IRList Digest Friday, 26 June 1987 Volume 3 : Issue 16 Today's Topics: Query - References on approximate structure matching - Micro software for information retrieval - Thesaurus building software - Novels available on diskettes Abstracts - Correction to Issue 14 abstracts Announcement - ACM SIGIR Election Results - Browser V.244+ for the Mac is available - Program for IFIP WG8.4 Workshop on Office Knowledge News addresses are ARPANET: fox@vtopus.cs.vt.edu BITNET: foxea@vtvax3.bitnet CSNET: fox@vt UUCPNET: seismo!vtisr1!irlistrq ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 2 Jun 87 10:51 EDT From: Roland Zito-Wolf Subject: references re (approximate) structure matching [Message also sent to NL-KR and AI lists; please excuse duplications.] I am looking for references regarding the matching of complex structures (matching on semantic networks or portions of networks) such as arise in doing retrieval operations on knowledge-bases so represented. Since the general matching problem is most likely intractable, I'm looking for approximate or incomplete techniques, such as partial match, resource-bounded match, matches using preference rules, etc. References which explore algorithms in detail, and implemented systems, would be especially useful. For example, does anyone know of a detailed description of the KRL matcher? Information on the more general problem of query/data-retrieval from semantic networks would also be useful. Thanks in advance. Roland J. Zito-wolf Palladian Software 4 Cambridge Center Cambridge, Mass 02142 617-661-7171 RJZ%JASPER@LIVE-OAK.LCS.MIT.EDU ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 13 Jun 87 03:31:13 pdt From: cssamia%opal.Berkeley.EDU@BERKELEY.EDU (Samia Benidir) Subject: microcomputer software for information retrieval [Note: message begins with copy of Welcome message, and comment about people on USENET now getting IRList - Ed] ... Great! I am glad that information scientists can discuss info. retrieval issues on the USENET! Thanks for the initiative. I know that the following question is not quite the direction you want to give to this group, but I need to find out if there is any microcomputer software for information retrieval, i.e., not just any database, but a sophisticated package, using Booleans and other algorithms. The only one I am aware of is SIRE; is there something more polished either in the public domain, shareware or commercial packages? I will inform the scholars from the School of Library & Information Studies of Berkeley of the existence of this new group. Samia [Note: I am glad that IRList can be received under USENET; if anyone wants to inform me of messages from USENET that the rest of us should see, please do so. Regarding packages, I would be happy to publish a summary of free or commercially available or research systems for information retrieval, giving features and key characteristics, if someone would like to prepare such. I have seen TOPIC by ADS, and CD450 by OCLC; SIRE has evolved into the Personal Librarian - Ed] -- Samia Benidir cssamia@ucbopal.Berkeley.EDU ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Jun 87 12:06:08 edt From: "Susan E. Gauch" Subject: Thesauri I am doing my Ph.D. thesis in Intelligent Information Retrieval, and could use some help/advice/software. My database is a full-text textbook about computer architecture. I need a thesaurus for this area. I can either - build one by hand from the words in the text - write some software to build one automatically - or import a thesaurus for this general area if such a thing exists. Does any one have any advice/experience with any of the above options? Are there any online thesauri/thesaurus building software around that may be useful? Susan Gauch gauchs@unc decvax!mcnc!unc!gauchs [Note: Good questions! Since at the 1986 ASIS Annual Meeting he indicated he knew how to build thesauri, you might send query to Dagobert Soergel at U. Md. (author of Academic Press book "Organizing Information"). Bob Amsler at Bellcore has been building knowledge bases from machine readable books and may have advice too. We have done a bit here in connection with the CODER project, using the machine readalbe text of the "Handbook of Artificial Intelligence" to help with an intelligent information retrieval system for AIList Digest. There are various published articles and books with information on building term association matrices etc. that are also relevant. Please send back a report on what else you find. - Ed] ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 23 Jun 87 17:28:51 edt From: A385@EMDUCM11.Bitnet Subject: machine readable novels Greetings from Spain! Does anyone knows where I can find contemporary novels on PC-diskettes?.It doesn't matter public domain or commercial. I also could dumping files frommainframes to PC's. Are there any Arpanet list or another forum about literature and word processing? Please people interested in these subjects contact to me as i'm not subs- cribed to this list. Many thanks in advance. Yours Javier Lopez. Universidad Complutense de Madrid [Note: Have you looked into the Oxford Text Archive? - Ed] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 22 Jun 87 09:21:40 EDT From: Susanne Humphrey Subject: Re: dissertation abstracts for SIGIR Forum Ed, in the intro I sent you with the citations including abstracts, please replace last paragraph with: [Note: this refers to IRList V3 #14 - Ed] The dissertation titles and abstracts contained here are published with permission of University Microfilms International, publishers of Dissertation Abstracts International (copyright by University Microfilms International), and may not be reproduced without their prior permission. --Susanne ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 26 Jun 87 18:40:34 edt From: fox (Ed Fox) Subject: 1987 SIGIR Elections According to a letter from Pat Ryan of ACM: The following individuals were elected to serve as SIGIR officers for the term July 1, 1987 - June 30, 1989: CHAIR: Bruce Croft, Dept. of Computer Sci., Univ. of Massachusetts Amherst, MA 01003, 413-545-0463 VICE-CHAIR: Edward A. Fox, Dept. of Computer Sci., Virginia Tech Blacksburg, VA 24061, 703-961-5113 SECRETARY: Nicholas J. Belkin, Rutgers Univ./SCILS New Brunswick, NJ 08903 TREASURER: Donna Harman, Nat'l Library of Med., Lister Hill Center 8600 Rockville Pike, Bethesda MD 20815, 301-496-1939 [Note: Nick Belkin is in UK for the summer. EMAIL addresses for the others are -- croft@umass-cs.csnet fox@vtopus.cs.vt.edu donna@nlm-vax.arpa in case contacting is easier that way. - Ed] ------------------------------ Date: 24 May 87 08:48 EDT From: science@nems.ARPA (Mark Zimmermann) Subject: Browser v.244+ now available Version 0.244+ of the Browser for the Mac is now available ... if anybody wants a copy, send a self-addressed stamped envelope along with a formatted Mac disk to me, Mark Zimmermann, 9511 Gwyndale Dr., Silver Spring, MD 20910. Browser lets you create a complete inverted index to every word in a text file that can be many megabytes long ... it also lets you browse that index in Macintosh-fashion, point and click to see a KWIC display of occurrences of any term, and click on one line of that key-word-in-context display to call up the full text around that item ... use the mouse to copy/paste from the retrieved information into notes, etc. with the integrated multi-window text editor. Fast and simple. V.244+ adds a proximity-search or subindex capability ... can restrict the retrieved words to those in some chosen proximity to other words, also with point-and-click techniques. V.244+ also has greatly improved scrolling of windows and other enhancements. Requires 512KB mac or greater ... works on Mac SE, Mac II, as far as I can tell in short tests. Best with a fast hard disk. I'm working on developing a C version that will lack the beautiful user interfaces but will be more transportable to other machines ... but that project is likely to take several months to complete. science@nems.arpa 301-565-2166 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 15 Jun 87 17:17:43 edt From: "Robert B. Allen" Subject: IFIP WG8.4 Workshop Program on Office Knowledge Office Knowledge: Representation, Management and Utilization University of Toronto IFIP WG8.4 Workshop Program For information contact: Fred Lochovsky, fred@csri.toronto.edu Monday, August 17th, 1987 8:00-9:00 Registration 9:00-9:15 Workshop Opening Remarks 9:15-10:45 Session: Invited Talk Objects and Things. D. Tsichritzis, Universite de Geneve, Switzerland 11:15-12:45 Session: Supporting Organizational Activities Ubik: A System for Conceptual and Organizational Development. P. de Jong, MIT, U.S.A. KNOOM - KNowledge Oriented Office Model Representation of Knowledge in the Office. M. Hofmann, Universitaet Wien, Austria OTM: A Language for Representing Concurrent Office Tasks. J. Hogg, University of Toronto, Canada 2:00-3:30 Session: Invited Talk Representing Office Work with Goals and Constraints. W.B. Croft, University of Massachusetts, U.S.A. 4:00-5:30 Session: Representing, Querying and Generating Office Objects Time Management in the Office-net System. R. Maiocchi, R. Zicari, Politecnico di Milano, Italy, M. Fugini, Universita di Brescia, Italy Towards a Graphic Query Interface for Complex Objects. G. Lausen, Universitaet Mannheim, West Germany, A. Oberweis, Technische Hochschule Darmstadt, West Germany Knowledge Representation and Utilization in Automatic Office Form Generation. K. Watabe, K. Tsuruoka, NEC Corporation, Japan 5:30-6:30 Reception 6:30-7:30 Demonstration Meta-Data for Automating the Management of Office Information. R.E.A. Mason, A. Benjamin, J.R. Tessier, Online People Inc., Canada _________________________________________________________________ Tuesday, August 18th, 1987 9:00-10:30 Session: Invited Talk Organizational Semantics. C. Hewitt, MIT, U.S.A. 11:00-12:30 Session: Problem Solving An Office Environment to Support Problem Solving. P.W.G. Bots, H.G. Sol, Delft University of Technology, Netherlands Generic Knowledge in Office Activities. A.A. Araya, M.J. Stefik, Xerox PARC, U.S.A. EXPERTNET: An Approach to Resource Sharing on a Network of Workstations. A. Allam, Northern Telecom Canada Ltd., Canada, G.M. White, University of Ottawa, Canada 2:00-3:30 Session: Text and Pictures Semantics and Conceptual Modelling of Documents. F. Barbic, S. Daneluzzi, F. Garzotto, S. Mainetti, P. Paolini, Politecnico di Milano, Italy Knowledge-Based Text Processing in Office Environments: The Text Condensation System TOPIC. U. Hahn, Universitaet Passau, West Germany, U. Reimer, Universitaet Konstanz, West Germany Knowledge Base for Storage and Retrieval of Pictures. B. Beetz, SEL Research Center, West Germany 4:00-5:30 Session: Poster Session Artificial Intelligence and Organizational Design: Prospects of Integrating Two Perspectives. U. Frank, Universitaet Mannheim, West Germany Intermediate Knowledge Representation for Extended Office Systems. E.S. Cordingley, University of Surrey, England Intelligent Interfaces for Office Information Systems. B.C. Desai, Concordia University, Canada, C. Frasson, J. Vaucher, Universite de Montreal, Canada Managing Office Knowledge through Conceptual Structures. G. Berg-Cross, Advanced Decision Systems, U.S.A. Picture Management on Optical Disks: A Practical Approach on Micro-computers. S. Miranda, N. Le Thanh, A.C. Salgado, E. Borelli-Vittori, Universite de Nice, France Managing Replicas in Distributed Telephone/Address Directories. H.M. Gladney, IBM Almaden Research Center, U.S.A. 7:30 Banquet _________________________________________________________________ Wednesday, August 19th, 1987 9:00-10:30 Session: Invited Talk NICK: Intelligent Computer Supported Cooperative Work. C. Ellis, MCC, U.S.A. 11:00-12:30 Session: Office Communication Solving the Connection Problem. M.S. Mazer, University of Toronto, Canada Viewing Communication as a Problem Solving Activity: An Enrichment Towards Supporting Cooperative Office Work. C.C. Woo, F.H. Lochovsky, University of Toronto, Canada CHAOS: A Knowledge-Based System for Conversing Inside Offices. F. De Cindio, C. Simone, R. Vassallo, A. Zanaboni, Universita di Milano, Italy 2:00-3:30 IFIP WG8.4 Business Meeting ------------------------------ END OF IRList Digest ********************