CALL FOR PAPERS:
SECOND INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
ON THE DESIGN OF COOPERATIVE SYSTEMS (COOP'96)

June 12 - 14, 1996, Juan-les-Pins, France

OBJECTIVES

Information systems or knowledge-based systems of the new generation
no longer aim at performing by themselves the whole task for which
they are designed.  They are rather intended to cooperate with their
users for performing the task, as it is a real-world, complex task,
often performed in the framework of a collective work: therefore, they
are called cooperative systems.

The design, validation and maintenance of such cooperative systems,
their integration in workplaces and the analysis of their effects in
workplaces will take benefit from relying on an interdisciplinary
approach, so as to exploit the characteristics of the cooperation
between human agents and software agents.


The purpose of the conference is to help to solve the problems arisen
from the construction of cooperative systems, by :

- a better understanding of human-human or human-computer cooperation,
- the proposition of models of cooperation,
- and the proposition of new functions for cooperative systems and of
  suitable design methodologies.

Therefore, we hope to bring together researchers from various
communities (cognitive psychology and ergonomics, computer-supported
collaborative work, distributed artificial intelligence, group
decision support systems, knowledge engineering, management,
organization sciences...)  that all contribute to the understanding of
the specificities of cooperative systems and to the modelling of
cooperation. Both theoretical contributions or empirical studies may
be valuable for the conference.

The conference will include both presentation of communications and
panels upon specific topics.

Suggested topics for submissions include, but are not limited to:

1. What models of cooperation can be achieved for human-computer
interaction (in particular for collective problem solving in
workplaces)?

2. What are the characterizations of cooperative, heterogeneous agents
(i.e.human agents and software agents)?

3. What frameworks/methodologies can be offered for building
cooperative systems (for example, for knowledge acquisition and
validation of cooperative systems)?

4. How to identify appropriate agents to involve in a task, and the
cooperative interactions required to perform a task (e.g. synchronous
or asynchronous interactions) ?

5. Which techniques are helpful for collective problem solving?

6. What are the possible architectures for cooperative systems?

7. What communication skills are required for the use of cooperative
systems (e.g. face to face or distant)?  What kinds of dialogues,
negotiation or explanation techniques, or user models are relevant for
cooperative systems?

8. How to provide a cooperative system for supporting a workgroup? In
particular, how to build intelligent computer environments for
facilitating cooperation among users of diverse abilities during a
problem-solving process?

9. What lessons have been learned from the implementation and
integration of actual cooperative systems?


IMPORTANT DATES

December 20, 1995: Papers submission deadline

March 11, 1996:    Notification of acceptance or rejection

April 15, 1996:    Camera ready copies received



SUBMISSION DETAILS

Papers should be written in English and should not exceed 20 pages.
The contribution should be in Times 12 points or equivalent, 1/2
spaced text.  Postcript (possibly compressed) files are the only
formats accepted if you want to send your contribution by electronic
mail.


In addition to the abstract, the authors are invited to indicate the
topics and the field of their paper (preferably, but not exclusively
chosen in the two following lists):



TOPICS:

Applications
Context, User Modelling and Intention Recognition
Cooperation Models
Design Rationale Tools
Interaction, Communication and Information Sharing
Knowledge Acquisition and Methodology, 
Negotiation and Conflict Resolution
Task Allocation and Coordination


FIELD:

Cognitive Ergonomics
Cognitive Psychology
Computer Supported Collaborative Work
Decision making support
Distributed Artificial Intelligence
Human-computer Interaction
Knowledge Engineering
Information systems
Management
Organisation Science
Sociology


Four copies of the papers should be sent by the 20th December 1995 to:

Madame Monique Simonetti
INRIA
COOP'96
Bureau des Relations Exterieures
2004 route des Lucioles, BP 93
06 902 Sophia-Antipolis Cedex
France

Tel.: 33 - 93 65 78 64
Fax: 33 - 93 65 79 55
E-mail: simoneti@sophia.inria.fr

For further information, please contact Madame Monique Simonetti.


PROCEEDINGS

The conference proceedings will be available for the participants 
in the conference. After the conference, a selection of the best 
papers will be published later in a book.



PROGRAM COMMITTEE


CHAIRMAN

Manuel Zacklad (CNET - COOP Group, FR)


MEMBERS

Liam Bannon (Univ. of Limerick, Ireland)
Regine Bourgine (CNRS - ENS Cachan - COOP Group, France)
Guy Boy (EURISCO, France)
Francoise Darses (CNAM - COOP Group, France)
Giorgio De Michelis (CTL, Italy)
Sylvie Despres (Paris 5  - COOP Group, France)
Rose Dieng (INRIA-Sophia-Antipolis - COOP Group, France)
Pierre Falzon (CNAM, France)
Gerhard Fischer (Univ of Colorado, Colorado, USA)
Les Gasser (Univ. of Southern California, LA, USA)
Alain Giboin (INRIA-Sophia-Antipolis - COOP Group, France)
Paul de Greef (Univ. of Amsterdam, Netherlands)
Laurent Karsenty (EURISCO - COOP Group, France)
Gregory Kersten (Carleton Univ., Canada)
Alfred Kobsa (GMD, Germany)Liam Bannon (Univ. of Limerick, Ireland)
Patrick Millot  (Univ. de Valenciennes, France)
Camille Rosenthal-Sabroux (Univ. Paris 9  - COOP Group, France)
Kjeld Schmidt (Riso National Laboratory, Denmark)
Jean-Luc Soubie (Univ. Paul Sabatier, France)
Gilbert de Terssac  (LAAS-CNRS, France)
Wolfgang Walhster (DFKI, Germany)
David Woods (Ohio State Univ., USA)
Pascale Zarate (Univ. Paris 6  - COOP Group, France)


ORGANIZATION :       COOP Group

LOCAL ORGANIZATION : INRIA (SOPHIA-ANTIPOLIS)


LOCATION

The conference itself will take place in Juan-les-Pins (near Nice, in
South of France), June 12 - 14, 1996.  The organizing body for the
conference will be the "Institut National de Recherche en Informatique
et en Automatique" (INRIA).  The official language for the conference
will be English.


From: Rose Dieng (Rose.Dieng@sophia.inria.fr)