IRLIST Digest ISSN 1064-6965 November 25, 1996 Volume XIII, Number 47 Issue 334 ********************************************************** Paul Evan Peters December 12, 1947 - November 18, 1996 II. JOBS 1. U. Ottawa: 2 Postdoctorals, IT 2. UC Irvine: ICS, Full Professor 3. Oregon Health Sciences U.: UNIX/C/C++/Perl Programmers III. NOTICES A. Publications 1. FARNET's Washington Update 2. Info Connect: New URL B. Meetings 1. 5th Riao Conference: Computer-Assisted Information Searching 2. Annual Conference, ASI SO California Chapter C. Miscellaneous 1. RIPPER Learning System Now Available to Researchers IV. PROJECTS D. Initiatives & Proposals 1. U.S. Researchers: Learning & Intelligent Systems ********************************************************** Paul Evan Peters December 12, 1947 - November 18, 1996 It's with great sorrow that I share with you the announcement of the untimely and sudden death of Paul Peters, the Executive Director of the Coalition for Networked Information. I'm sure that many of you knew Paul; he was a key figure in establishing the Networked Information community and a thoughtful, original, and important contributor to, and voice for, this community. He was also a close friend. We will miss him. I know that you'll join me in extending sympathies to his family, and to his colleagues at the Coalition. Clifford Lynch From: Coalition for Networked Information We are very saddened to report the death of Paul Evan Peters, 48, Executive Director of the Coalition for Networked Information. He died suddenly on November 18, 1996 while he walked on a beach with his wife while on a trip to Florida. Paul was the founding director of the Coalition for Networked Information and served as its head since March, 1990. Highly respected in the library, information technology, and scholarly communities, he sought common ground for many constituencies in order to develop global networked information resources. A true imagineer, his vision and his ability to pull people together to build new realities were unique. Paul led CNI through two cycles of formal evaluations by the sponsoring organizations and as recently as September saw it move from the status of a sunset enterprise to one of an ongoing nature, recognizing the achievement of its essential role in the North American dialogue to advance scholarship and intellectual productivity. Before founding the Coalition in March 1990, Paul was Systems Coordinator at the New York Public Library from 1987 through 1989, and was Assistant University Librarian for Systems at Columbia University, where he also earned a master's degree in sociology in 1986. From 1970 until 1978, Paul was a principal in a variety of research and development projects and he earned a master's degree in library and information science at the University of Pittsburgh. Paul worked briefly as a Retail Systems Engineer for the National Cash Register Corporation immediately following the completion of his undergraduate studies in computer science and philosophy at the University of Dayton in 1969. Paul was a former president of the Library and Information Technology Association, was a former chair of the National Information Standards Organization, and served on the editorial boards of a number of networking, networked information, and library technology journals. He also served on the Council of the American Library Association. He is survived by his wife Rosemarie Kozdron, his parents Austin and Mary Peters, and a brother Philip Peters. CNI Steering Committee Chair Richard West expressed his sentiments: "We do not yet comprehend how much Paul will be missed. His leadership, insight, and quiet competence has had an impact on all who have benefited from the CNI program. The many who had the chance to work with Paul know of his contribution and influence on our professional scholarly and technological activities -- I cannot imagine his contribution being replaced any time soon. For me, this is also a great personal loss, for Paul was a trusted colleague and a close and wonderful friend." Information on services and other arrangements will be posted as available at www.cni.org. ********************************************************** II. JOBS II.1. Fr: Robert Holte Re: U. Ottawa: 2 Postdoctorals, IT Two postdoctoral positions are available, starting immediately, in a 3-year joint research project on "Intelligent Information Access" involving the Computer Science Department of the University of Ottawa, the Institute for Information Technology (IIT) of the National Research Council of Canada, and RES International Inc. The project has two main subprojects -- text summarization, and intelligent browsing/information access -- each having one postdoctoral position associated with it. Drs. S. Matwin and S. Szpakowicz are leading the research on the automatic summarization of English texts. The postdoctoral position for this subproject is intended for a recent Ph.D. graduate who has either a degree in computational linguistics/natural language processing, preferably with an emphasis on corpus-based approaches, or a very strong background in these areas. A considerable familiarity with current machine learning techniques is also expected. Experience in programming in Prolog is required, fluency is an asset. Dr. R. Holte is leading the research on intelligent browsing/information access. The postdoctoral position for this subproject is intended for a recent Ph.D. graduate with expertise in the application of Artificial Intelligence techniques to browsing or information "access" (retrieval, filtering, routing, clustering, or classification). Familiarity with current machine learning techniques is required. The postdoctoral fellows will be based at the University of Ottawa, and will primarily interact with the research faculty and graduate students there, but will also have significant contact with several IIT researchers. The University of Ottawa provides an excellent working environment and a comprehensive benefit package. The University is bilingual (French/English) but the working language of this project will be English. If you are interested, please send your current CV and names and email addresses of three references to Dr. Rob Holte (holte@csi.uottawa.ca) ** AS SOON AS POSSIBLE ***. For more on the University consult "http://www.uottawa.ca/", which also includes information about Ottawa and the National Capital Region. For more information on the Knowledge Acquisition and Machine Learning research group in the Computer Science Department consult "http://www.csi.uottawa.ca/tanka/kaml.html". For more information on the Institute for Information Technology, consult "http://ai.iit.nrc.ca/II_public/index.html". ********** II.2. Fr: Michael Pazzani Re: UC Irvine: ICS, Full Professor The Department of Information and Computer Science (ICS) at the University of California Irvine invites applications for a tenured position at the full professor level, although promising candidates at other levels may also be considered. Research emphases of interest include databases; digital libraries; human-computer interaction studies, techniques, and approaches; intelligent information retrieval; multimedia; networking and communications; visualization; and the study of these technologies and their effect including aspects of management, privacy, public policy and security. We are looking for candidates with strong research records who would thrive in a highly productive setting. Duties include research and undergraduate and graduate teaching. Applicants must possess a Ph.D. The ICS Department is an independent campus unit reporting to the Executive Vice Chancellor. ICS faculty emphasize core computer science as well as research in emerging areas of the discipline, with effective interdisciplinary ties to colleagues in biology, cognitive science, engineering, management, medicine, and the social sciences. The Department currently has 29 full-time faculty and 120 Ph.D. students. The ICS Department has research groups in the areas of algorithms and data structures; artificial intelligence; computer networks and distributed systems; computer-supported cooperative work; computer systems design; parallel processing; and social and managerial analysis of computing; and software/software engineering. UC-Irvine is located in Orange County, three miles from the Pacific Ocean near Newport Beach, and approximately forty miles south of Los Angeles. The campus is situated in the heart of a national center of high-technology enterprise. Both the campus and the enterprise area offer exciting professional and cultural opportunities. Salaries and benefits are competitive. Mortgage and housing assistance are available. Housing options include newly built, for-sale housing located on campus and within short walking distance from the Department. Send resume and contact information for five references to: ICS Faculty Position c/o Joy Schuler Department of Information and Computer Science University of California, Irvine Irvine, CA 92697-3425 Application screening will begin immediately upon receipt of curriculum vitae. Maximum consideration will be given to applications received by December 1, 1996. The University of California is an Equal Opportunity Employer, committed to excellence through diversity. ********** II.3. Fr: William Hersh Re: Oregon Health Sciences U.: UNIX/C/C++/Perl Programmers Seeking Unix/C/C++/Perl Programmers The Biomedical Information Communication Center (BICC) of Oregon Health Sciences University (OHSU) is seeking to hire two computer programmers for medical computing research projects in information retrieval and the electronic medical record. Unix/C/C++/Perl experience is essential, with CGI and/or Java experience a plus. One position will involve developing software for indexing and retrieval of on-line resources, including those on the Internet, while the other will consist of developing methods for extracting terminology and data from text reports in the electronic medical record. Interested applicants should send a curriculum vitae by 12/15/96 to: William R. Hersh Associate Professor of Medicine and Medical Informatics Oregon Health Sciences University Mail Code: BICC 3181 S.W. Sam Jackson Park Road Portland, OR 97201-3098 OHSU is an EEO/AA employer ********************************************************** III. NOTICES III.A.1. Fr: Heather Boyles Re: FARNET's Washington Update FARNET's Washington Update --- November 22, 1996 IN THIS ISSUE: o Federal-State Joint Board's Recommendations on telecom discounts for schools and libraries o CDA case continues to progress toward Supreme Court >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 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 for additional support. If you would like more information about the Update or would like to offer comments or suggestions, please contact Heather Boyles at heather@farnet.org ********** III.A.2. Fr: Godfrey Oswald Re: Info Connect: New URL Info Connect, the librarians and information scientists no 1 directory in cyberspace has moved to a brand new URL address. The new site URL is at http://www.users.dircon.co.uk/~kush/Page1.htm If you have never visited Info Connect before, NOW is the time to see the potential of the Internet for the librarian or Information scientist. Your views and suggestions very much welcome. Godfrey London ********** III.B.1. Fr: Abdellatif Saoudi Re: 5th Riao Conference: Computer-Assisted Information Searching on the Internet CALL FOR PAPERS 5TH RIAO CONFERENCE COMPUTER ASSISTED INFORMATION SEARCHING ON INTERNET 25th-27th June 1997 McGill University, Montreal, Quebec H3A 2T7,Canada, "RIAO 97" will be the fifth conference in the series. RIAO 85 took place in France, RIAO 88 at MIT (Cambridge MA., U.S.A.), RIAO 91 in Barcelona, Spain, and RIAO 94 in New York. The Conference is organized by the "CENTRE DE HAUTES ETUDES INTERNATIONALES D'INFORMATIQUE DOCUMENTAIRE" (CID) Paris. Facing the growth of document information available throught the Internet way (Web sites, NewsGroups or emails), it is necessary to offer new technologies, mechanisms and systems to manage all that information. The huge amount of information implies rapid indexing and retrieval engines, efficient datamining and knowledge discovery systems in oder to find relevant or strategic information. On one hand,linguistic tools are necessary when managing textual information ; one the other hand specifics problems have to be solved regarding the management of multimedia information : multimedia information characterisation, search mechanisms, multimedia interfaces. Tools are also necessary to deal with the diversity of the information source. Where is the relevant information stored? Which are the best sources? How can heterogeneous repositories be queried, ...? Finally, the current ways of diffusing information such as the Internet lead to security problems that must not be overlooked. The purpose of this conference is to confront specialists in media contents with specialists in Web-based searching. More specifically, papers are expected to cover one or more of the following topics : A - Rapid indexing and retrieval engines, automatic abstracting B - Evaluation of linguistic tools in information retrieval C - Information Retrieval from several repositories - Identification of duplicated documents in different repositories (different languages, structures or versions), - Unification of documents from heterogeneous repositories ; datawarehousing, - Interest of the use of datamining and knowledge discovery strategies when querying large repositories, - Evaluation of repository for a given search strategy. D - Technology watch techniques using strategy on the Web ; content adressable electronic mail, news group, WWW systems. E - Architecture - How can large data flows be exploited by information retrieval tools, - Distributed, multi-agent architectures F - Image - Image content characterisation, human and automatic image description methods, - Image search strategies G - Sound - Sound content characterisation, - Automatic identification of sound type: speech, music..., - Spoken language recognition, - Word-spotting. H - Content-based compression techniques I - Multimedia interfaces : Iconic, navigational, speech interface to web search J - Data security problems: copyright protection, internet crime K - Web-related international conventions and policies PROGRAM CHAIRS : C. Chrisment (French Chair), L. Devroye (Canadian chair) IMPORTANT DATES : Closing date for submission: 20 January 1997 Notification of acceptance: 10 March 1997 Camera-ready copy: 10 May 1997 Conference start-date: 25 June 1997 SUBMISSIONS : Email submissions in Postscript or ASCII form are encouraged. Otherwise, five hard copies, no more than 20 pages (abstract) of the manuscripts should be submitted. o Email submissions should be sent to : riao97@irin.univ-nantes.fr o Mail submissions should be sent to : RIAO97 C.I.D 36 bis, rue Ballu F-75009 PARIS FRANCE or RIAO97 C.A.S.I.S C.O. Leon Constantin 575 Madison Avenue 25th Floor New York N.Y. 10022 U.S.A Detailed information regarding RIAO-97 can be found on the World Wide Web Server : http://www.sciences.univ-nantes.fr/RIAO97/ ********** III.B.2. Fr: GVHatch@aol.com> Re: Annual Conference, ASI So Calif chapter, Feb 8, 1997 The American Society of Indexers' Southern California Chapter invites you to our 1997 annual conference. Theme: Building Your Indexing Business Hyatt Regency Long Beach, on the water near Shoreline Drive, 200 South Pine Avenue, Long Beach, CA 90802 (310-491-1234) Saturday, February 8, a full day of presentations plus networking from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. (Friday, February 7 will feature an informal reception and no-host bar at about 5:00 p.m., followed by dinner out.) FEATURED TOPICS: --Frances Lennie will speak on "Beyond Basic Indexing: How to Approach Revisions, Cumulations, and Spin-Off Indexes" --Mort Wedner: "Income and Asset Protection for the Self-Employed Indexer: Taking the Mystery Out of Disability Income and Individual Long Term Care Plans" --Ann Blum will offer suggestions on "How to Increase Productivity in Your Business" --Panel: "Building an Indexing Career . . . in the Moonlight?" ..a panel discussion by freelancers who are also employed or occupied full-time in other jobs. The panel will feature Bonny McLaughlin, Micki Taylor and Gaylene Hatch. --Both of the popular indexing programs, Cindex and Macrex, will have demo tables. Also, in addition to and independent of our program, Cindex and Macrex will each offer a seminar for existing users of their programs, for a small fee. Contact them directly for more information at macrex@aol.com and ircindex@aol.com. HOW TO REGISTER: Information and an email version of the registration form are available from E. Micki Taylor at EMickiT@aol.com. Please include the following information with your check and snail mail it to the address below: your filled-out e-mail registration form, or a sheet with your name, telephone, street address, city, state, and Zip. Each conferee will receive a list of the conferees and their addresses; if you do not want your name on this list, please so indicate on your enclosure. If you wish to share a hotel room with another conferee, say so and we'll be a clearinghouse. Send your check, made out to ASI SoCal, to E. Micki Taylor, 613 N. Plymouth Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90004-1420. If you have questions, call Micki (but not before 10:00 a.m. please) at (213) 465-0827 or e-mail her at EMickiT@aol.com. ********** III.C.1. Fr: William Cohen Re: RIPPER Learning System Now Available to Researchers I'm making the most recent version of my rule learning system RIPPER available to researchers. The relevant URL is http://www.research.att.com/~wcohen/ripperd.html RIPPER is a fast, highly noise tolerant rule learner, originally aimed at learning problems involving very large noisy datasets. But it also contains some extensions that make it convenient to use in learning to classify text. For more details on the RIPPER algorithm you can look at - "Fast effective rule induction" from ML95 www.research.att.com/~wcohen/postscript/ml-95-ripper.ps - "Learning trees and rules with set-valued features", from AAAI-96 www.research.att.com/~wcohen/postscript/aaai-96.ps For results on using RIPPER for text classification you can also look at the following additional papers: - "Context-sensitive learning methods for text categorization" (with Yoram Singer), from SIGIR-96 www.research.att.com/~wcohen/postscript/sigir-96.ps - "Learning rules that classify e-mail", from AAAI Spring Sym 1996 www.research.att.com/~wcohen/postscript/aaai-ss-96.ps - "Learning to query the web" (with Yoram Singer), from a AAAI-96 workshop www.research.att.com/~wcohen/postscript/aaai-ws-96.ps - "Learning to classify English text with ILP methods", from ILP-95, www.research.att.com/~wcohen/postscript/ilp.ps William Cohen AT&T Labs-Research 600 Mountain Avenue Room 2A-427 Murray Hill, NJ 07974 email: wcohen@research.att.com WWW: http://www.research.att.com/~wcohen/ ********************************************************** IV. PROJECTS IV.D.1. Fr: Barbara Blaustein Re: U.S. Researchers: Learning & Intelligent Systems NSF is announcing an opportunity for INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH in Learning and Intelligent Systems (Announcement NSF 97-18). I encourage researchers in intelligent information systems to join interdisciplinary teams to respond to this opportunity. The description below and other pertinent information can be found at the following URL: http://www.ehr.nsf.gov/lis/home.htm The LIS initiative seeks to stimulate interdisciplinary research that will unify experimentally and theoretically derived concepts related to learning and intelligent systems, and that will promote the use and development of information technologies in learning across a wide variety of fields. The long-range goal of this initiative is very broad and has the potential to make significant contributions toward innovative applications. To pursue this goal in a realistic and sustainable fashion, the initiative focuses on fundamental scientific and technological research undertaken in the rigorous and disciplined manner characteristic of NSF-supported endeavors. The initiative ultimately should have a major impact on enhancing and supporting human intellectual and creative potential. Consequently, development of new scientific knowledge on learning and intelligent systems and its creative application to education and to learning technologies are an integral part of this solicitation. Deadline information: *REQUIRED* PRE-PROPOSALS DUE FEB. 7, 1997 see http://www.ehr.nsf.gov/lis/Project.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: NCGUR@UCCMVSA.UCOP.EDU Editorial Staff: Clifford Lynch calur@uccmvsa.ucop.edu Nancy Gusack ncgur@uccmvsa.ucop.edu The IRLIST Archives is set up for anonymous FTP. Using anonymous FTP 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