******************************************************************** ELECTRONIC NEWSLETTER ON REASONING ABOUT ACTIONS AND CHANGE Issue 97037 Editor: Erik Sandewall 31.12.1997 Back issues available at http://www.ida.liu.se/ext/etai/actions/njl/ ******************************************************************** ********* TODAY ********* The last Newsletter of this year contains a summary of the present status of the four articles and one research note that are presently under review in the ETAI area "Reasoning about Actions and Change". These have not been our only activities during the past months: we have had two panel discussions, one invited discussion (about Wolfgang Bibel's IJCAI paper), and several kinds of information has been transmitted through the present Newsletter. However, the status summary will serve both as a reminder that review of articles is our "core business", and as an encouragement for all to continue the discussion during the coming year. At the end of the year it is appropriate to look back and to summarize. The present issue therefore also contains an editorial remark about the experience and the conclusions from the first year of ETAI and ENRAC activities. At this point, I want to thank the Newsletter's contributors and readers for their participation in this enterprise since its start, and to send the best wishes for the new year. It has been a true pleasure to work with you, and I look forward to even more (inter)action and change during the coming year. ********* RECEIVED ARTICLES ********* --- ARTICLES PRESENTLY UNDER REVIEW --- ======================================================== | AUTHOR: Michael Thielscher | TITLE: A Theory of Dynamic Diagnosis | PAPER: http://www.ep.liu.se/ea/cis/1997/011/ | REVIEW: http://www.ida.liu.se/ext/etai/received/actions/002/aipf.html ======================================================== Received 7.10.1997. Status: Two recent question-contributions, awaiting answer. ======================================================== | AUTHOR: Antonis Kakas and Rob Miller | TITLE: Reasoning about Actions, Narratives and Ramification | PAPER: http://www.ep.liu.se/ea/cis/1997/012/ | REVIEW: http://www.ida.liu.se/ext/etai/received/actions/003/aipf.html ======================================================== Received 16.10.1997. Status: The article has given rise to extensive discussion. ======================================================== | AUTHOR: Paolo Liberatore | TITLE: Compilability of Domain Descriptions in the Language A | PAPER: http://www.ida.liu.se/ext/etai/rac/notes/1997/13/njracn.ps | REVIEW: http://www.ida.liu.se/ext/etai/received/actions/004/aipf.html ======================================================== Research note, received 31.10.1997. Status: No discussion so far. ======================================================== | AUTHOR: Jose Julio Alferes, Joao A. Leite, Luis Moniz Pereira, | Halina Przymusinska, and Teodor Przymusinski | TITLE: Dynamic Logic Programming | PAPER: http://www.ep.liu.se/ea/cis/1997/018/ | REVIEW: http://www.ida.liu.se/ext/etai/received/actions/005/aipf.html ======================================================== Received 12.12.1997. Status: One question has been posed, not answered at this point. ======================================================== | AUTHOR: Erik Sandewall | TITLE: Logic-Based Modelling of Goal-Directed Behavior | PAPER: http://www.ep.liu.se/ea/cis/1997/019/ | REVIEW: http://www.ida.liu.se/ext/etai/received/actions/006/aipf.html ======================================================== Received 19.12.1997. Status: No discussion so far. ********* THE PAST YEAR ********* --- FROM THE EDITOR --- The development of the Electronic Transactions on Artificial Intelligence turns out to be an exploratory activity, even more than what we had anticipated when it started. The original idea was to create a new publication medium for scientific articles which would make the best use of the Internet availability. We foresaw a number of changes to the conventional practices that have been developed for paper-based journals, and in particular, we emphasized the importance of separating publishing (in the sense of "making public" and "making available") from the scientific quality control, that is, from the reviewing and refereering process. We also emphasized the importance of opening one part of the reviewing process, so that the traditional, confidential peer review would be replaced by a combination: an open discussion part where reviewers appear without the shroud of anonymity, and after it a rapid pass/fail decision by anonymous referees. Finally, and maybe the most important of all, we emphasized the importance of having a publication medium where the authors retain the copyright of their articles, unlike what is the case in conventional journal publishing. The insight that this is a very important question has spread rapidly in our community during the past year. These concepts were presented in the spring of 1997, and the ETAI was formally announced in May. In comparison with what we expected, there has been a small minus and a big plus. The minus is that the start was slower that we had thought: it took a while before papers started coming. However, I believe that the number of contributions will increase when the paper version of the ETAI begins to spread. The ETAI is "electronic" in the sense that it is stored and transmitted electronically, but noone expects you to read long, technical papers directly from the screen, and the paper printouts of the ETAI issues do look like any other journal. Professional-looking issues containing professional-quality articles will be our best advertisement. The plus is that a whole new layer of communication concepts have evolved during the second half of 1997. Three layers can be identified here: - The *publication layer*, consisting of the First Publication Archives whereby articles can be published while allowing the author to retain the copyright. - The *quality control layer* involving reviewing and refereeing. The original ETAI concept foresaw the use of these two layers. - The *communication layer*, where the E-mail-based Newsletter is the decisive component. As researchers begin to make use of this communication medium for exchange and confrontation of ideas, we see the emergence of a completely new "functionality", to use our technical jargon. The kind of information that used to be communicated very locally, in personal mail or during the coffee breaks at conferences, is now being exchanged on a global level. The concept of a "global village" is being instantiated in very concrete ways in our "electronic colloquium". It is my firm conviction that we are just at the beginning of a very important development. Certainly we will see a lot more of it during the coming year. The future is bright! ******************************************************************** This Newsletter is issued whenever there is new news, and is sent by automatic E-mail and without charge to a list of subscribers. To obtain or change a subscription, please send mail to the editor, erisa@ida.liu.se. Contributions are welcomed to the same address. Instructions for contributors and other additional information is found at: http://www.ida.liu.se/ext/etai/actions/njl/ ********************************************************************