IRList Digest Wednesday, 23 August 1987 Volume 3 : Issue 35 Today's Topics: Email - Listserv and changes to IRList this month Query - Connectionism - Flows between and in cities Discussion - Public access to city records in a library Announcement - IR special interest group formation in Boston - CD ROM that may aid IR researchers - IJCAI-91 site and officers COGSCI - The matrix of biological knowledge News addresses are Internet or CSNET: fox@vtcs1.cs.vt.edu BITNET: fox@vtcs1.bitnet ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 23 Sep 87 17:27:29 edt From: fox (Ed Fox) Subject: Email changes relating to IRList Finally, we have, I believe, straightened out the mess resulting from 1) seismo stopping support of IRList 2) software changes at Virginia Tech The net effect is as follows: 1) IRList distribution is now being handled using the Listserv facility supported in connection with BITNET. That means that mail will go out from IRLIST-L@VTVM2.BITNET after I mail it to there from fox@vtcs1.bitnet. 2) I have redone all the addresses. If you don't get mail, or if there are problems that I can correct, please let me know. I have put in names for some people - remind me if you get a message with "no name" and want that changed. Later, we will make use of ARPANET to simplify the situation. Note that it is possible to have "peer" listserv lists which I could administer if that is desired -- let me know if you wish to explore the possibility. Meanwhile, I hope things will get back to normal and that you will forgive the various test messages and delay in getting issues out. If I have lost any submissions in the process, please send them anew. Many thanks for your cooperation, Ed Fox (IRList Editor) ------------------------------ From: Prof Keith Van Rijsbergen Date: Fri, 4 Sep 87 11:41:04 BST Subject: connectionism I would like to hear from anyone interested in the relation between parallel distributed processing and information retrieval. I would like to set up an informal group exchanging ideas, software, seminar notices etc. We could agree to do it through IRLIST but have personal contact as well. Anyone out there interested? Keith van Rijsbergen Computing Science Glasgow University Glasgow G12 8QQ Scotland ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 21 Sep 87 17:50:47 edt From: D3ECJCB2@EB0UB011 (JOSEP M. CASAS) Subject: flows and organizations of cities - comments requested [Note: I received this message as a BITNET file with the right ends of lines truncated - I hope it is clear. -Ed] I HAVE BEEN WORKING ON THE ITEM WHOSE ABSTRACT IS FOLLOWING THESE LINES: NOW I AM TRYING TO DESIGN A SORT OF THERMODYNAMIC NETWORK APPLIED TO THE HUMAN ECOSYSTEM CONSIDERING: 1) THE FLOWS BETWEEN CITIES 2) THE SELF-ORGANIZATION OF EACH CITY THE PURPOSE IS SIMULATION, THOUGH STARTING AT A VERY PLAIN LEVEL. THE PROBLEM IS HOW TO DESIGN SUCH A SYSTEM THAT, ONCE RUNNING, COMPUTES ENERGY OR WHATEVER (FLOWS BETWEEN CITIES) AND INFORMATION (SELF-ORGANIZA OF THE CITIES). FLOWS BETWEEN CITIES MAY BELONG TO ANY OF THE THREE WORLDS QUOTED BY POPPER ET AL. 1977. WOULD IT HELP TO IMAGINE EACH CITY AS A NODE OF A COMPUTER NETWORK ? OR AS A CELLULAR AUTOMATON? OR AS A CHAIN OF A FORMAL SYSTEM ? TILL THE PRESENT I HAVE BEEN STUDYING ENERGY AND MIGRATORY FLOWS ON HUMAN POPULATIONS. KEY IDEAS OBTAINED: - EXPRESSION THAT QUANTIFIES THE BEHAVIOUR OF A WIDE POPULATED AREA CONCERNING THE WAY PEOPLE SPREAD ON IT. - A TERM OF THIS EXPRESSION IS SHOWN TO BE CLOSELY RELATED WITH EXOSOMATIC(EXTERNAL) ENERGY. - FOR A GIVEN MUNICIPALITY, THE DEPENDENCE OF THE GROWTH RATE ON THIS TERM AND ITS OWN POPULATION IS CHARACTERIZED. - THE BEHAVIOUR OF THE WHOLE AREA IS FOLLOWED FROM A SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL PERSPECTIVE. - CONDITIONING OF THE DYNAMIC OF SPACE OCCUPATION BY EXTERNAL ENERGY ALLOWANCE IS SHOWN. - I HAVE GOT MAPS SHOWING THE DEVIATION OF THE MUNICIPALITIES FROM THE GENERAL LAW FOLLOWED BY THE WHOLE AREA. DEVIATIONS DON'T OCCUR AT RANDOM BUT SHOW SPATIAL AND TEMPORAL SELF-ORGANIZATION. ALL SUGGESTIONS WELLCOMED IN ADVANCE. BEST REGARDS. JOSEP M. CASAS D3ECJCB2 AT EB0UB011 ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 29 Aug 87 12:02:11 EDT From: "Don W. Saklad" Subject: internal censorship Subject: internal censorship Summary: intellectual freedom Keywords: preselection censorship intellectual freedom Notwithstanding the good record libraries have opposed to censorship, the Boston Public Library declines valid public access to city records accumulated in the library, itself being one of the city departments. There should be an improvement in our library's response to inquiries about library books and recordings as well as public documentation like minutes of our library board public proceedings and internal manuals when they are public records validly. Our Boston Public Library declines access to public records of local government especially valid inquiries and requests for public records about city library services growth, development and long range planning. A while ago it occurred to me that an effective library user like myself might ask as a library "consumer" for documentation about the library system itself. Efficient use of library services might be better with an understanding of the capacity and limitations of the library. Intellectual freedom as a principle opposed to censorship should be the ethical consideration for library professionals. Would anyone have information about what I can do about this situation, which has continued a long time now. Is there anyone in this area who might help. After talking with more than 18 people and making administrative appeals it occurs to me that network readers might have some good ideas or perhaps look into this wrongful hampering of library access by officials. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 29 Aug 87 11:53:40 EDT From: "Don W. Saklad" Subject: special interest group ########################################################################### # # # ---------------- # # | O V | # # Summary: library users association | /\/ | # # | /__ | # # | / | # # | / | # # ---------------- # # # # We're forming an information retrieval special interest group. # # # # The purpose of this activity is to organize a group and network # # for persons interested in library services and systems. Library users # # as well as those merely interested are encouraged to contact # # # # # # Boston library users info-retrieval sig, tel. 661-9650 # # # # # ########################################################################### [Note: This sounds like great timing -- just before ASIS '87 in Boston! - Ed] ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 23 Sep 87 14:22:30 edt From: fox (Ed Fox) Subject: Collection for CD ROM I will be producing Virginia Discs 1,2 in 1988 -- 2 CD ROM discs with a variety of databases on each. I believe it might be of use to put a number of IR test collections on one of them. We can, I believe, do so with collections we have here at Virginia Tech, such as CACM abstracts thru 1979 (with title, author, etc.) ADI ISI collection of highly cited articles AIList Digest issues (collected here for CODER Project) IRList Digest issues (archived here) Med 1033 I don't believe INSPEC would allow their collection out. We could add others that might be of interest if I can obtain them in time (e.g., Cranfield, NPL) -- would anyone like to send them to me? Would this be of value? Should we have indexed as well as text forms? I plan on having the documents, queries (in all forms available), and relevance judgements as available. The CD ROMs produced would have other full text and bibliographic collections as well, with a Virginia flavor. It may be accompanied with several software packages to illustrate different types of retrieval. The first disc is scheduled to be available by 3/88. If people want copies they will need to let us know by the end of this year. We plan on only releasing the discs to people who will use them for research purposes. I expect the cost will be under $50. I welcome comments on this plan. Many thanks, Ed Fox ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 2 Sep 87 17:09:55 GMT From: Alan Bundy Subject: Site and Officers for IJCAI-91 At its meeting during IJCAI-87, the 1987 IJCAI Executive Committee took the following decisions about IJCAI-91. Site: Sydney, Australia. Conference Chair: Barbara Grosz, University of Harvard. Program Chairs (joint): Ray Reiter & John Mylopoulos, University of Toronto. The conference is provisionally scheduled for the 3rd week of August 1991. Alan Bundy Executive Committee Chair ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 13 Sep 1987 21:55 EDT From: Peter de Jong Subject: Cognitive Science Calendar Start-Date: 9/14/87 Expiration-Date: 9/17/87 cog-sci-calendar digest [Extract - Ed] ... Date: Thursday, 10 September 1987 13:56-EDT From: Marc Vilain Re: BBN AI/Biotech seminar BBN Science Development Program AI/Biotech Seminar Series Lecture "The Matrix of Biological Knowledge" Kimberle Koile BBN Labs (KKOILE@G.BBN.COM) BBN Labs 10 Moulton Street 2nd floor large conference room 10:30 am, Wednesday Sept. 16th Abstract: The body of experimental data in the biological sciences is immense and growing rapidly. Its volume is so extensive that computer methods, possibly straining the limits of current technology will be necessary to organize the data. Moreover, it seems highly likely that there are a significant number of as yet undiscovered ordering relations, new laws, and predictive models embedded in the mass of existing information. To employ this body of information productively, it will be useful to create an extensive data/knowledge base, "the matrix of biological knowledge," structured to provide a conceptual framework by the laws, models, empirical generalizations, and physical foundations of the modern biological sciences. This talk will describe preliminary efforts to define and prototype parts of the Matrix. (These efforts took place at a summer workshop that was organized as a result of a National Academy of Sciences report, "Models for Biomedical Research: A New Perspective.") ------------------------------ END OF IRList Digest ********************