Information Retrieval List Digest 344 (February 10, 1997) URL = http://hegel.lib.ncsu.edu/stacks/serials/irld/irld-344.txt IRLIST Digest ISSN 1064-6965 February 10, 1997 Volume XIV, Number 6 Issue 344 ********************************************************** II. JOBS 1. U.Manchester: 2 Research Positions III. NOTICES A. Publications 1. AIP Journals Now Online B. Meetings 1. IJCAI-97 Workshop on Ontologies and Multilingual NLP 2. RIAO '97: Call for Product Demonstrations C. Miscellaneous 1. Indiana U.: New MIS Program 2. Indiana U.: Ph.D., Information Science 3. New Top Level Domain Names for Internet ********************************************************** II. JOBS II.1. Fr: Harold Somers Re: U. Manchester: 2 Research Positions We are urgently looking for two Researchers to work on our TREE (TRans-European Employment) project, commencing as soon as possible. The posts are for 12 months in the first instance; we are confident of further funding for at least one of the posts, and quite hopeful that the other will also be extended: in either case, this would be for a further 6 to 9 months. The TREE project aims to implement an on-line multilingual employment service, through which prospective employees will be able to read job opportunity announcements in any of several European languages, independent of the language in which the employer originally drafted the announcement. This will be implemented on the Internet, and will initially cover the domain of the tourist industry, including travel, hotels and restaurants. Languages treated currently are English, Flemish and French. UMIST's role in the project is to implement the module which analyses job ads and stores them in the job-schema database: the analysis methodology adopted is a hybrid of traditional pattern-matching techniques and example-based fuzzy matching. We also have primary responsibility for the lexicographic/terminological aspect of the project, which has an impact on the analysis, generation and search (retrieval) modules. PROGRAMMER: The successful candidate will be a competent C/C++ programmer with experience in software development, distribution and integration. The job will involve adapting and developing existing software components written in C, and integrating them into the overall system, in collaboration with the other partners in the project. A knowledge of databases, scripting langauges, inter-process communication will be an enornmous advantage. A background knowledge of NLP, AI, IR or pattern matching would also be an advantage. Knowledge of Flemish or French would be an added bonus, but is by no means a requirement. LEXICOGRAPHER/TERMINOLOGIST: A second post is offered to a person with knowledge of computational lexicography and terminology, with an interest in knowledge representation, linguistic aspects of information retrieval, and experience of applying this in a computational framework. CCL/UMIST: The Centre for Computational Linguistics (CCL) exists as a separate teaching and research unit in the Department of Language Engineering in order to permit a greater concentration of effort in the field of computer applications of applied linguistics and information technology. Its main orientation lies in interlingual communication with an emphasis on machine translation, terminological data banks, multilingual information systems and human-computer interaction. SALARY SCALES: Salaries will be in the range (pounds sterling) 14317-15986, depending on age and experience (or 14317-21519, subject to expected increase of 2.9%) For further information, please e-mail harold@ccl.umist.ac.uk or phone Harold Somers on +44 161 200 3107. We wish to fill this post without delay! ********************************************************** III. NOTICES III.A.1. Fr: Doug LaFrenier Re: AIP Journals Now Online On January 1, 1997 the American Institute of Physics launched its Online Journal Service (OJS). This service offers libraries and their patrons free access to searchable, full-text versions of the AIP journals to which they subscribe. I hope this brief message clarifies some of the most common questions we've received about AIP's online journals. 1. *If you would like to register for this free service* you may obtain a subscriber agreement at AIP's website: http://webster.aip.org/ojs/service.html 2. *If you have returned a completed Subscriber Agreement* you will receive an e-mail notification as soon as we activate your account. We are currently processing many requests for the Online Journal Service. 3. *If you have questions about the terms of the Agreement* please query Dr. John T. Scott, Journal Publisher, at jscott@aip.org. 4. *If would like a launch schedule* see the URL above. Here, along with other useful information about the service, you will find the date each journal will become active online. Currently, Applied Physics Letters and JETP Letters (an English translation of the leading Russian physics letters journal) are up and running; CHAOS, The Journal of Chemical Physics and Review of Scientific Instruments will be available by Feb. 17, 1997. All AIP archival journals will be active by April 15. 5. *If you have technical questions* (about IP classes, system configurations, etc.), please contact ojscs@aip.org. Note that the only software required at your institution is Adobe Acrobat Reader and a Web browser, both readily available The OJS also provides a free gateway to the AIP abstracts databases SPIN and Advance SPIN. In addition, users may browse tables of contents for all journals in the service, order documents online, and obtain contact information for approximately 80,000 physical scientists worldwide. If I can answer any other questions about AIP's online journal service, please don't hesitate to contact me. Sincerely, Douglas LaFrenier online@aip.org Director of Marketing 516-576-2411 - voice American Institute of Physics 516-576-2374 - fax 500 Sunnyside Boulevard Woodbury, NY 11797 ********** III.B.1. Fr: Remi Zajac (by way of Maria Zemankova) Re: IJCAI-97 Workshop on Ontologies and Multilingual NLP IJCAI-97 Workshop on Ontologies and Multilingual NLP Nagoya, Japan, August 23-25, 1997 (Web page: http://crl.nmsu.edu/Events/IJCAI/ Workshop on Ontologies and Multilingual NLP) BACKGROUND: A number of ontology-related workshops have been held in the past years (e.g., 1993 in Padua, 1995 IJCAI, 1996 ECAI, 1997 AAAI Spring Symposium, etc.). However, none of them concentrated centrally on applications of world modeling to multilingual Natural Language Processing (NLP). Ontologies for knowledge-based computing and especially for Natural Language Processing are steadily reaching a level of sophistication and size which make them increasingly useful to the resolution of problems in real-world NLP applications. The recent creation of an ad hoc ANSI working group on standardization of ontologies is an indication of the maturity of the field. More and more ontology-based systems are being built for multilingual applications (e.g., multilingual machine translation, multilingual information retrieval). However, most of the language-processing oriented ontologies that have been built so far have English or another language (e.g., Japanese or Spanish) as the basis (e.g., WordNet, EDR, Pangloss, etc.). Since there is a growing need for multilingual applications of these ontologies, it is natural to ask the following questions: Are any of these ontologies actually used in a multilingual setting? Can we characterize the degree of independence of an ontology from the natural language it is based on? What are the necessary properties of a truly multilingual (or universal) ontology? Is it possible to obtain a language-neutral ontology from a language-dependent ontology? What applications truly need multilingual (or language-neutral) ontologies? How do we separate language-specific (or lexical) information from ontological knowledge? How can the depth of knowledge in the ontology be balanced with the needs of an application? What are the prospects of automating ontology acquisition? What is the relationship between an ontology as the repository of general knowledge about the world and knowledge about particular individuals - people, places, organizations, events, etc.? These and many more questions must be discussed much more widely than they have been till now. Many of the previous workshops were devoted to more formal issues in ontology building, such as the knowledge representation schemata, closures, formal properties of ontologies, and so on. Moreover, they included the discussion of small ontologies that cover a very narrow domain of problem solving; NLP typically requires a broad-coverage ontology. The hypothesis of using interlingual representations based on an ontology is at least 50 years old. It was originally formulated in the framework of machine translation. However, few systems to date have tested this hypothesis, for MT or other applications, by implementing a large-scale interlingua-based system using a language-independent ontology. This workshop will debate the benefits, costs and competitiveness of such an approach to solving semantic and cross-language problems for MT, IR, and other NLP applications. AUDIENCE: The workshop is open to all members of the AI and NLP community. The workshop is intended for researchers and practitioners in knowledge-based NLP, artificial intelligence and computational linguistics who have been working on large scale knowledge-based resources, ontologies, multilingual lexical semantics, interlinguas, and their applications. Reports of actual work including problems and solutions in the design, construction and use of ontologies are strongly encouraged but more theoretical work (grounded on actual work on ontologies) aimed at defining the limits, constraints and directions for large-scale practical language-neutral ontologies is welcome as well. ISSUES: Issues to be addressed include but are not limited to: - Design of language-neutral ontologies. - Acquisition problems in multilingual ontologies. - Multilingual applications of ontologies. - Multilingual ontologies and terminological knowledge bases. - Ontologies and interlinguas. - Standardization of ontologies: issues of multilinguality. - Ontologies and Lexicons. - Sharing and standardization of language-independent ontologies for NLP. - Costs and competitiveness of ontology-based solutions vis-a-vis corpus-based and transfer-based methods for multilingual NLP. FORMAT OF THE WORKSHOP: The workshop will include twelve presentation periods which will be divided into ten-minute presentations of positions followed by 20-minute discussions. The attendance will be limited to 20 active participants. Papers will be circulated among participants several weeks before the workshop. Presentation will be short, under 15 minutes (10 minutes preferably) with 20 minutes reserved for exchanges. We encourage the authors to focus on the salient points of their presentation and identify possible controversial positions. We encourage authors not to repeat as is what has been already written in the paper. There will be ample time set aside for informal and panel discussions and audience participation. Please note that workshop participants are required to register at the main IJCAI-97 conference. SUBMISSION INFORMATION: Timetable MARCH 15, 1997: Deadline for reception of submissions. MAY 1, 1997: Notification of acceptance. JULY 1, 1997: Deadline for reception of camera-ready copy. FORMAT: Submissions must not exceed 6 pages in camera-ready format. Submissions in electronic form are prefered. Authors should follow the IJCAI format. REVIEW PROCESS: Papers will be subject to peer review. Selection criteria include accuracy and originality of ideas, clarity and significance of results and the quality of the presentation. The decision of the Program Committee, taking into consideration the individual reviews, will be final and cannot be appealed. Papers selected will be scheduled for presentation. Authors of accepted papers, or their representatives, are expected to present their papers at the conference. SUBMISSION: Electronic submission should be sent at zajac@crl.nmsu.edu. The subject line should contain "IJCAI97 workshop submission". Papers should be sent at the following address: Rimi Zajac / IJCAI-97 Computing Research Laboratory New-Mexico State University PO Box 30001 / 3CRL Las Cruces NM 88003 USA Fax: +1-505-646-6218 SCHEDULE: MARCH 15, 1997: Deadline for reception of submissions. MAY 1, 1997: Notification of acceptance. JULY 1, 1997: Deadline for reception of camera-ready copy. JULY 21, 1997: Publication of final list of participants. AUGUST 23-25, 1997: IJCAI-97 Workshop. ********** III.B.2. Fr: Abdellatif Saoudi Re: RIAO '97: Call for Product Demonstrations RIAO'97 CALL FOR PRODUCT DEMONSTRATIONS RIAO'97 CONFERENCE Computer-Assisted Searching on the Internet June 25-27, 1997 McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada THEME: Tools for Information Retrieval (text, image, or sound) on the WWW Commercial products are welcome. Products to be presented will be selected for their innovative character by the Scientific Application Committee of RIAO. MAIN THEMES OF INTEREST: A: Rapid indexing and retrieval engines; automatic abstracting B: Linguistic tools in information retrieval C: Information retrieval from heterogeneous formats - Identifcation of the same document in different contexts (different languages, structures, versions, etc.) - Unification of documents from heterogeneous formats; data-wharehousing - Data-mining and knowledge discovery in large databases - Search strategies in heterogenous contexts D: Strategies for technology watch on the Web; content addressable electronic mail, newsgroups, and other WWW systems E: Architecture - How to exploit large bandwidth for information retrieval - Distributed multi-agent architectures F: Imaging - Content characterization; manual and automatic description methods - Search strategies G: Sound - Sound content characterization - Automatic indentification of sound type: speech, music, ... - Spoken language recognition; word (boundary) identification H: Multimedia Web : Iconic, navigational, and speech interfaces I: Content-based compression techniques J: Data security problems: copyright protection, internet crime K: Web-related international conventions and policies A URL giving access to a demonstration of the product must be submitted to the Committee, along with a description of the product emphasizing its original aspects. Some of the local expenses related to demonstrations will be the responsability of the demonstrators. APPLICATION COMMITTEE: Persons in charge of the Application Committee are: Carole BROCHARD (France) for Europe, Africa and Asia Adel EL ZAIM (Canada) for Nothern and South America They will choose the experts for selecting the innovative products according to the specification of each product. RIAO97 SUBMISSIONS AND CONTACTS:: Products should be submitted electronically as attached Postscript or ASCII files to: riao97@irin.univ-nantes.fr or in manuscript form to: RIAO97 C.I.D. 36 bis, rue Ballu F-75009 Paris, France or to: RIAO97 C.A.S.I.S C/O Leon Constantin 25th floor 575 Madison Ave New York, NY 10022 USA CLOSING DATE FOR SUBMISSION: MARCH 10, 1997 Questions, comments, and intents to attend conference or submit paper or demonstration proposals may also be sent to above addresses. Additional information will be found at conference web page at URL: http://www.sciences.univ-nantes.fr/RIAO97 [note: RIAO in CAPS] ********** III.C.1. Fr: jm@velcome.iupui.edu Re: Indiana U.: New MIS Program Indiana University has recently introduced a Master of Information Science (M.I.S.) degree program. The program educates professionals to create, organize and manage information effectively in diverse environments. It appeals to people working in information-related jobs who want to accelerate their careers and to people with arts and sciences undergraduate degrees who are interested in careers in information management, systems analysis and design, online searching and information brokerage, competitive intelligence and research analysis, network management, and database development and marketing. An important goal is to educate talented people so that they can be among the leaders of the information professions in the next century. Our M.I.S. graduates are prepared to take up responsible positions in both the public sector and private sectors. This degree differs from the typical Masters degree in computer science or business because it teaches information system analysis (including Internet technologies) and design with a strong focus on behavioral and social analysis. The school, equipped with a new Usability Laboratory, also emphasizes experimentation with and evaluation of information technologies. Students can choose among five major emphases, including Internet and Network Services, Information Retrieval, Information Architecture and Design, Systems Analysis and Information Organization and Management. Indiana University's M.I.S. degree program is offered in both Bloomington and Indianapolis. Indiana University is a leading research university with a 175-year tradition of excellence. The School of Library and Information Science consistently ranks among the top programs in the U.S. The school's energetic and accessible faculty were recently ranked number one in the nation in scholarly output in information science. FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION -- Click on our web site: http://www.slis.indiana.edu/Degrees/mis/misindex.html Call us at 812-855-2018 Or write us at: Graduate Programs in Information Science, School of Library and Information Science Indiana University, Bloomington, IN 47405-1801 ********** III.C.2. Fr: Rob Kling Re: Indiana U.: Ph.D., Information Science The School of Library and Information Science at Indiana University seeks talented students interested in completing doctoral research into the social and cognitive aspects of information, from its creation, communication, and use, to its management and exploitation. SLIS offers a research-oriented PhD. that brings together relevant knowledge from the behavioral, cognitive, and social sciences. Our research these approaches through appropriate methodologies to further our understanding of the design, structuring, use, management, and impacts of various information technologies. The program focuses on the following areas: * Information and Cognition * Human-Computer Interaction and Systems Design * Information Retrieval * Information and Technology in Organizations * Information and Communications Systems in Society SLIS's faculty and Ph.D. students study these topics in the contexts of specific kinds of information systems including digital libraries, electronic publishing, group support systems, and community networks. SLIS can offer you an exciting, demanding Ph.D. program with excellent career prospects in higher education, research institutions, and the information industry. Our goal is to train information scientists to lead developments in the next century. The Doctoral Program offers the following features: * Research Orientation: Students engage in research every semester and hands-on research experiences with faculty are built into the program * Individualized Program of Study: There are only six required courses, and these focus on the nature of research in the field as well as research methods. * High Degree of Involvement: You share responsibilities in research with SLIS's faculty and participate in weekly research seminars with faculty and other doctoral students. * Interdisciplinary Approach: Our perspective enables you to learn about information, technologies, people, and social settings from a variety of perspectives: information science, sociology, cognitive science, management, psychology, communications, and semiotics, to name a few. In addition, you take a minor of four relevant courses outside the school. * Collegiality: Members of the faculty are highly accessible and work closely with you in both formal and informal settings. EXPLORING THE PH.D. PROGRAM: SLIS's faculty are nationally and internationally recognized as scholars in their areas of expertise. They publish widely in books and journals, play key roles in professional societies, and serve as consultants to private firms and public agencies. SLIS has recently been ranked number one in academic publication in its field and number three in overall academic quality. SLIS's Ph.D. program is distinctive within information science because it emphasizes social science approaches to understanding information and information technologies in human contexts. Indiana University is a top ranking research university with internationally recognised programs in related fields such as Cognitive Science, Education and Business. The Music school is among the best in the world and provides a constant supply of concerts, operas, recitals to the town, as well as stimulating a diverse music scene off campus. Situated in the rolling hills of South Central Indiana, (about 50 miles south of Indianapolis) Bloomington is a beautiful place, with a wooded, scenic 1,860 acre campus. Bloomington is a friendly town which combines the cultural variety and vitality of major cities with the charm of university town life. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION about our programs, financial support, and admissions, write, call, or click: Graduate Programs, School of Library and Information Science, Indiana University Bloomington, IN 47405-1801 Admissions: 812-855-2018 http://www.slis.indiana.edu/Degrees/phd.html ********** III.C.3. Fr: major@linus.isoc.org Re: New Top Level Domain Names for Internet SEVEN NEW TOP LEVEL DOMAIN NAMES ARE ADDED FOR INTERNET ADDRESSES AND UP TO 28 NEW REGISTRARS PLANNED WASHINGTON, DC, February 4, 1997 -- The number of names available to specify Internet locations, such as web sites and email addresses, will increase and more firms will be allowed to act as registrars for the names, under a plan announced today by the International Ad Hoc Committee (IAHC). Internet users will have 7 new generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs), in addition to the existing ones (.com, .net, and .org), under which they may register Internet names, when the plan is implemented. The new gTLDs and the intended fields of use are: .firm for businesses, or firms .store for businesses offering goods to purchase .web for entities emphasizing activities related to the WWW .arts for entities emphasizing cultural and entertainment activities .rec for entities emphasizing recreation/entertainment activities .info for entities providing information services .nom for those wishing individual or personal nomenclature In addition, up to 28 new registrars will be established to grant registrations for second-level domain names under the new gTLDs. The new registrars will be selected by lottery from applicants who fulfill specific requirements established by the IAHC. All the new gTLDs will be shared among the new registrars, meaning that each registrar may effect registration of second-level domain names under all the new gTLDs. It is intended that the three existing gTLDs (.com, .net, and .org) would also be shared upon conclusion of the cooperative agreement between Network Solutions, Inc. (NSI) and the United States National Science Foundation (NSF), which allows NSI to act as the registrar for those gTLDs. The plan announced today is a result of efforts by an international group named to resolve questions critical to the current and future growth of the Internet. The eleven-member International Ad Hoc Committee, chaired by Donald M. Heath, president and CEO of the Internet Society, received input from individuals, organizations and government agencies from around the world. To guide future registrar developments, an association comprising all the registrars, the Council of Registrars (CORE), to be established under Swiss law will create and enforce requirements for registrar operations. These requirements are spelled out in a separate legal instrument to which each registrar must agree. The IAHC plan includes the establishment of a non- regulatory policy framework in the form of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) which both the public and private sector will be invited to sign. The MoU will provide a mechanism for signatories to advise on future policy evolution of the global Internet domain name system. "I am pleased that the Secretary General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has agreed in principle to act as the depository of the MoU and to periodically publish an updated list of its signatories," Heath said in releasing the IAHC report. "The structure we have established for the operation and oversight of domain name administration insures that we will have stability and continuing input from a broad spectrum of organizations and individuals." Heath pointed out that the IAHC will continue to function for the period until the new registrars are named and the MoU has entered into force. At that time, the IAHC will change to act as the committee to conduct oversight of CORE until a permanent gTLD DNS Policy Oversight Committee (POC) is established to perform that function. The POC will determine, in consultation with CORE and a gTLD DNS Policy Advisory Body (PAB), the evolution of gTLDs, registrars, and any fees that CORE may collect from its members, the registrars, for services it may perform. The POC and CORE will be advised by the gTLD DNS Policy Advisory Body (PAB) that will consist of all of the signatories to the MoU and will provide input and recommendations for general policy matters relating to gTLDs and the Domain Name System (DNS). Signatories will include representatives from governments, independent governmental organizations, non-government organizations, and industry. An earlier draft proposal by the IAHC had recommended a mandatory 60 day waiting period before activation of new domain names, in order to alleviate what is considered to be a major source of instability in the DNS, namely widespread piracy of famous trademarks by certain domain name holders. In the final report, that recommendation has been replaced by a more comprehensive solution that addresses the needs of all classes of stakeholders. In addition to making the 60 day waiting period optional for registrants, the final report institutes a system for dispute settlement involving on-line mediation, mandatory arbitration (if a domain name challenger chooses to initiate arbitration), and a fast-track on-line administrative domain name challenge procedure. The administrative domain name challenge procedure would be conducted on-line, and would allow an intellectual property right holder to petition a panel of international experts to determine if a second-level domain name violates the policy that a domain name which contains an internationally known trademark may only be held by the trademark owner. The dispute settlement procedures would be administered under the aegis of the World Intellectual Property Organization Arbitration and Mediation Center, located in Geneva. "During the public comment period, we received over 4000 submissions from the interested public, including 100 submissions from organizations around the world and we are very pleased with the acceptance and broad consensus that we have achieved in this process," Heath stated. "To attain its fullest potential, the Internet requires true self-governance. The Internet Society's role is to facilitate that requirement," he added. The IAHC is a coalition of participants from the broad Internet community, working to satisfy the requirement for enhancements to the Internet's global Domain Name System (DNS). Organizations naming members to the committee include: Internet Society (ISOC), Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), Internet Architecture Board (IAB), Federal Networking Council (FNC), International Telecommunication Union (ITU), International Trademark Association (INTA), and World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). The full text of the IAHC report is being published at the Internet site: http://www.iahc.org. Internet Society 12020 Sunrise Valley Drive Reston, VA 20191-3429 TEL 703-648-9888 FAX 703-648-9887 E-mail info@isoc.org http://www.isoc.org http://www.iahc.org ********************************************************** IRLIST Digest is distributed from the University of California, Division of Library Automation, 300 Lakeside Drive, Oakland, CA. 94612-3550. 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