 newsletter and will be made available to workshop participants. How to submit Four copies of double-spaced extended abstracts in English of 1,000-2,000 words (4-8 pages) should be submitted by 15 April 1987 to the Program Chairman: Dr. Winfried Lamersdorf IBM European Networking Center Tiergartenstrasse 15 Postfach 10 30 68 D-6900 Heidelberg West Germany Important Dates Extended abstracts due: 15 April 1987 Notification of acceptance for presentation: 1 June 1987 Workshop: 17-19 August 1987 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 6 Feb 87 19:59:12 PST From: Subhana.pa@Xerox.COM Subject: "WHAT'S IN A WORD?" by Martin Kay Reply-To: Diebert.pa@Xerox.COM [Extract from NL-KR Digest (2/10/87 17:44:01) Volume 2 Number 7 - Ed] PARC FORUM Thursday, February 12, 1987 4:00 pm, PARC Auditorium MARTIN KAY Principal Scientist, Natural Language Theory & Technology Area Intelligent Systems Laboratory, Xerox PARC WHAT'S IN A WORD? ABSTRACT: Recognizing words in English text is generally easy in principle--break the text into contiguous sequences of alphabet characters and look each of them up in an alphabetical list. That is in principle. It practice, it works poorly in some fields, like chemistry and medicine, in some languages, like German and Arabic, and for some applications, like dictionaries and spelling checkers for small machines. The problem is that the list could be large--potentially infinite--in size, though the information it contains is tantalizingly redundant. Obvious strategies are to subdue the problem with computational cunning, mathematical magic, or linguistic lore. This talk will apply all three of these to English "unredegaussability", Spanish "digamelo", German "Strassenbahnschafnerversicherungsgesellschaft", Arabic "atakaatab", and Turkish "otobusun" among others, with the aim of showing that computation, mathematics, and linguistics combine to make a truly dynamic trio. Host: Tim Diebert (Computer Science Laboratory, 494-4433) ... ------------------------------ END OF IRList Digest ********************