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    10th International Conference on Formal Ontology in Information
    Systems (FOIS 2018), <br class="">
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          September 17-21, 2018, Cape Town, South Africa<br class="">
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          <a href="http://fois2018.cs.uct.ac.za/" class=""
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          DEFINITION AND SCOPE<br class="">
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          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.<br class="">
          <br class="">
          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.<br class="">
          <br class="">
          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.<br class="">
          <br class="">
          FOIS is the flagship conference of the International
          Association for Ontology and its Applications (IAOA, website: <a
            href="http://iaoa.org/" class="" moz-do-not-send="true">http://iaoa.org/</a>),
          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.<br class="">
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          FORMAT<br class="">
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          FOIS 2018 includes a number of additional facets:<br class="">
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          + an open call for workshops,<br class="">
          + an open call for tutorials,<br class="">
          + a young researchers symposium,<br class="">
          + a demo and industry track<br class="">
          + an ontology competition<br class="">
          <br class="">
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          ------------------------------<br class="">
          SCOPE OF FOIS - TOPICS OF INTEREST<br class="">
          ------------------------------<br class="">
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          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.<br class="">
          <br class="">
          Areas of particular interest to the conference include the
          following:<br class="">
          <br class="">
          Foundational Issues<br class="">
          * Kinds of entities: particulars/universals,
          continuants/occurrents, abstracta/concreta, dependent
          entities/independent entities, natural objects/artifacts<br
            class="">
          * Formal relations: parthood, identity, connection,
          dependence, constitution, causality, subsumption,
          instantiation<br class="">
          * Vagueness and granularity<br class="">
          * Space, time, and change<br class="">
          <br class="">
          Methodological issues<br class="">
          * Top-level vs. domain-specific ontologies<br class="">
          * Role of reference ontologies<br class="">
          * Ontology integration and alignment<br class="">
          * Formal comparison among ontologies<br class="">
          * Relationship with cognition, language, semantics, context<br
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          <br class="">
          Domain-specific ontologies<br class="">
          * Ontology of physical reality (matter, space, time, motion
          etc.)<br class="">
          * Ontology of biological reality (organisms, genes, proteins,
          cells etc.)<br class="">
          * Ontology of mental reality and agency (beliefs, intentions,
          emotions, perceptions etc.)<br class="">
          * Ontology of artifacts, functions, capacities and roles<br
            class="">
          * Ontology of social reality (institutions, organizations,
          norms, social relationships, artistic expressions etc.)<br
            class="">
          <br class="">
          Applications:<br class="">
          * Ontology-driven information systems design<br class="">
          * Ontological foundations for conceptual modeling<br class="">
          * Knowledge management<br class="">
          * Qualitative modeling<br class="">
          * Computational linguistics<br class="">
          * Information retrieval<br class="">
          * Semantic Web, Web services<br class="">
          * Business modeling<br class="">
          * Ontologies for particular scientific disciplines (biology,
          chemistry, geography, physics, cognitive sciences, linguistics
          etc.)<br class="">
          * Ontologies for engineering: shape, form and function,
          artifacts, manufacturing, design, architecture etc.<br
            class="">
          * Ontologies for the humanities: arts, cultural studies,
          history, law, literature, philosophy etc.<br class="">
          <br class="">
          -----------------------------<br class="">
          IMPORTANT DATES<br class="">
          -----------------------------<br class="">
          <br class="">
          * Call for papers<br class="">
          Paper Submission Deadline: 13 April 2018<br class="">
          Notification: 30 May 2018<br class="">
          Camera-ready papers: 24 June 2018<br class="">
          Conference Dates: 17-21 September 2018<br class="">
          <br class="">
          * Call for workshop/tutorial<br class="">
          Proposal Submission: 2 March 2018<br class="">
          Notification: 15 March 2018<br class="">
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          As usual, the FOIS proceedings will be published in book form
          by a prominent publisher. Furthermore, the papers will be
          available open access.<br class="">
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          CONFERENCE ORGANISATION<br class="">
          --------------------------------------------<br class="">
          <br class="">
          General Chair:<br class="">
          Oliver Kutz (KRDB, Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Italy)<br
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          <br class="">
          Program Chairs:<br class="">
          Stefano Borgo (Laboratory for Applied Ontology (LOA), ISTC
          CNR, Trento, Italy)<br class="">
          Pascal Hitzler (Data Semantics (DaSe) Laboratory, Wright State
          University, USA)<br class="">
          <br class="">
          Local Organization:<br class="">
          Maria Keet (University of Cape Town, South Africa) </div>
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