Information Retrieval List Digest 392 (46ebruary 9, 1998) URL = http://hegel.lib.ncsu.edu/stacks/serials/irld/irld-392.txt IRLIST Digest ISSN 1064-6965 =46ebruary 9, 1998 Volume XV, Number 6 Issue 392 ****************************************************************** III. NOTICES A. Publications 1. FARNET's Washington Update, January, 26, 1998 2. El Profesional de la Informacion Special Issue B. Meetings 1. COLIS 99 Conference - Digital Libraries 2. Change of Dates: 2nd Flexible Hypertext Workshop 3. ACL Workshop on Translingual Information Management 4. AAAI '98 Workshop on Representations for Multi-modal Human-Computer Interaction 5. New Information Technology IV. PROJECTS C. Awards, Fellowships, Grants, & Scholarships 1. NSF Knowledge & Distributed Intelligence ****************************************************************** III. NOTICES III.A.1. =46r: Garret Sern Re: FARNET's Washington Update, January, 26, 1998 =46ARNET'S WASHINGTON UPDATE --- JANUARY 26, 1998 =46ARNET (http://www.farnet.org) is a non-profit public interest Internetworking organization with a primary focus on the education, research and related communities. IN THIS ISSUE: Senator John McCain (R-AZ) Promises New Telecom Legislation for 1998 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Written from FARNET's Washington office, "FARNET's Washington Update" is a service to FARNET members and other interested subscribers. We gratefully acknowledge EDUCOM's NTTF and the Coalition for Networked Information (CNI) for additional support. If you would like more information about the Update or would like to offer comments or suggestions, please contact Garret Sern at garret@farnet.org. ********** III.A.2. =46r: Pedro H=EDpola Re: El Profesional de la Informacion Special Issue The next special topic issue of IWE is scheduled to come out in May 1998 on "Electronic Journals". IWE editors will be pleased to receive contributions. Further information for contributors is available upon request. El Profesional de la Informacion (formerly Information World en Espanol) is a monthly journal addressed to the Spanish language librarians and information professionals. Launched in 1992 by Learned Information (Oxford, UK) is now published by Swets & Zeitlinger Publishers (Lisse, The Netherlands). IWE team also created in 1993 IweTel, the main email list in Spanish for information professionals (1,500 subscribers). http://www.rediris.es/list/info/iwetel.html IWE editors: iwe@sarenet.es IWE suscriptions: orders@swets.nl Advertising in IWE: akeefer@arrakis.es Pedro H=EDpola, IWE editor phipola@platon.ugr.es http://www.ugr.es/~phipola/ ********** III.B.1. =46r: Amanda Spink Re: COLIS 99 Conference - Digital Libraries THIRD INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON CONCEPTIONS OF LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SCIENCE (CoLIS 3). DIGITAL LIBRARIES: Interdisciplinary Concepts, Challenges and Opportunities. Inter-University Centre Dubrovnik (IUC) Dubrovnik, Croatia, 23 - 26 May 1999 http://www.ffzg.hr/infoz/colis3 or http://www.scils.rutgers.edu/colis3 colis3@ffzg.hr CALL FOR PAPERS & CONTRIBUTIONS: The general aim of CoLIS conferences is to provide a broad forum for critically exploring and analyzing library and information science as a discipline and as a field of research from historical, theoretical, and empirical perspectives. CoLIS 1 was held in 1991 at the University of Tampere, Finland, and CoLIS 2 in 1996 at the Royal School of Librarianship, Copenhagen Denmark. THEME FOR CoLIS 3: The goal is to critically explore the evolving concepts, research, and development related to digital libraries from the perspective of a number of approaches and disciplines. The conference aims to focus on fundamental and integrating issues and problems that reflect efforts and thinking from a number of disciplines and countries. Contributions are invited that address the topics listed below. They are further elaborated at conference web sites: Fundamental and theoretical aspects and questions underlying digital libraries. Nature of digital library collections. Organization of digital libraries. Access to digital libraries. Use of digital libraries. Technical infrastructure. Evaluation of digital libraries. Social issues. Economics of digital libraries. Integration of various kinds of information resources. Relations to traditional libraries - roots, comparisons, complements, integration. TYPES OF CONTRIBUTIONS (for details see the conference web sites) Research papers. Full length papers (4 copies) of up to 12 pages covering any of the topics should be submitted to the Program Chair responsible for the geographic region. A Best Paper Award and a Best Student Paper Award are planned. Poster presentations. Presentation of a work in progress that is best communicated in an interactive way. A synopsis (4 copies) of up to 3 pages should be submitted to the Poster Chair. Panels. Proposals for panel sessions on issues and problems of general interest that will stimulate a lively debate should be sent to the Panels Chair. Tutorials. Proposals for half or full day tutorials held before the opening of the conference should be submitted to the Tutorial Chair. Workshops. Proposals for one day workshops held at the conclusion of the conference should be submitted to the Workshops Chair. Both, tutorials and workshops are designed to be self-sustaining economically to cover expenses of presenters. Demonstrations and exhibits. Proposals for demonstrations of digital library projects or for exhibit of related materials should be submitted to Demonstration & Exhibit Chair. IMPORTANT DATES AND DEADLINES Today: Register interest to receive information by completing a form at conference web site, or send an email to colis3@ffzg.hr 15 September 1998: Research papers deadline. 15 October 1998: Deadline for posters, tutorials, workshops, panels, demonstrations and exhibits. 1 December 1998: notifications on selections. 1 February 1999: Final camera ready copy. ********** III.B.2. =46r: Maria Milosavljevic Re: Change of Dates: 2nd Flexible Hypertext Workshop The 2nd International Flexible Hypertext Workshop: Standards and Evaluation Held in Conjunction with the 7th International World Wide Web Conference (WWW7) Brisbane, Australia --- 14 April 1998 http://www.mri.mq.edu.au/conf/flexht98/ Workshop Theme: With the explosion of information on the World Wide Web comes the need to provide more flexible mechanisms for delivering information to the user. That is, we require mechanisms which can modify documents on-the-fly in order to take the user's needs into account. Static hypertext documents suffer from an inability to be all things to all people; document and multimedia authors must write multiple documents for different users rather than a single document which can dynamically modify its content in order to address a particular user's knowledge or the context of delivery. This workshop is intended as an inter-disciplinary exploration into flexible hypertext systems. Flexible hypertext systems are systems which can present different users with different views of the same hypertext network, or which can dynamically create the hypertext network and the content of the documents at the nodes of that network at run-time. This workshop aims to draw together a number of research groups taking different approaches to flexible hypertext systems, in order to promote the cross-fertilisation of ideas and highlight the prospects for future collaboration. The target research areas include (but are not limited to): - Information retrieval and filtering: the use of information retrieval or other techniques to determine the relevance of the nodes within a static hypertext network for the individual user. That is, the content of the documents remain static, but links to other documents are flexible. - Adaptive hypertext: the adaptation of an existing hypertext network of documents to a model of the user. That is, providing flexible document content and flexible views of a static hypertext network. - Dynamic hypertext: employing text generation or other techniques to dynamically create both the hypertext network and the documents within the network as the user requests them. The hypertext network does not exist in any form; it is built dynamically. Some related events which have been held in the past include: - Flexible Hypertext Workshop, held at the the Eighth ACM International Hypertext Conference (Hypertext'97). (http://www.mri.mq.edu.au/~mariam/flexht/) - Intelligent educational systems on the World-Wide Web, held in conjunction with the 8th World Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Education (AI-ED97). (http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/~plb/AIED97_workshop/) - Workshop on Adaptive Systems and User Modeling on the World Wide Web, held in conjunction with the Sixth International Conference on User Modeling (UM'97). (http://zaphod.cs.uni-sb.de/~UM97/ws5.html) - Workshop on User Modelling for Information Filtering on the World Wide Web, held in conjunction with the Fifth International Conference on User Modeling (UM'96). (http://www.cs.su.oz.au/~bob/um96-workshop.html) - Workshop on Adaptive Hypertext and Hypermedia held in conjunction with the Fourth International Conference on User Modeling (UM'94). (http://www.education.uts.edu.au/projects/ah/AH-94.html) More information about adaptive hypertext systems can be found at http://www.education.uts.edu.au/projects/ah/ Workshop Focus: There has been a significant amount of research in this area over the past five years (see workshop theme for more information), but two recurring issues have become increasingly important, and these will be the focus of this workshop: - Standards: With the increasing popularity of the world wide web and the growing market for flexible document delivery systems, we need to develop standards for these systems in order to encourage and facilitate their use more widely on the world wide web. In order to develop such standards it is first important to more clearly define the requirements for such systems: what does it mean for a system to be a flexible, adaptive or dynamic hypertext system? Following on from these requirements, which techniques are important in flexible hypertext systems? Finally, can we design a standard architecture for flexible hypertext systems which can be re-used widely? - Evaluation: One of the key issues which arose from the first flexible hypertext workshop and which has been aired again recently on the adaptive hypertext mailing list is the importance of the evaluation of flexible hypertext systems. In particular, since the main goal of these systems is to maximise the suitability of a document to the user's knowledge and needs, evaluation is an essential aspect in the development of these systems. However, very little research has been done which confirms the advantages of such systems or which demonstrates how this might be done. Workshop Format: The workshop will run for one full day on 14 April. The number of attendees will be limited to 20 in order to encourage participation in workshop discussions. Participation will be on the basis of submitted position papers or by invitation. The workshop will include a limited number of paper presentations and general group discussions. Group discussions will focus on the issues raised in the position papers, as well as on some focus questions. A workshop dinner will also be organised to encourage informal discussion. The programme will include: Welcome and Introduction Workshop Sessions consisting of: 1 to 2 Position Paper Presentations (15-30 minutes), and Group Discussion on the Issues Raised (30-60 minutes) Closing: Planning for post-workshop activities Conclusions and Wrap-up Workshop Dinner The proceedings will be compiled into a technical report after the workshop. Position Papers: We invite position papers describing demonstrated techniques for improving the flexibility of hypertext documents. We are particularly interested in papers which present innovative solutions to providing flexible hypertext documents, and those which address the need for building standard architectures and evaluation techniques for such systems. We are also interested in receiving papers assessing the benefits and downfalls of providing flexible documents, and papers of a more speculative nature which focus on the future of flexible hypertext systems. Those aspects of the paper which are important for discussion in the workshop should be clearly outlined in the paper. Papers should be 3-5 pages long, and should be put up on the Web. If you don't have access to a web server, then some space will be allocated for you. Electronic submission of the URL address of the position paper will be preferred, although papers submitted as ascii (html) or postscript will be accepted. To submit a position paper, send the URL address and an ascii version of the paper itself to: mariam@mpce.mq.edu.au If this is not possible, please send hard copies to: Maria Milosavljevic CSIRO Mathematical and Information Sciences Locked Bag 17 North Ryde NSW 2113 Australia Important Dates: 27 February 1998: Submission of position papers 13 March 1998: Notification of acceptance or rejection 27 March 1998: Camera-ready copies due Before the workshop, all attendees will be able to access the position papers from the web. We strongly encourage attendees to read these before the workshop. =46or More Information: Maria Milosavljevic MRI Language Technology Group Macquarie University Sydney NSW 2113 Australia email: mariam@mpce.mq.edu.au Tel: (+61 2) 9850 6345 =46ax: (+61 2) 9850 9529 ********** III.B.3. =46r: Nancy M. Ide Re: ACL Workshop on Translingual Information Management ACL/COLING-98 Workshop on TRANSLINGUAL INFORMATION MANAGEMENT CURRENT LEVELS AND FUTURE ABILITIES August 16, 1998 (following ACL/COLING-98) University of Montreal, Montreal (Quebec, Canada) CALL FOR PAPERS DESCRIPTION: The development of natural language applications which handle multi-lingual and multi-modal information is the next major challenge facing the field of computational linguistics. Over the past 50 years, a variety of language-related capabilities has been developed in areas such as machine translation, information retrieval, and speech recognition, together with core capabilities such as information extraction, summarization, parsing, generation, multimedia planning and integration, statistics-based methods, ontologies, lexicon construction and lexical representations, and grammar. The next few years will require the extension of these technologies to encompass multi-lingual and multi-modal information. Extending current technologies will require integration of the various capabilities into multi-functional natural language systems. However, there is today no clear vision of how these technologies could or should be assembled into a coherent framework. What would be involved in connecting a speech recognition system to an information retrieval engine, and then using machine translation and summarization software to process the retrieved text? How can traditional parsing and generation be enhanced with statistical techniques? What would be the effect of carefully crafted lexicons on traditional information retrieval? This workshop is a follow-on to an NSF-sponsored workshop held in conjunction with the First International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation in Granada, Spain (May 1998), at which an international panel of invited experts will consider these questions in an attempt to identify the most effective future directions of computational linguistics research--especially in the context of the need to handle multi-lingual and multi-modal information. The follow-on ACL workshop is intended to open the discussion to the computational inguistics community as a whole. The workshop will include ample time for discussion. A report summarizing the discussions at Granada will be available before the ACL workshop. TOPICS: The workshop will focus on the following fundamental questions: 1. What is the current level of capability in each of the major areas of the field dealing with language and related media of human communication? 2. How can (some of) these functions be integrated in the near future, and what kind of systems will result? 3. What are the major considerations for extending these functions to handle multi-lingual and multi-modal information, particularly in integrated systems of the type envisioned in (2)? In particular, we will consider these questions in relation to the following areas: o multi-lingual resources (lexicons, ontologies, corpora, etc.) o information retrieval, especially cross-lingual and cross-modal o machine translation o automated (cross-lingual) summarization and information extraction o multimedia communication, in conjunction with text o evaluation and assessment techniques for each of these areas o methods and techniques (both statistics-based and linguistics- based) of pre-parsing, parsing, generation, information acquisition, etc. We invite submissions which report on work in these areas. All papers should clearly identify how the work addresses the issues and questions outlined above. SUBMISSIONS: Only hard-copy submissions will be accepted. Authors should submit six (6) copies of the full-length paper (3500-5000 words). Submissions should be sent to: Nancy Ide Department of Computer Science Vassar College 124 Raymond Avenue Poughkeepsie, New York 12604-0520 USA Style files and templates for preparing submissions can be found at http://coling-acl98.iro.umontreal.ca/Styles.html The official language of the conference is English. IMPORTANT DEADLINES Submission Deadline: March 23, 1998 Notification Date: May 15, 1998 Camera ready copy due: June 15, 1998 INFORMATION: Information on the workshop can be found at http://www.cs.vassar.edu/~ide/translingual.html Inquiries may be addressed to the organizers: Robert Frederking Eduard Hovy Nancy Ide ********** III.B.4. =46r: Sy Ali Re: AAAI '98 Workshop on Representations for Multi-modal Human-Computer Interaction Representations for Multi-modal Human-Computer Interaction AAAI '98 Workshop, July 26-27, 1998, Madison, Wisconsin Updated: 12/07/97 Call for Participation Representations for processing human communication have, mainly, been concerned with single modalities. Further advances, however, may require taking advantage of the fact that most human communication takes place in more than one modality at the same time. A core problem in multi-modal human-computer interaction is how the information conveyed via multiple modalities is funneled into and out of a single underlying representation of meaning to be communicated. On the output side, this is the information-to-media allocation problem; on the input side, this is the cross-media information fusion problem. The aims of this workshop are: 1. to assess the state of computer representations for understanding human communication in multiple modalities or communicating with humans with multiple media 2. to encourage collaborative research in developing and using representations that facilitate multi-modal interaction. Relevant modalities include visual, auditory, olfactory, haptic (touch), kinesthetic (motion/position-sensing), speech, gesture, facial expression, myoelectric signals, and neural inputs. Relevant media include video, text, handwriting, graphics, images, and animation. Proper communication with these modalities and media may be contingent on an underlying set of intentions, such as being informative, deceptive, persuasive, entertaining, affective, social, and so forth. Topics of interest include (but are not limited to): * Representations that facilitate multi-modal human communication or multimedia presentation * Discourse and dialogue phenomena for a wide variety of multi-modal tasks * User models that integrate representations of multi-modal user interaction * New algorithms with representations for processing multiple modalities * Architectures that permit the separation of application functionality from modality of user interaction * Papers outlining positions on these topics. Recognizing the multidisciplinary nature of multi-modal communication, the intent of the workshop is to be as inclusive as possible. However, papers should address the topics of the workshop directly. For example, a submission could address these topics by showing in detail how their system processes some multi-modal interaction. Such a detailed description might describe the background information used, how that information is represented and utilized, how the system processes the knowledge to respond appropriately, and how the information is processed into (multi-modal) answers. Reports on representations used in projects whose purpose is to simulate human multi-modal interaction, or projects whose purpose is to provide multi-modal interfaces to databases or planners, are also appropriate. Position papers are also solicited; for example, such a paper might present an analysis of the types of communicative intent, how they can be classified and sub-classified, and how they are best represented, for use in multi-modal systems. WORKSHOP FORMAT: The workshop format will be a mix of paper presentations, invited talks, panels, and break-out sessions. Paper sessions will be organized around the (above listed) workshop topics. Panel discussions or break-out sessions would follow paper sessions. Short stand-alone (e.g., laptop-based) demonstrations are welcome. If you have a demonstration that requires more significant infrastructure or time, potential participants are encouraged to submit a demonstration proposal to the Intelligent Systems Demonstrations program at AAAI '98. Gary W. Strong, Program Director of Interactive Systems at the National Science Foundation, has agreed to give an invited talk. ATTENDANCE: Attendance is expected to be limited to 50-60 participants. Preference will be given to authors whose papers have been accepted at the workshop. SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS: Two types of submissions are possible: Short paper: A one or two page description of current late-breaking research, or short position papers on topics listed above. =46ull paper: A complete paper, no more than six pages, presenting completed research or full position papers. Submissions should should be two columns with 3/4" margins all around (formatted using the AAAI guidelines and templates, available at: http://www.aaai.org/Workshops/workshops.html). We strongly encourage electronic submissions, either plain text or stand-alone postscript or Word. Emailed submissions should be emailed to syali@tigger.cs.uwm.edu. In the event that electronic submission is not possible, send 6 copies to: Syed S. Ali ATTN: AAAI '98 Workshop Department of Mathematical Sciences University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee 3200 N. Cramer Street Milwaukee, WI 53217 Phone: 414-229-4364 E-mail: syali@tigger.cs.uwm.edu All accepted papers will be published in the workshop working notes. DEADLINES: March 1, 1998: Submissions to the workshop are due. April 1, 1998: Notification of results to authors. April 22, 1998: Camera-ready papers due for inclusion in working notes. June 24, 1998: Final registration deadline for workshop participants. July 26-27, 1998: AAAI-98 Workshop Program, Madison, Wisconsin A regularly updated CFP can be found at: http://tigger.cs.uwm.edu/~syali/AAAI-98-Workshop/aaai-wrkshp.html. ********** III.B.5. =46r: Les Pourciau at UMem Re: NIT '98 NIT'98: 10th International Conference on New Information Technology March 24-26, 1998 Hanoi, Vietnam Chief Conf. Organizer: Dr. Ching-chih Chen, Professor, GSLIS, Simmons College, Boston, MA, USA Last call for paper proposal!!! Please send an abstract of 400 words immediately to: Chief Conference Organizer NIT '98 Prof. Ching-chih Chen Graduate School of Library and Information Science Simmons College 300 The Fenway Boston MA 02115-5898, USA =46ax 617 527-3431, 617 521-3192 Tel. 617 521-2804 E-mail: CCHEN@SIMMONS.EDU BROCHURE FOR NIT'98: We continue to witness fast advances in all areas of new technology and information management. As a result libraries and information centers can make available to their users a previously unknown level of service, featuring powerful global information access, retrieval and delivery capabilities. Developments in telecommunication networks, electronic publishing, interactive multimedia technologies, and integrated information systems, together with the explosive use of the Internet and World Wide Web (WWW), enable librarians and information specialists to offer unprecedented capabilities for more effective and efficient information management and services, as well as incredible opportunities for global information access and sharing of resources. The coming of the Next Generation Internet will offer hundreds times more capabilities for faster and better digital communications. Such developments well known in the U.S.A. and other developed countries, are not always true for librarians and information specialists elsewhere. It has been very difficult for them to keep up with the dynamic changes which are affecting their profession. Against this background nine Conferences on New Information Technology (NIT) have been organized since 1987 in Bangkok, Singapore, Guadalajara, Budapest, Hong Kong, Puerto Rico, Alexandria (Virginia, USA), Latvia and Pretoria (South Africa). They have brought some of the newest information developments, systems, products, equipment, and services currently available to the librarians and information professionals in different regions of the world. The 10th meeting, NIT '98, the first such kind of international conference for library and information workers, will be held in Hanoi, Vietnam, co-organized with the Ministry of Culture Information of Vietnam. Aside from sessions with invited and contributed papers; this conference will provide maximal opportunities for both formal and informal discussions and interactions among participants in order to force concensus on key problems and issues facing them during this exciting but confusing time. MAIN TOPICAL AREAS COVERED AT THE CONFERENCE New Information Technology Related Topics: * Library networks * Education of information technology workers * The Use of Internet and World Wide Web * Digital libraries and information access * Electronic publishing and publishing on the Web * Digital development and distance education * Integrated library and information systems * Library and information systems and services * Database creation, structure and searching * Micro-based applications in libraries and information centers * Information delivery systems - Multimedia, satellite, WWW... * Marketing and promotion of information services * Optical technology applications, products & services - Interactive videodisc, CD-ROM, Photo-CD, WORM, erasable, CD-recordable, DVD, etc... * Networks - Local area, national, and global * End-users and intermediary aspects * Information technology management. Information and State * Role and function in the democratization process * Planning global information infrastructure (GII) * Issues leading to development of the national information policy and the establishment of national information infrastructure (NII) * Next Generation Internet and GII/NII. Information - Preservation & Availability * Use of new information technologies in preservation * Availability of information sources and national values, such as library holdings, museum collections, press, archives, etc... Information and Individual/Personal/Use * Issues related to readiness to receive/use information via use of new information technologies * The role and functions of libraries in the electronic culture. CONFERENCE VENUE AND HOW TO GET THERE: NIT '98 will be held in Hanoi. Information on conference hotel venue and other travel-related information will be communicated to registrants of the conference. Chief Conference Organizer & Program Chair: Dr. Ching-chih Chen Professor Graduate School of Library & Information Science Simmons College Boston, Massachusetts, USA Country Organizer: Dr. Pham Xuan Sinh Vice-Director, Department of International Relations Ministry of Culture Information Hanoi, Vietnam ****************************************************************** IV. PROJECTS IV.C.1. =46r: Maria Zemankova Re: NSF Knowledge & Distributed Intelligence: Letters Due 4/1/98 The following document (nsf9855) is now available from the NSF Online Document System Title: KDI: Knowledge and Distributed Intelligence (NSF 98-55) Type: Program Announcements & Information Subtype: Computer/Information Sciences, Crosscutting Programs, Education, Social/Behavioral Sciences It may be found at: http://www.nsf.gov/cgi-bin/getpub?nsf9855 Deadlines: April 1, 1998: Letter of intent due. May 8, 1998: Deadline for full proposals. Next proposal deadline will be February 1, 1999 Excerpt: KDI Knowledge and Distributed Intelligence in the Information Age Proposal Solicitation NSF 98-55 - Knowledge Networking - Learning and Intelligent Systems - New Computational Challenge Introduction: The recent growth in computer power and connectivity has changed the face of science and engineering. The future promises continued acceleration of these changes. The challenge today is to build upon the fruits of this revolution. This rise in power, connectivity, content, and flexibility is so fundamental that it is dramatically reshaping relationships among people and organizations, and quickly transforming our processes of discovery, learning, exploration, cooperation, and communication. It permits us to study vastly more complex systems than was hither to possible and provides a foundation for rapid advances in understanding of learning and intelligent behavior in living and engineered systems. Today's challenge is to realize the full potential of these new resources and institutional transformations. Knowledge and Distributed Intelligence (KDI) is a Foundation-wide effort designed to catalyze this next step. Aims of KDI Activity: The National Science Foundation (NSF) aims to achieve, across the scientific and engineering communities, the next generation of human capability to generate, gather, model, and represent more complex and cross-disciplinary scientific data from new sources and at enormously varying scales; to transform this information into knowledge by combining, classifying, and analyzing it in new ways; to deepen our understanding of the cognitive, ethical, educational, legal, and social implications of new types of interactivity; and to collaborate in sharing this knowledge and working together interactively. The anticipated payoffs of KDI research include: * Deep, far-reaching scientific discovery * Increases in scientific productivity, and in the timeliness and quality of the results * Increased ability to handle problems of greater complexity, scale, and structure * The creation of new scientific and engineering communities to exploit novel discoveries * Enhancements in science and engineering education through development of richer learning tools, technologies, and environments, and more universal access to richer resources and tools * Enhanced understanding of the processes and results of learning and applications thereof * A more complete understanding of the fundamental processes of distributed intelligence in natural and artificial systems and their application * An understanding of the legal, ethical, and societal implications of the increased capability to gather and access information * Enhanced ability to communicate and transfer new understanding and technological innovations to society * Advances in statistical data reduction, data visualization, data mining, and data organization for retrieval so as to utilize vast stores of data * Improved methods for expressing, computing with, and evaluating different types of uncertainties in real-world data. Three Foci of KDI: To achieve the aims of KDI, proposals are solicited from individuals or groups for research that is inherently multidisciplinary+ or that, while lying within a single discipline, has clear impact on at least one other discipline. In FY 1998, KDI will have three foci: Knowledge Networking (KN); Learning and Intelligent Systems (LIS); and New Computational Challenges (NCC). This document describes the three KDI foci, and serves as a solicitation for proposals in all three areas. We anticipate that research on many important problems will span the foci of KN, LIS, and NCC, and proposals that do so are most welcome. KN will focus on attaining new levels of knowledge integration, information flow, and interactivity among people, organizations, and communities. LIS will emphasize research that advances basic understanding of learning and intelligence in natural and artificial systems and supports the development of tools and environments to test and apply this understanding in real situations. NCC will emphasize new computational approaches to frontier science and engineering problems as well as problems involving data intensive computations and simulations. More detailed information about the three foci and their particular emphases for FY 1998 follows. * Knowledge Networking (KN) * Learning and Intelligent Systems (LIS) * New Computational Challenges (NCC) + Throughout we will use "multidisciplinary" to include "interdisciplinary" and "cross-disciplinary." =46or additional information on KDI, see http://www.cise.nsf.gov/iis/kdi.htm= l. To receive timely information about NSF, you are encouraged to subscribe to the NSF Custom News Service http://www.nsf.gov/home/cns/start.htm. ****************************************************************** IRLIST Digest is distributed from the University of California, Division of Library Automation, 300 Lakeside Drive, Oakland, CA. 94612-3550. Send subscription requests and submissions to: nancy.gusack@ucop.edu Editorial Staff: Nancy Gusack nancy.gusack@ucop.edu Cliff Lynch (emeritus) cliff@cni.org The IRLIST Archives is set up for anonymous FTP. Using anonymous =46TP via the host ftp.dla.ucop.edu, the files will be found in the directory /data/ftp/pub/irl, stored in subdirectories by year (e.g., data/ftp/pub/irl/1993). Search or browse archived IR-L Digest issues on the Web at: http://www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/idom/irlist/ These files are not to be sold or used for commercial purposes. Contact Nancy Gusack for more information on IRLIST. THE OPINIONS EXPRESSED IN IRLIST DO NOT REPRESENT THOSE OF THE EDITORS OR THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. AUTHORS ASSUME FULL RESPONSIBILITY FOR THEIR MATERIAL.