NL-KR list (as of 4 Mar 96)

Reply-to: nl-kr-request@cs.rpi.edu

Welcome to the NL-KR mailing list, a digest form mailing list for discussion and announcements relating to the fields of Natural Language and Knowledge Representation. Please read this entire message.

I am the moderator of this list, and therefore I am responsible for composing the digest from pending submissions, controlling the daily volume of mail, keeping an archive, and answering administrative requests. Expect NL-KR to be published weekly, when possible. Consider of course that since I work in an academic environment there will be predicatble periods when service will be less than usual (the end of semesters).

You may submit material for the digest to nl-kr@cs.rpi.edu. Digests are sent to InterNET, BITNET, and to USENET readers as appropriate. Digests are also posted to the USENET News group comp.ai.nlang-know-rep.

Non-BITNET Administrative requests should be sent to nl-kr-request@cs.rpi.edu. Archival copies of all digests will be kept and are available via anonymous FTP from the nl-kr archive server archive.cssage.rpi.edu, and it is located at address 128.113.53.18. The Digests are in the files nl-kr/Vxx/Nnn, where xx is the volume number and nn is the issue number (numbers start with 01 not 1, ie V01/N01); if you don't have FTP access, ask for back issues from nl-kr-request, but don't expect a quick answer. Issues in volumes 1-7 are compressed, thus their file names will have a trailing ".Z", and you will have to use binary mode in FTP and uncompress the file when you get it. Starting with Volume 9 of NL-KR, there is an index, located in the file named INDEX. It is not a very intelligent index, since it is generated automatically from the headers, but it organizes each NL-KR article into one of the following categories: Talks, CFPs, Queries, Announcements, News, Discussions, Job Offers (Positions), and conference Programs.

For BITNET folks, nl-kr is served by the listserver at RPIECS, and submissions may be sent to NL-KR@RPIECS. Any administrative requests should be sent, in LISTSERV format, to LISTSERV@RPIECS (for more information on how to use a BITNET LISTSERVer, see your local BITNET guru).

NL-KR is open to discussion of any topic related to natural language (both understanding and generation) and knowledge representation, both as subfields of AI. My own related interests are primarily in Knowledge Representation, Knowledge Engineering, Planning, KR applied to Software Engineering (KBSE), and education.

Contributions are also welcome on topics such as

Contributions may be anything from tutorials to speculation. In particular, the following are sought:

AbstractsReviews
Lab DescriptionsResearch Overviews
Work Planned or in ProgressHalf-Baked Ideas
Conference AnnouncementsConference Reports
BibliographiesHistory of NL/KR
Puzzles and Unsolved ProblemsAnecdotes, Jokes, and Poems
Queries and RequestsOther NL/KR announcements

This list is in some sense a spin-off of the AIList, and as such, a certain amount of overlap is expected. The primary concentration of this list should be NL and KR, that is, natural language (be it understanding, generation, recognition, parsing, semantics, pragmatics, etc.) and how we should represent knowledge (aquisition, access, completeness, etc. are all valid issues). Topics I deem to be outside the general scope of this list will be returned to the author with my reasons. As this is an international digest, I must insist that I be able to understand any submissions, therefore submissions not in English, French, or German must include a translation into English. Please note whether you wish the translation to be included with the posting.

NL-KR, by vote of the readership, does not publish advertisements. Book and journal summaries or abstracts will be accepted provided they do not contain references to the publisher and purchase price. Interested readers will be left to contact the poster for more information.

NL-KR is a public information service provided to the InterNet community and others through my own efforts, indirect support from my university, and the help of individuals and organizations at other sites. Readers are advised not to submit any material that is export controlled or classified. As moderator, I must assume that individuals have obtained all required clearances for their submissions to the list (and for the university bboard messages that NL-KR occasionally reprints). The export control laws are both broad and vague, but material that could be published in news magazines or publicly available scientific journals is probably safe. Scientific information "without engineering or military significance" is always permissible, but technical details of specific military or government-controlled systems should not be discussed in this forum.

I have no objection to distributing material that is destined for conference proceedings or any other publication. You may want to send copies of your submissions to SIGART@ECLC.USC.EDU, ACL@CS.ROCHESTER.EDU (possibly WEISCHEDEL@G.BBN.COM depending on the type of submission, see the front cover of any recent issue of Computational Linguistics) or to the AI Magazine (currently Engelmore@SUMEX.STANFORD.EDU) for hardcopy publication. List items should be considered unrefereed working papers, and opinions to be those of the author and not of any organization or me. Copies of list items should credit the original author, not necessarily the NL-KR List.

The list does not assume copyright, nor does it accept any liability arising from remailing of submitted material. Please do not submit copyrighted material in any form that the copyright holder might object to, particularly newswire copy. I reserve the right to refuse to remail any contribution that I judge to be inappropriate.

I and other readers frequently forward items from other digests and bboards. If you respond to the author of a message marked [Forwarded from ...], please be aware that he may not know that his posting has propagated beyond his local system. In general, permission should be sought for such repostings, but again, I cannot assume such responsibility for material sent to the list by someone else.

I suggest that you "sign" submissions longer than a paragraph so that readers don't have to scroll backwards to see the FROM line. Editing of contributions will usually be limited to text justifications and spelling corrections; editorial remarks and elisions will be marked with square brackets. The author will be contacted if significant editing is required (normally only if some policy problem exists, as in the case of a lab description combined with a job posting).

If you leave your current net address, please notify me or the person in charge of redistribution at your site. It is difficult for me to distinguish an abandoned address from ordinary mailer trouble, and tracing the source of mailer problems takes a fair amount of effort.

Please contribute freely. I would rather deal with too much material than with too little. Replies to public requests for information should be sent, at least in "carbon" form, to this list unless the request states otherwise.

When submitting, please try to make the subject line of any article you post informative. It is the subject line that appears in the table of contents section of the digest. Try not to post very large messages, in general I try to keep the size of the digest around 20K or less, and anything over 30K I won't post in full but will make available in the archives.

If you have any suggestions, please let me know. If you like or dislike something, the feedback is very useful. There are over 500 addresses on my site, meaning approximately 600 readers not counting the immeasurable number who read the news group.

-Chris

===== NL-KR Moderator Chris Welty nl-kr-request@cs.rpi.edu