[Gfo-users] CFP: 10th International Conference on Formal Ontology in Information Systems, FOIS 2018

[daniele radicioni]

(with apologies for cross-posting)

10th International Conference on Formal Ontology in Information Systems (FOIS)
2018, September 17-21, 2018, Cape Town, South Africa


http://fois2018.cs.uct.ac.za/
http://www.iaoa.org/fois/2018.html


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DEFINITION AND SCOPE
-----------------------------------


The advent of complex information systems which rely on robust, coherent and 
formal representations of their subject matter, led in the last 25 years to the 
exploitation of ontological analysis and ontology-based representation. The 
systematic study of such representations, their axiomatics, their corresponding 
reasoning techniques and their relations to cognition and reality, are at the 
center of the modern discipline of formal ontology.


Formal ontology is now a research focus in such diverse domains as conceptual 
modeling, database design, knowledge engineering, software engineering, 
organizational modeling, artificial intelligence, robotics, computational 
linguistics, the life sciences, bioinformatics, geographic information science, 
information retrieval, and the Semantic Web. Researchers in all these areas 
increasingly recognize the need for serious engagement with ontology, 
understood as a general theory of the types of entities and relations making up 
their respective domains of enquiry, to provide a solid foundation for their 
work.


The FOIS conference is a meeting point for researchers from all disciplines 
with an interest in formal ontology. The conference encourages submission of 
new and high quality articles on both theoretical issues and concrete 
applications. As in previous years, FOIS 2018 is intended as a nexus of 
interdisciplinary research and communication.


FOIS is the flagship conference of the International Association for Ontology 
and its Applications (IAOA, website: http://iaoa.org/), which is a non-profit 
organization aiming to promote interdisciplinary research and international 
collaboration at the intersection of philosophical ontology, linguistics, 
logic, cognitive science, and computer science, as well as in the applications 
of ontological analysis to conceptual modeling, knowledge engineering, 
knowledge management, information-systems development, library and information 
science, scientific research, and semantic technologies in general.


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SATELLITE ACTIVITIES
------------------------------


FOIS 2018 includes a number of additional activities:
http://fois2018.cs.uct.ac.za/?page_id=54


+ a call for workshops (deadline: March 2, see link above)
+ a call for tutorials (deadline: March 2, see link above)
+ a young researchers symposium,
+ a demo and industry track
+ an ontology competition




FOIS is preceded by the 4th Interdisciplinary School on Applied Ontology: 
http://isao2018.cs.uct.ac.za/


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SCOPE OF FOIS - TOPICS OF INTEREST
------------------------------


We seek high-quality papers on a wide range of topics. Concerning scope, an 
ideal FOIS paper will address both content-related ontological issues and their 
formal modeling, as well as their impact and relevance for 
some aspects of information systems.


Areas of particular interest to the conference include the following:


Foundational Issues
* Kinds of entities: particulars/universals, continuants/occurrents, 
abstracta/concreta, dependent entities/independent entities, natural 
objects/artifacts
* Formal relations: parthood, identity, connection, dependence, constitution, 
causality, subsumption, instantiation
* Vagueness and granularity
* Space, time, and change


Methodological issues
* Top-level vs. domain-specific ontologies
* Role of reference ontologies
* Ontology integration and alignment
* Formal comparison among ontologies
* Relationship with cognition, language, semantics, context


Domain-specific ontologies
* Ontology of physical reality (matter, space, time, motion etc.)
* Ontology of biological reality (organisms, genes, proteins, cells etc.)
* Ontology of mental reality and agency (beliefs, intentions, emotions, 
perceptions etc.)
* Ontology of artifacts, functions, capacities and roles
* Ontology of social reality (institutions, organizations, norms, social 
relationships, artistic expressions etc.)


Applications:
* Ontology-driven information systems design
* Ontological foundations for conceptual modeling
* Knowledge management
* Qualitative modeling
* Computational linguistics
* Information retrieval
* Semantic Web, Web services
* Business modeling
* Ontologies for particular scientific disciplines (biology, chemistry, 
geography, physics, cognitive sciences, linguistics etc.)
* Ontologies for engineering: shape, form and function, artifacts, 
manufacturing, design, architecture etc.
* Ontologies for the humanities: arts, cultural studies, history, law, 
literature, philosophy etc.


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FORMAT
-----------------------------


Submitted papers must not exceed 14 pages (including the bibliography) and must 
include an abstract of no more than 300 words. Papers should be submitted 
non-anonymously in PDF format (template from the FOIS website).
The Easychair submission page can be found at: 
https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=fois2018


The proceedings will be published by IOS Press in electronic format with 
permanent open access.


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IMPORTANT DATES
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*Call for papers
Paper Submission Deadline: 13 April 2018
Notification: 30 May 2018
Camera-ready papers: 24 June 2018
Conference Dates: 17-21 September 2018


*Call for workshop/tutorial
Proposal Submission: 2 March 2018
Notification: 15 March 2018


As usual, the FOIS proceedings will be published in book form by a prominent 
publisher. Furthermore, the papers will be available open access.


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CONFERENCE ORGANISATION
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General Chair:
Oliver Kutz (KRDB, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Italy)


Program Chairs:
Stefano Borgo (Laboratory for Applied Ontology (LOA), ISTC CNR Trento IT)
Pascal Hitzler (Data Semantics (DaSe) Laboratory, Wright State University, USA)



Local Organization:
Maria Keet (University of Cape Town, South Africa)




: : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : :

Daniele Radicioni, PhD
Department of Computer Science
University of Turin
Corso Svizzera, 185
10149 - Torino
phone: +39 011 6706802
fax:   +39 011 751603
http://www.di.unito.it/~radicion