Re:ICALP workshop proposal: Applications of New Proof Theory

At 15:24 +0200 28.10.04, Charles A Stewart wrote:
> I talked yesterday with Alessio about the possibility of putting
> together a workshop that would highlight the kind of proof theory
> that we like: deep inference, rewriting modulo, and generally
> good proof theory.  I think the idea of "new proof theory" is a way
> to get away from the unhealthy conservatism that cripples so much
> work on proof theory done in the LICS community.

I think the workshop might be a good idea. I checked with Catuscia 
(who's PC chair) and she told me that what we do fits ICALP very well.

I'm not sure about "new proof theory" etc. I would go for a lower, 
technical profile rather than an ideological one.

The workshop organisation might be a collaboration with Nancy, also 
as a nice way to conclude our Procope project. What do you think 
Francois?

A theme could be "Deep inference and proof nets", or something like 
that, joining in the broadest sense our common themes. Since we 
organised in Dresden already several workshops along these lines, we 
should have a certain credibility. One common goal to state could be 
getting to deductive proof nets.

A more provocative idea could be to dedicate the workshop to 
something like "towards deductive proof nets", but I don't know how 
many people share my feelings about the subject...

One thing I'd like to do is having a face-to-face discussion about 
the issues in the last several emails about strategic goals, ways to 
achieve them, etc.

Another thing I'd be interested in doing is having a discussion with 
the display calculus people. Perhaps Rajeev would be around in Europe 
and willing to do this. Rajeev?

>   - Who would be interested in organising all the things that need
>   to be organised?
>   - Who probably doesn't have much time to help, but would like to
>   be involved to some degree?

The organisation work doesn't seem to be much, and I certainly am 
willing to help.

Right now, my future is uncertain, and I'm not 100% sure of being 
available for synchronous communication in the months immediately 
preceding the workshop. For this reason I'd prefer not to be an 
official organiser, but I'll most probably be able to handle 
asynchronous tasks.

>   - Who might submit papers to such a workshop?  In what areas?  How
>   many papers altogether?

Let's discuss this after the topics are defined.

> Who do we know would be willing to do the soul-destroying task of 
> refereeing submissions?

That's something I can do. IMPORTANT CONDITION: for the usual 
political reasons I'm willing to participate only if there are no 
(widely disseminated) proceedings. Subsequent publication in journals 
is fine, of course, after further, careful journal-standard reviewing.

>   - Who would be suitable to invite to be Invited Speakers?

Again, let's discuss this after the topics are defined.

> Comments on the above or anything I have omitted welcome. I think we 
> should decide whether or not to put together a proposal by the end 
> of next week (ie. Friday, 5th November 2004).

That's another thing I can help doing. I wrote already a few 
documents outlining my "vision" and research goals and methods, 
available from my web pages. If you think they might be suitable for 
a proposal, we could start from parts of these.

-Alessio