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FOIS 2006 (International Conference on Formal Ontology in Information Systems), Baltimore, November 2006

Final Call for Papers
FOIS-2006
International Conference on Formal Ontology in Information Systems
http://www.formalontology.org/

Baltimore MD
November 9-11, 2006

Electronic abstracts: May 1, 2006
Final submissions: May 5, 2006

Papers should be submitted electronically at:
http://www.softconf.com/start/FOIS06/. 

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.

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

________________________________


Topics


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 as lying outside the scope of the
meeting. Topic areas of particular interest to the conference are: 

Foundational Issues

*=09Kinds of entity: particulars vs. universals, continuants vs.
occurrents, abstracta vs. concreta, dependent vs. independent, natural
vs. artificial 
*=09Formal relations: parthood, identity, connection, dependence,
constitution, subsumption, instantiation 
*=09Vagueness and granularity 
*=09Identity and change 
*=09Formal comparison among ontologies 
*=09Ontology of physical reality (matter, space, time, motion, ...)

*=09Ontology of biological reality (genes, proteins, cells,
organisms, ...) 
*=09Ontology of mental reality (mental attitudes, emotions, ...) 
*=09Ontology of social reality (institutions, organizations, norms,
social relationships, artistic expressions, ...) 
*=09Ontology of the information society (information,
communication, meaning negotiation, ...) 
*=09Ontology and natural language semantics, ontology and
cognition, ontology and epistemology, semiotics

Methodologies and Applications

*=09Top-level vs. application ontologies 
*=09Role of reference ontologies; Ontology integration and
alignment 
*=09Ontology-driven information systems design 
*=09Requirements engineering 
*=09Knowledge engineering 
*=09Knowledge management and organization 
*=09Knowledge representation; Qualitative modeling 
*=09Computational lexica; Terminology 
*=09Information retrieval; Question-answering 
*=09Semantic web; Web services; Grid computing 
*=09Domain-specific ontologies, especially for: Linguistics,
Geography, Law, Library science, Biomedical science, E-business,
Enterprise integration, ... 

________________________________


Deadlines and Further Information


Electronic abstracts: May 1, 2006
Final submissions: May 5, 2006
Acceptance Notification: June 26, 2006
Submission of camera-ready paper: July 28, 2006

Submitted papers must not exceed 5000 words (including bibliography).
Abstracts should be less than 300 words. Papers should be submitted
electronically at: http://www.softconf.com/start/FOIS06/. Additional
information will be provided on the conference web page:
http://www.formalontology.org/ .

Proceedings will be published and available at the conference.

________________________________


Programme Committee


*=09Bill Andersen (Ontology Works, USA) 
*=09Nicholas Asher (Department of Philosophy, University of Texas
at Austin, USA) 
*=09Nathalie Aussenac-Gilles (Research Institute for Computer
Science, CNRS, Toulouse, France) 
*=09John Bateman (Department of Applied English Linguistics,
University of Bremen, Germany) 
*=09Brandon Bennett (School of Computing, University of Leeds, UK) 
*=09Stefano Borgo (Laboratory for Applied Ontology, ISTC-CNR,
Italy) 
*=09Joost Breuker (Leibniz Center for Law, University of Amsterdam,
The Netherlands) 
*=09Roberto Casati (Jean Nicod Institute, CNRS, Paris, France) 
*=09Werner Ceusters (European Centre for Ontological Research,
Saarbr?cken) 
*=09Tony Cohn (School of Computing, University of Leeds, UK) 
*=09Matteo Cristani (University of Verona, Italy) 
*=09Ernest Davis (Department of Computer Science, New York
University, USA) 
*=09Martin D?rr (Institute of Computer Science, FORTH, Heraklion,
Greece) 
*=09Carola Eschenbach (Department for Informatics, University of
Hamburg, Germany) 
*=09Christiane Fellbaum (Cognitive Science Laboratory, Princeton
University, USA and Berlin Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and
Humanities, Berlin, Germany) 
*=09Antony Galton (School of Engineering and Computer Science,
University of Exeter, UK) 
*=09Aldo Gangemi (Laboratory for Applied Ontology, ISTC-CNR, Roma,
Italy) 
*=09Pierdaniele Giaretta (Department of Philosophy, University of
Verona, Italy) 
*=09Michael Gruninger (University of Toronto, Canada) 
*=09Nicola Guarino (Laboratory for Applied Ontology, ISTC-CNR,
Trento, Italy) 
*=09Udo Hahn (Jena University, Germany) 
*=09Jerry Hobbs (University of Southern California, USA) 
*=09Eduard Hovy (University of Southern California, USA) 
*=09Ingvar Johansson (Institute for Formal Ontology and Medical
Information Science, University of Saarbr?cken, Germany) 
*=09Werner Kuhn (IFGI, Muenster) 
*=09Fritz Lehmann (USA) 
*=09Alessandro Lenci (University of Pisa, Italy) 
*=09Leonardo Lesmo (Department of Computer Science, University of
Torino, Italy) 
*=09David Mark (Department of Geography, State University of New
York, Buffalo, USA) 
*=09Claudio Masolo (Laboratory for Applied Ontology, ISTC-CNR,
Trento, Italy) 
*=09Chris Menzel (Department of Philosophy, Texas A&M University,
USA) 
*=09Simon Milton (Department of Information Systems, University of
Melbourne, Australia) 
*=09Philippe Muller (Research Institute for Computer Science,
University of Toulouse III, France) 
*=09John Mylopoulos (Department of Computer Science, University of
Toronto, Canada) 
*=09Leo Obrst (The MITRE Corporation, USA) 
*=09Barbara Partee (University of Massachusetts, USA) 
*=09Massimo Poesio (Department of Computer Science, University of
Essex, UK) 
*=09Ian Pratt-Hartmann (Department of Computer Science, University
of Manchester, UK) 
*=09James Pustejovsky (Department of Computer Science, Brandeis
University, USA) 
*=09David Randell (Imperial College London, UK) 
*=09Robert Rynasiewicz (Johns Hopkins University, USA) 
*=09Barry Smith (National Center for Ontological Research and
Department of Philosophy, University at Buffalo, USA; Institute for
Formal Ontology and Medical Information Science, Saarbr?cken, Germany) 
*=09John Sowa (Vivomind Intelligence Inc., USA) 
*=09Veda Storey (Department of Computer Information Systems,
Georgia State University, USA) 
*=09Richmond Thomason (University of Michigan, USA) 
*=09Mike Uschold (The Boeing Company, USA) 
*=09Achille Varzi (Department of Philosophy, Columbia University,
USA) 
*=09Laure Vieu (Research Institute for Computer Science, CNRS,
Toulouse, France) 
*=09Chris Welty (IBM Watson Research Center, USA)