Last CFP: AOIS at ER'03 - 5th Int. Bi-Conf. Workshop on Agent-Oriented Information

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               Last  Call for Papers

      Fifth International Bi-Conference Workshop on
          Agent-Oriented Information Systems
                    (AOIS@ER-2003)

                 http://www.aois.org

                    Special Track
                    -------------
            Agent-Oriented Methodologies:
           Commonalities and Distinctions

                 October 13, 2003

                         at
          22nd International Conference on
            Conceptual Modeling (ER 2003)
                Chicago, Illinois, USA
            http://www.er.byu.edu/er2003/

   
        **************************************
        **  Paper submissions April 4, 2003 **
        **************************************  


Workshop Description
--------------------

Agent-Orientation is emerging as a powerful new paradigm in
computing.  Concepts and techniques from the agents paradigm could
well be the foundations for the next generation of mainstream
information systems.   

Information systems have become the backbone of all kinds of
organizations today.  In almost every sector -- manufacturing,
education, health care, government, and businesses large and
small -- information systems are relied upon for everyday work,
communication, information gathering, and decision-making.  Yet the
inflexibilities in current technologies and methods have also resulted
in poor performance, incompatibilities, and obstacles to change.  As
many organizations are reinventing themselves to meet the challenges
of global competition and e-commerce, there is increasing pressure to
develop and deploy new technologies that are flexible, robust, and
responsive to rapid and unexpected change.   

Agent concepts hold great promise for responding to the new realities
of information systems.  They offer higher level abstractions and
mechanisms which address issues such as knowledge representation and
reasoning, communication, coordination, cooperation among
heterogeneous and autonomous parties, perception, commitments, goals,
beliefs, intentions, etc.,  all of which need conceptual
modelling. On the one hand, the concrete implementation of these
concepts can lead to advanced functionalities, e.g., in
inference-based query answering, transaction control, adaptive
workflows, brokering and integration of disparate information sources,
and automated communication processes.  On the other hand, their rich
representational capabilities allow more faithful and flexible
treatments of complex organizational processes, leading to more
effective requirements analysis and architectural/detailed design. 
The workshop will focus on how agent concepts and techniques will
contribute to meeting information systems needs today and tomorrow. 

The workshop encourages submissions on all topics related to AOIS,
including (but not limited to) the following:       

* agent-oriented modeling and design methods 
* models and architectures for agent-oriented information systems 
* novel information system technologies based on software agents 
* agent-oriented requirements engineering 
* agents and knowledge management 
* agent-oriented approaches to data integration 
* agent-based workflow modeling 
* agent orientation and e-services/web services
* agent orientation in web information systems
* agent-oriented enterprise and business process modeling 
* agent communication languages for business communication 
* ontologies and agents 
* managing trust and reputation
* automated business-to-business interaction (including negotiation
  and contracting)  

Special Track:   (at AOIS2003 @ ER2003)
Agent-Oriented Methodologies -- Commonalities and Distinctions
--------------------------------------------------------------

The growth of interest in software agents and multi-agent systems has
recently led to the development of new methodologies based on agent
concepts.  Methodologies and associated modeling languages (such as,
Gaia, AAII, AOR, MaSE, Message/UML, AUML, OPEN/Agent, Tropos, PASSI
and Prometheus among others) 
have become the focal point of attention in the emerging area of
agent-oriented software engineering.  These methodologies propose
different approaches in using agent concepts and techniques at various
stages during the software development lifecycle. 

To promote deeper understanding among and to foster synergy across
research efforts in the various methodologies, this special track
solicits research contributions that will identify, analyze, and
illustrate the commonalities and distinctions across different
methodologies.  Methodologies may differ in their objectives and
underlying premises, the way they deal with issues such as openness,
uncertainty, security, and autonomy, the extent of coverage over the
different phases of software engineering, the way they stress the
evolution, maintenance, and other non-functional qualities, and
eventually with respect to the tools and technologies that can support
them. Methodologies may also differ in generality, some focusing on
specialized application domains, or specific implementation
technologies.  A clarification of the similarities and differences
among methodologies is needed to guide the practitioner in choosing
which methodology to adopt for what applications and circumstances.  A
clearer understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of various
methodologies, their compatibilities and divergences, will also be
crucial for further advancements in the development and potential
convergence of methodologies. 

Submissions to this special track are encouraged to present their
methodology using a case study from an information system application
area.  Such a case study is intended to be representative of the kinds
of challenges faced by real-world information systems today and
tomorrow, but also to be useful to show weaknesses and strengths of
the presented  methodology. After the workshop we would like to define
a "challenge problem" taking contributions from all the
participants and use it as a "benchmark example" for comparison
in the future workshops. 

Submitted papers must have agent orientation as a central
feature. They could include (but are not limited to) papers that: 

* contain a detailed exposition of one methodology using a case study
  and explaining what stages the methodology covers, possibly with
  direct comparisons to at least one other methodology; 
* focus on selected technical issues (e.g., evolution and maintenance,
  coordination and protocols, validation and verification), analyzing
  how one or more methodologies deal with those issues, using a case
  study as much as possible to illustrate; 
* analyze and illustrate how selected agent concepts (e.g., roles,
  responsibilities, capabilities, intentionality, autonomy, dependency
  networks and trust) are used in different methodologies, and the
  consequences of those different approaches; 
* describe the decisions and commitments supported by one methodology
  in the development process, possibly showing what kinds of analyses
  are used to support these decisions;  
* analyze the use of conceptual modelling for agent-oriented
  information systems development; 
* compare a methodology to other agent-based methodologies as well as
  other non-agent-based methodologies (for instance, object-oriented,
  component-based, etc.); 
* present from practical experience the methodological difficulties
  and challenges  a  methodology may face, possibly proposing
  requirements and evolution criteria for evaluating methodologies
  from practical prospective.


Workshop Format
---------------

To foster greater communication and interaction between the
Information Systems and Agents communities, we are organizing the
workshop as a bi-conference event.  It is intended to be a single
"logical" event with two "physical" venues. It is hoped that this
arrangement will encourage greater participation from, and more
exchange between, both communities. The first part of the
bi-conference event in 2003 will be held in July at the Second
international joint conference on Autonomous Agents & Multi Agent
Systems (AAMAS 2003 -- http://www.aamas-conference.org/).  

The technical program will include invited talks by leading experts in
the field, contributed papers, and poster sessions. Authors of
accepted papers who present their paper at one location will also be
invited to present their papers as a poster in the other location.   

To mitigate the geographic and temporal separation of the two parts of
the workshop, electronic discussion will be strongly
encouraged. Accepted papers will be posted on the workshop
website. There will be designated discussants for each
paper. Discussants' comments will also be posted on the website.  

All papers submitted to the special track will be discussed by
designated discussants and panels at the ER2003 workshop. Authors for
the special track are expected to present their papers at the ER2003
workshop, and be discussants for other papers.  Activities associated
with the special track will also be organized at AAMAS 2003. 

Papers will be published as part of the ER2003 Workshop volume by
Springer in their LNCS series.  Publication of selected papers from
the workshop in a special issue of a journal is being planned. 


Submission of Papers
--------------------

To submit a regular paper as a postscript or pdf file, authors should
either send it by  email (or place it on a web server and send its
URL) to  paolo.giorgini-reGABNQHgu8lA530mElN6Q@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx A separate 
message with  the
title, author names, affiliations, contact information and an abstract
has to be sent. Papers must be at most 15 pages. 

Submitted papers must be formatted using the Springer LNCS
style. Templates (llncs.cls, llncs.sty, or sv-lncs.dot) are available
at: http://www.springer.de/comp/lncs/authors.html.  

Papers for the special track (Agent-Oriented Methodologies --
Commonalities and Distinctions) should be clearly identified. 


Position Papers
---------------
In addition to full length, refereed papers, we are also seeking
position  papers.  These can be submitted by email to
paolo.giorgini-reGABNQHgu//wltNWqQaag@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx in ps or pdf format.   

Your position paper should not exceed 2 pages. It must either 
  1. discuss a specific problem, or 
  2. attack a specific position, or 
  3. articulate a specific technology forecast. 

You must indicate under which of these three categories your position paper
falls. A problem discussion must begin with a section called Problem Statement
and must conclude with a section called Research Questions. An attack
must first describe the position to be attacked in neutral language
before it presents reasons why it should be rejected. A technology
forecast should consist of one or more forecast statements with
additional explanation.  

Please have a look at our  list of research questions at
http://www.aois.org/CfPP.html


Important dates:
---------------

  Abstract submissions                  April 3, 2003
  Paper submissions                     April 4, 2003 
  Notification                          May 2, 2003
  Position paper submissions due:       May 31, 2003
  Camera-ready papers                   May 31, 2003


Organization commitee:
----------------------

Co-chairs:
----------

Paolo Giorgini 
Department of Information and Communication Technology
University of Trento, Italy
Email: paolo.giorgini-reGABNQHgu//wltNWqQaag@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Web page: http://www.dit.unitn.it/~pgiorgio

Brian Handerson-Sellers
Faculty of Information Technology
University of Technology, Sydney
Email: brian-IuPLbuXCSHZWG/WdbR7gnQ@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Web page: http://www-staff.it.uts.edu.au/~brian

Steering Committee:
-------------------

Yves Lesperance
Department of Computer Science 
York University, Canada
Email://lesperan-syTJIgLXA8osA/PxXw9srA@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Web page: http://www.cs.yorku.ca/~lesperan

Gerd Wagner
Department of Information & Technology, 
Eindhonven University of Technology, The Netherlands
Email: G.Wagner-ejtfMRhQEjBmR6Xm/wNWPw@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Web page: http://tmitwww.tm.tue.nl/staff/gwagner

Eric Yu
Faculty of information Studies,
University of Toronto, Canada
Email: eric.yu-H217xnMUJC0sA/PxXw9srA@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Web page: http://www.cs.toronto.edu/~eric


Program Committee:
------------------

- B. Blake (Georgetown University, USA)
- P. Bresciani (ITC- irst, Italy)
- H.-D. Burkhard (Humboldt Univ., DE)
- L. Cernuzzi (Universidad Catolica, Paraguay)
- L. Cysneiros (York University, Toronto)
- F. Dignum (Univ. of Utrecht, NL)
- B. Espinasse (Domaine Universitaire de Saint-Jerome, France)
- I.A. Ferguson (B2B Machines, USA)
- T. Finin  (UMBC, USA)
- A. Gal (Technion - Israel Institute of Technology)
- U. Garimella (Andra Pradesh Govt., MSIT, India)
- A.K. Ghose (Univ. of Wollongong, AU)
- M. Huhns (Univ. S. Carolina, USA)
- G. Karakoulas (CIBC and Univ. Toronto, CA)
- K. Karlapalem (Indian Inst. of Information Technology, India)
- L. Kendall (Monash University, Australia)
- D. Kinny (University of Melbourne)
- S. Kirn (Techn. Univ. Ilmenau, DE)
- M. Kolp (Universite catholique de Louvain, Belgium)
- N. Jennings (Southampton University, UK)
- G. Lakemeyer (RWTH Aachen, DE)
- Y. Lesperance (York University, CANADA)
- D.E. O'Leary (Univ. of Southern California, USA)
- F. Lin (Hong Kong Univ. of Science and Technology, HK)
- J.P. Mueller (Siemens, DE)
- J. Odell (James Odell Associates, USA)
- O. F. Rana (Cardiff University, UK)
- M. Schroeder (City Univ. London, UK)
- N. Szirbik (Eindhonven Univ. of Technology, The Netherlands)
- C. Woo (Univ. British Columbia, CA)
- Y. Ye (IBM T.J. Watson Research Center,NY)
- B. Yu (North Carolina State University, USA)
- F. Zambonelli (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy)


----------------------------------------------------------------------
Paolo Giorgini                       http://www.dit.unitn.it/~pgiorgio
Department of Information and
 Communication Technology            
email:paolo.giorgini-reGABNQHgu//wltNWqQaag@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
University of Trento                            phone: +39-0461-882052
Via Sommarive, 14 38050 Povo - Trento - Italy     fax: +39-0461-881624
----------------------------------------------------------------------
















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