Information Retrieval List Digest 052 (March 13, 1991) URL = http://hegel.lib.ncsu.edu/stacks/serials/irld/irld-052 IRLIST Digest March 13, 1991 Volume VIII, Number 9 Issue 52 ********************************************************** I. NOTICES A. Meetings announcements/Calls for papers 1. CHI91 Workshop on Problems of Size April 28 & 29, 1991 New Orleans, Louisiana 2. 4th International Conference on Computers and Learning ICCAL '92 June 17-20, 1992 Acadia University, Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada B. Publications announcements 1. Computists International: a new "networking" association II. QUERIES B. Requests for Information 1. Wordperfect Products in Libraries IV. PROJECT WORK D. Miscellaneous 1. Research on Scholarly Information Management ********************************************************** I. NOTICES I.A.1. Fr: George W. Furnas Re: CHI91 Workshop on Problems of Size ***NOTE: DEADLINE IS SOON*** * CHI91 WORKSHOP -- CALL FOR PARTICIPATION* April 28 & 29, 1991 New Orleans, LA SIZE AND COMPLEXITY PROBLEMS IN INFORMATION WORLDS Organizer: George Furnas, Bellcore >From hypertext to data-visualization, artificial worlds have grown to the point where size itself presents a serious human interface problem for access, navigation, and conceptualization. The result is a bottleneck limiting our ability to use the rich information resources that are being assembled at considerable cost. This workshop will explore the special interface problems resulting from increased size and consequent complexity, and discuss the various strategies that might help. Areas where these problems arise include: hypertext navigation, network and graph layout, large documents, data visualization, automatic text generation (short answers from large knowledge bases), large databases, video collections, etc. From within these areas, various techniques have begun to emerge, including: zooms, fisheyes, customized views, multiple linked views, brushing, section, projection, filtering, elision, culling, animation, clustering, and history mechanisms. The planned two-day interdisciplinary workshop will bring together about 10-15 researchers working on various techniques in these diverse domains. The first day will focus on half-hour presentations by participants on their own positions and research. The second day will begin with an hour or two of discussant and summary presentations followed by general discussion. The goals will be (in order of increasing ambitiousness), (1) simply to share insights and strategies, (2) attempt to structure the set of problems (perhaps via a taxonomy), (3) to work towards a theory of what underlies them, and enables their solutions. One might also hope, through (2) and (3), to discover new techniques. Attendance at the workshop is limited. If you are actively working on this topic, and would like to be considered for participation please submit: (A) REQUIRED: a 500-1000 word position paper. This might, for example, be a general framework you would currently advocate for thinking about problems of size, a new technique you are working on, or some new methodology for investigating the problems. (B) REQUIRED: a brief summary of your own background and interest in the subject. Please include, as appropriate, background training (e.g., computer science, statistics, psychology, graphics design,...), application areas worked on, strategies explored, other related work or publications you have. (C) OPTIONAL: a list of three favorite papers deemed relevant to the topic, from your perspective, preferably: 1. a favorite general discussion paper, 2. a favorite paper specific to a technique or application area, 3. a favorite more obscure paper on the topic. These submissions will be used to compile an interdisciplinary bibliography. The position papers of selected participants will be sent to those invited, and the compiled bibliography will be sent to ALL applicants. Position papers are due by March 15, 1991. Notification of acceptance will be given in week following. PLEASE INCLUDE YOUR NAME, ADDRESS, PHONE NUMBER, AND EMAIL ADDRESS ON YOUR SUBMISSION. SEND APPLICATIONS TO: PAPER MAIL: George Furnas CHI'91 Size and Complexity Workshop Bellcore, Room 2M397 445 South St. Morristown, NJ 07960 USA EMAIL: gwf@bellcore.com ***** EMAIL PREFERRED ***** TEL: (201)829-4289 FAX: (201)538-9093 ********** I.A.2. Fr: Amari M. Elammari <852028e@AUCS.ACADIAU.CA> Re: 4th International Conference on Computers and Learning ICCAL '92 June 17-20, 1992 Acadia University, Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada ICCAL is dedicated to the presentation of new results in the theory and practice of computers and learning. Areas considered for ICCAL'92 include theoretical as well as practical topics such as Authoring Systems, AI Applications, Computers in Distance Education, Computer-Supported Cooperative Learning, Discourse Management, Evaluation of Learning Environments, Human-Computer Interaction/Interface, Human Problem Solving, Hypermedia, Innovative Educational Software, Intelligent Tutoring Systems, Knowledge Acquisition and Representation, Knowledge-Based CAI Systems, Media-Based CAI, Performance Monitoring, Presentation CAI and ICAI, Problem Generation, Simulations, Student Modelling and Cognitive Diagnosis, Visualization of Algorithms, and Innovative Applications in Medicine, Arts, Music, Engineering, Business, Sciences, Humanities, Language Learning, etc. Workshops, tutorials, and panels on subjects of current interest will also be offered. Anticipated workshop/tutorial themes are Authoring Software, Cognitive Science, Computer Assisted Language Learning, Human-Computer Interfaces, Hypermedia, and Intelligent Tutoring Systems. Six invited speeches will be given by the world's leading experts in areas covering the major themes of the conference and exhibits of software and hardware products are being planned. The previous ICCAL conferences were held in Calgary, Canada (1987), Dallas Texas (1989), and Hagen, Germany (1990). ICCAL'92 will take place at Acadia University, Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada. ICCAL usually attracts around 300 attendees and the proceedings of the last two conferences have been published in the Lecture Notes in Computer Science by Springer Verlag. This will be the case for ICCAL'92 as well. Deadline for submission of papers: October 4, 1991. Paper format: 4 copies of paper consisting of a title page with author name(s) and affiliation(s), one page with a 200-word abstract, keywords, and names of relevant conference topics, and a 2,500 to 3,500 word long manuscript. Send submissions and enquiries to Dr. I. Tomek, Jodrey School of Computer Science, Acadia University, Wolfville, Nova Scotia, B0P 1X0, Canada, phone: (902)-542-2201/467, fax: (902)-542-7224, e-mail: INTERNET:ICCAL@AcadiaU.ca ********** I.B.1. Fr: Ken Laws Re: Computists International: a new "networking" association This is to announce Computists International, a new "networking" association for computer and information scientists. Hi! I'm Ken Laws If this announcement interests you, contact me at internet address laws@ai.sri.com. If you can't get through, my mail address is: Dr. Kenneth I. Laws; 4064 Sutherland Drive, Palo Alto, CA 94303; daytime phone (415) 493-7390. I'm back from two years at the National Science Foundation. I used to run AIList, and I miss it. Now I'm creating a broader service for anyone interested in information (or knowledge), software, databases, algorithms, or doing neat new things with computers. It's a career-oriented association for mutual mentoring about grant and funding sources, information channels, text and software publishing, tenure, career moves, institutions, consulting, business practices, home offices, software packages, taxes, entrepreneurial concerns, and the sociology of work. We can talk about algorithms, too, with a focus on applications. Toward that end, I'm going to edit and publish a weekly+ newsletter, The Computists' Communique. The Communique will be tightly edited, with carefully condensed news and commentary. Content will depend on your contributions, but I will filter, summarize, and generally act like an advice columnist. (Ann Landers?) I'll also suggest lines of discussion, collect "common knowledge" about academia and industry, and help track people and projects. As a bonus, I'll give members whatever behind-the-scenes career help I can. Alas, this won't be free. The charter membership fee for Computists will depend in part on how many people respond to this notice. The Communique itself will be free to all members, FOB Palo Alto; internet delivery incurs no additional charge. To encourage participation, there's a full money-back guarantee (excluding postage). Send me a reply to find out more. -- Ken Computists International and The Computists' Communique are service marks of Kenneth I. Laws. Membership in professional organizations may be a tax-deductible business expense. ********************************************************** II. QUERIES II.A.1. Fr: Bill Drew Re: Wordperfect Products IN Libraries We are currently using WordPerfect 5.1 , DataPerfect, and DrawPerfect in our library. I am interested in sharing applications of these programs, problems, solutions, or just questions. I can be reached at this list if you want to share with everyone or at my bitnet address if you just want to talk with me. Wilfred E. Drew Serials Librarian SUNY Morrisville College of Agriculture and Technology P.O. Box 902 Morrisville, N.Y. 13408-0902 315-684-6055 voice 315-684-6115 fax drewwe@snymorva ********************************************************** IV. PROJECT WORK IV.B.1. Fr: Ivy Anderson Re: Research on Scholarly Information Management The Brandeis University Libraries have recently begun a research project on personal information management in the academic environment. Called the Gesher Project, this study is being conducted jointly with researchers at Digital Equipment Corporation and is funded in part by Digital. The purpose of the present posting is to find out about similar or related research that may be in progress elsewhere. The research we are doing is in two parts. One part will consist of structured interviews with faculty and other senior research personnel across campus to gather data about how they do their work, the types of information sources which they use regularly or infrequently and the ways in which they use them. We are interested in how people use non-library based information (e.g. personal collections, informal contacts, etc.) as well as traditional library sources. The second part of the research consists of a user-centered design process to develop an experimental software platform for information management, with links to external databases. The software will be developed by Digital's Cambridge Research Laboratory and will run on a DECsystem 5000 Ultrix server. We would be very interested to hear from (or about) other research projects of a similar or related nature, including related work in information retrieval. Replies can be sent directly to me at one of the addresses below (postal or email). Thanks very much in advance. Ivy Anderson Tel: (617) 736-4671 Head of Systems and Access Services Bitnet: anderson@brandeis Brandeis University Libraries Internet: anderson@binah.cc. PO Box 9110, Waltham, MA 02254-9110 brandeis.edu ********************************************************** IRLIST Digest is distributed from the University of California, Division of Library Automation, 300 Lakeside Drive, Oakland, CA. 94612-3550. Send subscription requests to: LISTSERV@UCCVMA.BITNET Send submissions to IRLIST to: IR-L@UCCVMA.BITNET Editorial Staff: Clifford Lynch lynch@postgres.berkeley.edu calur@uccmvsa.bitnet Mary Engle engle@cmsa.berkeley.edu meeur@uccmvsa.bitnet Nancy Gusack ncgur@uccmvsa.bitnet The IRLIST Archives will be set up for anonymous FTP, and the address will be announced in future issues. These files are not to be sold or used for commercial purposes. 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