IJCAI-97 Workshop Call for Papers Title: AI in Distributed Information Networking, ----- What have we learned and how will we deal with the convergence? Objective --------- Distributed Information Networks deliver information over a variety of media which include telecommunication, cable, wireless and satellite networks. This workshop will address the convergence and the future of AI in seamless information networking. Seamless networking is the ability to create and deliver information in personal communication workspaces. These workspaces include multimedia multimodal devices such as desktop video conferencing tools, telephones, pagers, and cellular phones which can be used for voice, text or video communication. To achieve the transparent capability of moving seamlessly from one device to another and from one application to another there exists a need to develop intelligent personal assistants. These personal communication assistants are being developed as intelligent agents. They range from talking yellow page agents, financial assistants to information filtering softbots. Coupled with personal agents is a need for infrastrucutre agents and AI technologies to manage the converging wired and wireless networks. This is the field of network management and it addresses fault management, diagnosis, monitoring, alarm filtering, routing and traffic analysis. The workshop will follow the highly successful IJCAI-95 workshop on AI in Distributed Information Networks. That workshop examined the successes and failures of AI applications and of applying AI in network management. It was clear that AI has been successful in constrained well-defined domains. However, AI technology has often been applied to toy problems that do not adequately scale up to network problems or represent the real world. For example, 7 different agent architectures for network applications were presented for agents at the IJCAI-95 workshop. The IJCAI-97 workshop will address the common features of the agent architectures and AI technology in network applications and network management. It is clear that network applications require persistent, predictable agents whose behaviours are bounded and will not consume infinite resources. Questions that need addressing include: how can network agents realise predictable behaviours while maintaining some form of autonomy?; what are the ideal communication mechanisms for distributed and sometimes mobile agents?; how can agents exist in secure and non-secure environments?; how can agents recognize friendly versus rogue agents?; etc. High speed heterogeneous networks formed by integrating telephone, cable, wireless, satellite, etc. networks pose a variety of new problems in network management. They also present new opportunities in information network applications such as personalized electronic newspapers, video-on-demand, personalized home shopping, and nomadic computing with personalized digital assistants to name a few. The IJCAI-95 workshop identified agents as a key AI technology for managing the new integrated networks. The IJCAI-97 workshop will also address the question of how to use agents to manage the networks. Well-written papers are sought that describe previously *unpublished* application of AI and agent technology in a novel manner to: o network management problems such as but not limited to - adaptive routing - diagnosis - monitoring - scheduling - provisioning o personal information network assistants or agents for (but not limited to): - seamless messaging over wired and wireless networks - information filtering (including off the world wide web) - personal digital assistant applications - computer supported collaborative work (groupware) applications - distance learning - telemedicine Papers that present a well-supported vision as to where the challenges lie for AI and agents in the new converging networks are sought. Well-written reviews are requested that address: o personal assistants or agents for information networking application problems o AI technology or agents for network management problems Proposed Schedule ----------------- Circulation of CFP: January 1st, 1997 Papers received: March 1st, 1997 Author notification: March 30th, 1997 Final papers received: April 30th, 1997 Final papers distributed: June 1st, 1997 Begin e-mail discussions: June 15th, 1997 Workshop: August 22nd, 1997 Call for book chapters: September 19th, 1997 Revised papers: December 19th, 1997 Submission to a Publisher: December 30th, 1997 Participants will be selected on the basis of submitted papers (10 pages maximum in four copies) by three referees. Papers must include: author's name(s), affiliation, complete mailing address, phone number, fax number, and e-mail. Accepted papers will be made available the form of PostScript files two months before the workshop electronically from the chair's World Wide Web Server or in hardcopy from the chair. The goal is to encourage participants to take a position as to where AI and agents fit into the converging networks for network management and as personal assistants and what are the commonalities of these agents. The participants are then expected to defend their position at the workshop. The workshop will be limited to 30 active participants. Additional information will be available from the chair by request. Attendees are required to register for the main IJCAI-97 conference. Day of the Workshop Organization -------------------------------- The workshop will be organized as two panels, 1 morning and 1 afternoon: o agents for personal networking applications in the converging networks o AI technologies and agents in network management The authors of the best papers addressing one of the two panel topics will be chosen for the panel. The panelists will be given 5 minutes to present a position on the topic and the workshop participants will discuss and question the panelists on the topic. The goal of the morning panel will be to identify the minimal agent characteristics in personal information networking. The goal of the afternoon panel will be to enumerate AI and agent technologies for the management of the complex converging networks. Two appropriate Committee members will be asked to moderate the panels to ensure that the discussion is lively and useful. The chair will ensure that the panelists address their topics and she will summarize the areas for a group discussion that will conclude the workshop. Organization Committee ---------------------- Chair ----- Sue Abu-Hakima, Seamless Personal Information Networking Group, National Research Council, Ottawa, Canada Committee --------- Stephen Corley, Intelligent Systems Unit, BT Labs, Suffolk, UK Michel Feret, Sony, Japan Innes Ferguson, Mitsubishi, UK Andreas Girgensohn, NYNEX Science & Technology, White Plains, NY, USA Nancy Griffeth, Bellcore, Morristown, NJ, USA Beat Liver, R&D, Swiss Telecom PTT, Berne, Switzerland Dominique Sidou, Institut Eurecom, Sophia Antipolis, France Hugo Velthuijsen, Netherlands PTT Chris Winter, BT, UK John Wright, AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, NJ, USA Main contact address of the Organizing Committee: Sue Abu-Hakima Seamless Personal Information Networking (SPIN) Group Institute for Information Technology National Research Council of Canada Building M-50, Montreal Road Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0R6 tel: (613) 991-1231 fax: (613) 952-7151 email: suhayya@ai.iit.nrc.ca or abu-hakima@iit.nrc.ca