Information Retrieval List Digest 474 (October 11, 1999) URL = http://hegel.lib.ncsu.edu/stacks/serials/irld/irld-474.txt IRLIST Digest ISSN 1064-6965 October 11, 1999 Volume XVI, Number 38 Issue 474 ****************************************************************** I. QUERIES 1. Forum on Hilbert Problems in Information Science III. NOTICES A. Publications 1. Last Chance for Free Software B. Meetings 1. ECAI 2000: CFTutorial Proposals 2. Neural Networks and Control: CFPapers 3. CFPapers: Advanced Techniques for Modelling and Design of Fuzzy Logic Systems 4. Evolutionary Computation and Intelligent Control Systems: CFPapers 5. Fourth International Conference on Knowledge-Based Intelligent Engineering Systems & Allied Technologies: Special Session on Intelligent Techniques for Internet Resources: CFPapers 6. RIAO 2000: Content-Based Multimedia Information Access: CFPapers and Application Demonstrations ****************************************************************** I. QUERIES I.1. Fr: Miles Efron =20 Re: Forum on Hilbert Problems in Information Science=20 Dear Colleagues, What are the fundamental problems of Information Science? We believe that articulating a set of profound yet solvable questions will aid the progress= of our field. At the turn of the 19th Century mathematician David Hilbert posed such a set of questions to his colleagues. At the turn of the 20th Century= we propose an analogous project: a two-month electronic forum that discusses questions of fundamental interest to the information science community. Towards this end, we have created a web site and discussion forum for this purpose= and offer two sets of questions as seeds for discussion. We encourage your participation. You may find the website at=20 http://ils.unc.edu/hilbert/. At the end of our two-month discussion Gary Marchionini and Bob Losee will produce a synthesis of questions. All contributions will be attributed in the forum. Moreover, all questions and= any pertinent discussion that are included will carry the entire attribution trail. We hope that you will find the conversation thought provoking. Your contributions will ensure that it is. Please forward this message to anyone you think may have an interest. Gary Marchionini, Bob Losee, and Miles Efron Miles Efron=20 School of Information & Library Science=20 University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill=20 mefron@metalab.unc.edu ****************************************************************** III. NOTICES III.A.1. Fr: Philip A. Bralich =20 Re: Last Chance for Free Software=20 =20 As of next week all of Ergo Linguistics Tools including the newest "Roswell= =20 Teaches English" will change from free software to paid software. Those of= you would like to work with these tools for free should download them before October 15th. You can get to the site at http://www.ergo-ling.com.=20 These software products will be kept on the ergo server but will be distributed and advertised more widely and will no longer be offered for free. We are making this last time free offer for researchers and students of NLP and theoretical linguistics. All programs are written in C++ have programmer= SDK's available upon request are Windows 95/98/NT compatible.=20 The programs include: MemoMaster -- An add on for speech recognition products that significantly increases the navigation and control abilities of those products as well as adding more sophisticated messaging and reminders and notes. =20 BracketDoctor -- A program for linguists which provides tree diagrams and=20 labelled bracketings for sentences in the Penn Treebank II style. Great for students who would like to include computer generated trees in their papers using this standardized framework. ChatterBox -- A product that provides sophisticated question and answer abilities that are easily added to animations (e.g Microsoft Agents) and are useful for educational and entertainment programs. =20 Roswell Teaches English -- A stand alone product to help students of English as a Second Language practice their English using natural language questions= and responses. Includes a manual and textbook.=20 Phil Bralich Philip A. Bralich, Ph.D.=20 President and CEO=20 Ergo Linguistic Technologies=20 2800 Woodlawn Drive, Suite 175=20 Honolulu, HI 96822 Tel: (808)539-3920=20 Fax: (808)539-3924=20 bralich@hawaii.edu=20 http://www.ergo-ling.com ********** III.B.1. Fr: Hans-Juergen Buerckert =20 Re: ECAI 2000: CFTutorial Proposals=20 CALL FOR TUTORIAL PROPOSALS -- Deadline 1 Nov 1999 The ECAI-2000 Organising Committee invites proposals for tutorials to be= held in conjunction with the conference. The tutorials will be held on 21-22= August 2000, immediately prior to the start of the main conference. IMPORTANT DATES=20 1 Nov 1999 Deadline for proposals=20 1 Dec 1999 Notification of acceptance=20 15 Dec 1999 Deadline for tutorial summaries=20 7 Jan 2000 Publication of ECAI-2000 tutorial programme=20 1 May 2000 Camera-ready tutorial notes=20 We invite proposals for four-hour tutorials on topics relating to= theoretical and applied AI. The aim is to offer conference delegates both tutorials on up-to-date AI technologies, and case study tutorials on the application of= the AI technologies to real-world problems. For further details please visit ECAI2000 Homepage http://www.ecai2000.hu-berlin.de/ Dr. Hans-J=FCrgen B=FCrckert=20 DFKI GmbH=20 Stuhlsatzenhausweg 3=20 D-66123 Saarbr=FCcken, Germany Phone/Fax: +49.681.302-5321 / -2235=20 Mobile: +49.171.717-2065=20 Email: hjb@dfki.de=20 http://www.dfki.de/~hjb/ ********** III.B.2. Fr: Conference, AISTA2000 =20 Re: Neural Networks and Control: CFPapers=20 Call for papers for special session on: "Neural Networks and Control" at International Conference on Advances in Intelligent Systems: Theory and Applications AISTA'2000 2-4 February 2000 Canberra - Australia http://beth.canberra.edu.au/conferences/aista2000/index.htm In cooperation of: IEEE Act Section, Australia University of Canberra, Australia Australian Intelligent Cybernetic Systems, Australia Due Date: 25 October 1999 The International Conference on Advances in Intelligent Systems: Theory and Applications - AISTA'2000 aims at bringing together theoreticians and practitioners of intelligent systems from Australia and around the world to exchange ideas, present their recent research and discuss possible collaborations. A special session of the conference is devoted to "Neural Networks and Control". Papers are being solicited for this session. Topics= of this special session include, but are not limited to, the following area: =B7 Neural Networks for Adaptive and Intelligent Control=20 Neural Network for:=20 Adaptive and Optimal Control,=20 Intelligent Control and Robotics,=20 Intelligent Agents,=20 Industrial Automation,=20 Signal Processing,=20 System Identification and Control=20 Image processing and vision Paper Submission Papers will be selected based on their originality, significance,= correctness, relevance and clarity of presentation. Four copies of manuscripts (4 pages) should be submitted to the following address: AISTA'2000 Secretariat=20 Special Session on Neural Networks and Control=20 School of Computing=20 University of Canberra=20 ACT 2601, Canberra, Australia The manuscripts should present original work, which has not been published= or being reviewed for other conferences. Important Dates 25 October 1999 Deadline for submission of manuscripts 20 November 1999 Notification of acceptance 10 December 1999 Deadline for camera-ready copies of accepted manuscripts 2-4 February 2000 Conference sessions Further Information=20 For further information contact aista@canberra.edu.au or see the conference homepage at: http://beth.canberra.edu.au/conferences/aista2000/index.htm International Program Committee:=20 Jacek M. Zurada, University of Louisville, USA=20 David E. Goldberg, University of Illinois, USA=20 Kalmanje KrishnaKumar, University of Alabama, USA=20 Juha Karhunen, Helsinki University of Technology, Finland=20 Sugisaka Masanori, Oita University, Japan=20 Jay Liebowitz, University of Maryland-Baltimore County USA=20 Russell C. Eberhart, Purdue University Indianapolis, USA=20 Jason Yi-Bing Lin, Chiao Tung University, Taiwan=20 Shun-ichi Amari, The Institute of Physical and Chemical Research, Japan=20 Bernd Reusch, University of Dortmund, Germany=20 Hamid Arabnia, The University of Georgia, USA=20 Weiyi Meng, State University of New York at Binghamton, USA=20 Mehmed Kantardzic, University of Louisville, USA=20 Ning Zhong, Yamaguchi University, Japan=20 Xindong Wu, Colorado School of Mines, USA=20 Jerzy Pejas, Technical University of Szczecin, Poland=20 Jarmo Alander, University of Vaasa, Finland=20 Takeshi Furuhashi, Nagoya University, Japan=20 Janos D. Pinter, Dalhousie University, Canada=20 Jeremy L Wyatt, University of Birmingham, UK ********** III.B.3. Fr: Conference, AISTA2000 =20 Re: CFPapers: Advanced Techniques for Modelling and Design of Fuzzy Logic Systems=20 Call for papers for special session on: "Advanced Techniques for Modelling and Design of Fuzzy Logic Systems" at International Conference on Advances in Intelligent Systems: Theory and Applications AISTA'2000 2-4 February 2000, Canberra - Australia http://beth.canberra.edu.au/conferences/aista2000/index.htm In cooperation with: IEEE Act Section, Australia University of Canberra, Australia Australian Intelligent Cybernetic Systems, Australia Due Date: 25 October 1999 The International Conference on Advances in Intelligent Systems: Theory and Applications - AISTA'2000 aims at bringing together theoreticians and practitioners of intelligent systems from Australia and around the world to exchange ideas, present their recent research and discuss possible collaborations. A special session of the conference is devoted to "Advanced Techniques for Modelling and Design of Fuzzy Logic Systems". Papers are= being solicited for this session. Topics of this special session include, but are not limited to, the following area: =B7 Fuzzy Logic Control,=20 =B7 Fuzzy Expert Systems,=20 =B7 Neural Genetic Systems,=20 =B7 Neural-Fuzzy-Genetic Systems,=20 =B7 Fuzzy Evolutionary Systems,=20 =B7 Fuzzy Neural Systems,=20 =B7 Hybrid Intelligent Systems for Control and Optimisation=20 =B7 Qualitative and Approximate-Reasoning Paper Submission Papers will be selected based on their originality, significance,= correctness, relevance and clarity of presentation. Four copies of manuscripts (4 pages) should be submitted to the following address: AISTA'2000 Secretariat=20 Special Session on Fuzzy Logic Systems=20 School of Computing=20 University of Canberra=20 ACT 2601, Canberra, Australia The manuscripts should present original work, which has not been published= or being reviewed for other conferences. Important Dates 25 October 1999 Deadline for submission of manuscripts 20 November 1999 Notification of acceptance 10 December 1999 Deadline for camera-ready copies of accepted manuscripts 2-4 February 2000 Conference sessions Further Information=20 For further information contact aista@canberra.edu.au or see the conference homepage at: http://beth.canberra.edu.au/conferences/aista2000/index.htm International Program Committee:=20 Jacek M. Zurada, University of Louisville, USA=20 David E. Goldberg, University of Illinois, USA=20 Kalmanje KrishnaKumar, University of Alabama, USA=20 Juha Karhunen, Helsinki University of Technology, Finland=20 Sugisaka Masanori, Oita University, Japan=20 Jay Liebowitz, University of Maryland-Baltimore County USA=20 Russell C. Eberhart, Purdue University Indianapolis, USA=20 Jason Yi-Bing Lin, Chiao Tung University, Taiwan=20 Shun-ichi Amari, The Institute of Physical and Chemical Research, Japan=20 Bernd Reusch, University of Dortmund, Germany=20 Hamid Arabnia, The University of Georgia, USA=20 Weiyi Meng, State University of New York at Binghamton, USA=20 Mehmed Kantardzic, University of Louisville, USA=20 Ning Zhong, Yamaguchi University, Japan=20 Xindong Wu, Colorado School of Mines, USA=20 Jerzy Pejas, Technical University of Szczecin, Poland=20 Jarmo Alander, University of Vaasa, Finland=20 Takeshi Furuhashi, Nagoya University, Japan=20 Janos D. Pinter, Dalhousie University, Canada=20 Jeremy L Wyatt, University of Birmingham, UK ********** III.B.4. Fr: Conference, AISTA2000 =20 Re: Evolutionary Computation and Intelligent Control Systems: CFPapers=20 =20 Call for papers for special session in: "Evolutionary Computation and Intelligent Control Systems" at International Conference on Advances in Intelligent Systems: Theory and Applications AISTA'2000 2-4 February 2000, Canberra - Australia http://beth.canberra.edu.au/conferences/aista2000/index.htm Due date for submission of manuscripts: 25 October 1999 The International Conference on Advances in Intelligent Systems: Theory and Applications - AISTA'2000 aims at bringing together theoreticians and practitioners of intelligent systems from Australia and around the world to exchange ideas, present their recent research and discuss possible collaborations. A special session of the conference is devoted to "Evolutionary Computation and Intelligent Control Systems". Papers are being solicited for this session. Topics of this special session include, but are not limited= to, the following area: =B7 Evolutionary Systems for Intelligent and Adaptive Control=20 Hybrid Evolutionary-Neural Network Control,=20 Hybrid Evolutionary-Fuzzy Logic Control,=20 Genetic Algorithms & Evolutionary Programming,=20 Evolutionary Systems & Optimal Control,=20 Evolutionary Control Systems for Robotics and Automation,=20 Intelligent Agents,=20 Parallel Computing Applications=20 Identification and Control using Evolutionary Programming Paper Submission Papers will be selected based on their originality, significance,= correctness, relevance and clarity of presentation. Four copies of manuscripts (4 pages) should be submitted to the following address: AISTA'2000 Secretariat=20 Special Session (Evolutionary Computation and Intelligent Control Systems)= =20 School of Computing=20 University of Canberra=20 ACT 2601, Canberra, Australia The manuscripts should present original work, which has not been published= or being reviewed for other conferences. Important Dates=20 25 October 1999 Deadline for submission of manuscripts=20 20 November 1999 Notification of acceptance=20 10 December 1999 Deadline for camera-ready copies of accepted manuscripts= =20 2-4 February 2000 Conference sessions Further Information=20 For further information contact aista@canberra.edu.au or see the conference homepage at: http://beth.canberra.edu.au/conferences/aista2000/index.htm International Program Committee:=20 Jacek M. Zurada, University of Louisville, USA=20 David E. Goldberg, University of Illinois, USA=20 Kalmanje KrishnaKumar, University of Alabama, USA=20 Juha Karhunen, Helsinki University of Technology, Finland=20 Sugisaka Masanori, Oita University, Japan=20 Jay Liebowitz, University of Maryland-Baltimore County USA=20 Russell C. Eberhart, Purdue University Indianapolis, USA=20 Jason Yi-Bing Lin, Chiao Tung University, Taiwan=20 Shun-ichi Amari, The Institute of Physical and Chemical Research, Japan=20 Bernd Reusch, University of Dortmund, Germany=20 Hamid Arabnia, The University of Georgia, USA=20 Weiyi Meng, State University of New York at Binghamton, USA=20 Mehmed Kantardzic, University of Louisville, USA=20 Ning Zhong, Yamaguchi University, Japan=20 Xindong Wu, Colorado School of Mines, USA=20 Jerzy Pejas, Technical University of Szczecin, Poland=20 Jarmo Alander, University of Vaasa, Finland=20 Takeshi Furuhashi, Nagoya University, Japan=20 Janos D. Pinter, Dalhousie University, Canada=20 Jeremy L Wyatt, University of Birmingham, UK In cooperation with:=20 University of Canberra, Australia=20 IEEE Act Section, Australia=20 Australian Intelligent Cybernetic Systems, Australia ********** III.B.5. Fr: Slawomir Zadrozny =20 Re: Fourth International Conference on Knowledge-Based Intelligent Engineering Systems & Allied Technologies. Special Session on Intelligent Techniques for Internet Resources: CFPapers =20 Fourth International Conference on Knowledge-Based Intelligent Engineering Systems & Allied Technologies. (http://www.eng.bton.ac.uk/eee/research/kes2000/) 30 August-1 September 2000 University of Brighton, Sussex, U.K. Special Session on Intelligent Techniques for Internet Resources Call For Papers The wealth of semi-structured information, as well as of services, currently available on the Internet offers an exciting opportunity for the development of intelligent, flexible query and data-mining systems. Intelligent techniques, such as fuzzy and evolutionary ones, are also at the basis of new= agent-based architectures for Internet applications. Moreover, promising lines of= research are being opened to apply intelligent techniques at the lower levels of the Internet networking protocols and in network administration. The Special Session aims to cover newest developments in those areas, with special emphasis on design and implementation aspects. Topics of the Special Session cover, but are not limited to: * Intelligent information retrieval over the Internet=20 * Flexible querying of databases over the Internet=20 * Agent-based architectures for Internet applications=20 * Data mining techniques for distributed data=20 * Soft computing methods for active networking=20 * Intelligent techniques for multimedia on the Internet INSTRUCTIONS FOR AUTHORS The Special Session will consist of an invited keynote paper and some= selected contributions. Interested authors must submit 5 copies of their paper to one of the Session Chairs. Electronic submissions in Postscript or PDF format are welcome. Submitted papers must comply to the Conference guidelines for submission (http://www.eng.bton.ac.uk/eee/research/kes2000/). All papers will be strictly refereed by at least three experts in the field. PUBLICATION The session papers will be published in the Conference Proceedings. After an additional refereeing, expanded versions of selected papers will be= collected in a volume of the "Studies in Fuzziness and Soft Computing" series,= published by Physica-Verlag. IMPORTANT DATES Deadline for Submission: January 20th, 2000=20 Acceptance/Rejection Notification: March 20th, 2000=20 Camera-ready papers due: April 10th, 2000 Session Chairs: Dr. Ernesto Damiani=20 Universita di Milano - Polo di Crema=20 Via Bramante 65 26013 Crema, ITALY=20 phone: +39-0373-898240=20 edamiani@crema.unimi.it Dr. Slawomir Zadrozny=20 Systems Research Institute=20 Polish Academy of Sciences=20 ul. Newelska 6, 01-447 Warszawa, POLAND=20 phone: +48-22-364103=20 zadrozny@ibspan.waw.pl Slawomir Zadrozny Systems Research Institute phone: +48 22 364103=20 Polish Academy of Sciences fax: +48 22 372772 01-447 Warszawa=20 ul. Newelska 6=20 POLAND ********** III.B.6. Fr: Donna Harman =20 Re: RIAO 2000: Content-Based Multimedia Information Access: CFPapers and Application Demonstrations RIAO 2000 "Content-Based Multimedia Information Access" College de France Paris, France April 12-14, 2000 Call for Papers and Application Demonstrations The RIAO (Recherche d'Informations Assistee par Ordinateur =3D= Computer-Assisted Information Retrieval) International Conference is held every 3 years. Sites for the conference have been Grenoble (1985), Boston (1988), Barcelona= (1991), New York (1994) and Montreal (1997). Paris will host the next RIAO= conference in Spring 2000. The conference is organized by the Centre de Hautes Etudes Internationales d'Informatique Documentaire (C.I.D.) and the Center for the Advanced Study of Information Systems (C.A.S.I.S.). The theme of the= upcoming conference is "Content-Based Multimedia Information Access". The conference scope will range from the traditional processing of text documents to the rapidly growing field of automatic indexing and retrieval of images and= speech and, more generally, to all processing of audio-visual and multimedia information on various supports, including the Net. The conference is of interest for several scientific communities, including Information= Retrieval, Natural Language Processing, Spoken Language Processing, Computer Vision, Human-Computer Interaction and Digital Libraries. RIAO 2000 will, thereby, serve as a forum for cross-discipline initiatives and innovative= applications. Authors are invited to submit short or long papers on the conference topics. Innovative applications and products submissions are also sought for demonstration at special conference sessions. The deadline for electronic submission is November 8, 1999. The final version of the selected papers is requested for January 15, 2000. =20 For more information and format for submission, please see the web site at: http://host.limsi.fr/RIAO or contact the Conference secretariat at: riao2000@limsi.fr ********** III.B.6. Fr: Robert van Liere =20 Re: Eurographics/IEEE TCVG Symposium on Visualization: CFPapers =20 Call for Papers Joint EUROGRAPHICS - IEEE TCVG Symposium on Visualization May 29-31, 2000 Amsterdam, the Netherlands http://www.cwi.nl/vissym00 Aims and Scope=20 Following nine Eurographics workshops on Visualization in Scientific= Computing and the Eurographics - IEEE TCVG Symposium on Visualization in 1999, we= invite you to participate in the second Joint Eurographics - IEEE TCVG Symposium on Visualization. Papers and case studies will form the scientific content of the event.= Papers are invited that present research results from all areas of visualization. Case studies report on practical applications of visualization to data analysis. Suggested topics for research papers include, but are not limited to: - Flow visualization=20 - Information visualization=20 - Human factors in visualization=20 - Large data sets=20 - Volume rendering=20 - Internet-based visualization=20 - User interaction techniques=20 - Multi-Variate visualization=20 - Surface extraction=20 - Data base visualization=20 - Visualization systems=20 - Multi resolution techniques Case studies are invited from any application area, including: Physics, Aerospace, Automotive, Biomedicine, Chemistry, Molecular Biology, Finance, Mathematics, Hypermedia Structures, Data Mining. Accepted papers and case studies will be published in a book by Springer-Verlag.=20 Important Dates=20 3 December 1999 : Paper submission deadline=20 17 January 2000 : Notification of acceptance=20 18 February 2000 : Camera ready copies=20 29-31 May 2000 : EG-IEEE VisSym'00 Paper Submission=20 Authors are requested to prepare their contribution as a full paper.= Accepted papers will be published in a book by Springer-Verlag. Accepted research and case study papers are limited to 10 pages. In the book one additional page= of color plates per paper is available. Further instructions for the= preparation and uploading of papers are available via http://www.cwi.nl/vissym00. If you are not able to upload your paper electronically you alternatively can send two copies of the full paper including figures and images by regular mail to=20 Conference co-chair Robert van Liere (see address below) Program Committee=20 * Dirk Bartz Univ. of Tuebingen, Germany=20 * Ken Brodlie Univ. of Leeds, UK=20 * Daniel Cohen-Or Tel Aviv University, Israel=20 * Sabine Coquillart INRIA, France=20 * Roger Crawfis Ohio State Univ. USA=20 * Stephen Eick Visual Insights, USA=20 * Thomas Ertl Univ. of Stuttgart, Germany=20 * Sarah Gibson MERL, USA=20 * Michel Grave ONERA Chatillon France=20 * Eduard Groeller Vienna Univ. of Technology, Austria=20 * Markus Gross ETH, Switzerland=20 * Hans Hagen Univ. of Kaiserslautern, Germany=20 * Ivan Herman CWI, the Netherlands=20 * Arie Kaufman SUNY Stony Brook, USA=20 * Daniel Keim Univ. of Halle, Germany=20 * David N. Kenwright NASA, USA=20 * Wim de Leeuw CWI the Netherlands=20 * Robert van Liere CWI, the Netherlands=20 * Wilfrid Lefer Univ. of Littoral, France=20 * Nelson Max LLNL, USA=20 * Robert Moorhead Mississippi State Univ, USA=20 * Gregory Nielson Arizona State Univ., USA=20 * Hans-Georg Pagendarm DLR, Germany=20 * Hanspeter Pfister MERL, USA=20 * Frits Post Delft Univ. of Technology, the Netherlands=20 * William Ribarsky Georgia Inst. of Technology, USA=20 * Martin Rumpf Univ. of Bonn, Germany=20 * Georgios Sakas FHG, Germany=20 * Roberto Scopigno IEI-CNR Pisa, Italy=20 * Deborah Silver Rutgers University, USA=20 * Pavel Slavik Czech Technical Univ., Czech Republic=20 * Robert Spence Imperial College London, UK=20 * Hans Spoelder Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands=20 * Jarke van Wijk Eindhoven Univ. of Technology, the Netherlands EG-IEEE VisSym'00 Committee=20 Symposium Co-Chairs:=20 Robert van Liere, Center for Mathematics and Computer Science=20 Ivan Herman, Center for Mathematics and Computer Science=20 William Ribarsky, College of Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology Papers Co-Chairs:=20 Frits Post,Technical University Delft=20 Jarke van Wijk, Technical University Eindhoven Local organization co-chairs:=20 Wim de Leeuw, Center for Mathematics and Computer Science=20 Guy Melancon, Center for Mathematics and Computer Science Related Events=20 VisSym'00 is followed by: 6th Eurographics Workshop on Virtual Environments. This workshop will be held on June 1st and 2nd also at the Center for Mathematics and Computer Science. Contact=20 Any questions concerning the goals, scope and organization can be addressed to: vissym00@cwi.nl or to: =20 Robert van Liere=20 Symposium Co-Chair of VisSym '00=20 Center for Mathematics and Computer Science=20 Department of Software Engineering=20 Kruislaan 413=20 1098 SJ, Amsterdam=20 The Netherlands=20 email: robertl@cwi.nl=20 tel: +31 20 5924118=20 fax: +31 20 5924199 ****************************************************************** IV. PROJECTS IV.C.1. Fr: Joan K Lippincott =20 Re: 1999 TIIAP (Technology) Grant Awards =20 The TIIAP awards have been important catalysts to development of networked services. Here are the latest awards. Washington, DC -- More than $17 million in matching funds is being awarded= to 43 non-profit and governmental organizations across the United States to= help fund innovative uses of advanced networking technologies, the Clinton-Gore Administration announced. The funds will be used to improve delivery of= social services, enhance the capabilities of our public safety officials, and to bring the benefits of information technology to underserved areas of the country. "These investments will help close the digital divide by promoting= innovative applications of the Internet and information technology in underserved urban and rural communities." President Clinton said. "These projects demonstrate the remarkable potential of information technology to help create opportunity= for all Americans".=20 "We cannot overestimate the importance of access to the information age= tools required to succeed in this global economy," said Secretary Daley.= "Tomorrow's economy will demand technological literacy and we must rise to the challenge of ensuring that our workforce of tomorrow will be prepared. Greater access to the Internet creates more users with better skills and greater demand for services. This year's grant recipients are truly leading the way in the use of new computer and information technologies that will help transform people's lives," said Secretary Daley.=20 The Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information=20 Administration (NTIA) administers the Telecommunications and Information=20 Infrastructure Assistance Program (TIIAP), which awards grants annually to non-profit organizations and state and local governments, for innovative,= yet practical, projects using information technologies. This year's 43 grant recipients were chosen from over 702 applicants. The $17.6 million in TIIAP funds will be matched by $21 million in funding from non-Federal sources, resulting in a $38.6 million investment in our nation's information infrastructure.=20 "In awarding this year's grants, we noticed several interesting and= important trends," said Larry Irving, assistant secretary of Commerce and= administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). "Specifically, we are pleased to see that more and more communities are= making comprehensive databases and advanced communication tools available to their citizens and community leaders, empowering them to more effectively= determine the community's needs and target resources better." "Our nation's health care organizations are finding niche areas where telemedicine can help improve the quality of care being delivered and, in= some cases even save lives, as well as saving costs. And, rural communities are finding more ways to bring educational opportunities, access to social services, and health care to its most isolated citizens." This year's grants include: * Second Harvest in Illinois will provide near real-time communication links between food banks and organizations that feed the hungry to help alleviate the nearly 60 million pounds of food that gets wasted each year in the U.S.; * the Georgia-based Shepherd Center will place laptops with= video-conferencing capability in the homes of victims of spinal cord and brain injuries. These victims, who face a lifetime of challenges, will have greater access to= their care givers as well as to clinics and seminars that can help them in their recovery; * the Cleveland Housing Network in Ohio will use Internet-based technology= to let community based organizations share data resources and collaborate on solutions for community revitalization. The project addresses common= national problems, such as access to affordable housing, and allows those closest to the problems to have the tools to address them; and * Dance partners, a project of Ballet Arts Minnesota, will use interactive telecommunications technology to spread the reach of cultural dance to underserved communities, including the elderly and disabled. Whereas the 50 largest dance companies are concentrated in only ten of our largest cities, this project has the potential to bring increased exposure to dance in rural areas. =20 "The lessons learned from these grants will be shared across the nation and throughout the world. There is tremendous global interest in learning how= the tools of the 21st century can be used to improve the quality of lives," said Irving. "The experiences of these TIIAP grant recipients will help inform those who are just beginning to determine how to bring the benefits of new technologies to their communities and villages." Descriptions of each of the 43 grant recipients, along with contact information, are posted on NTIA's website at .=20 "We encourage people who are interested in learning about the grant program= to visit the website or call us at (202) 482-2048," said Bernadette McGuire-Rivera, administrator of NTIA's grants office. =20 The TIIAP program was initiated in 1994. It has awarded $135 million in= award funds that has spurred over $339 million in total investments. NTIA serves= as the principal adviser to the executive branch on domestic and international telecommunications issues. TIIAP awards grants annually to non-profit organizations to help bring the benefits of technology to rural and underserved areas.=20 ****************************************************************** IRLIST Digest is distributed from the University of California, California Digital Library, 1111 Franklin Street, Oakland, CA. 94607-5200. 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 FTP via the host hibiscus.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.