CALL FOR PAPERS AND REFEREES
============================
(Apologies if you receive multiple copies)


21st ACM Symposium on Applied Computing (SAC 2006)
http://www.acm.org/conferences/sac/sac2006/

Special Track on Coordination Models, Languages and Applications
http://confs.deis-ce.unibo.it/sac/sac2006
http://sac2006cm.cs.fit.edu/

April 23-27, 2006,
Dijon, France



SAC 2006
~~~~~~~~
For the past twenty years, the ACM Symposium on Applied Computing
has been a primary gathering forum for applied computer scientists,
computer engineers, software engineers, and application developers
from around the world. SAC 2006 is sponsored by the ACM Special
Interest Group on Applied Computing, and is hosted by Bourgogne
University, Dijon, France


Coordination Models, Languages and Applications Track
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Building on the success of the seven previous editions (1998-2005), a
special track on coordination models, languages and applications
will be held at SAC 2006. Over the last decade, we have witnessed the
emergence of models, formalisms and mechanisms to describe concurrent
and distributed computations and systems based on the concept of
coordination. The purpose of a coordination model is to enable the
integration of a number of, possibly heterogeneous, components
(processes, objects, agents) in such a way that the resulting ensemble
can execute as a whole, forming a software system with desired
characteristics and functionalities which possibly takes advantage of
parallel and distributed systems. The coordination paradigm is closely
related to other contemporary software engineering approaches such as
component-based systems and middleware platforms. Furthermore, the
concept of coordination exists in many other Computer Science areas
such as Cooperative Information Systems, Distributed Artificial
Intelligence, and Internet Technologies.

The Special Track on Coordination Models, Languages and Applications
deliberately takes a broad view of what is coordination: this term
covers here traditional models and languages (e.g., the ones based on
the Shared Dataspace and CHAM metaphors), but also other related
notions and formalisms such as configuration and architectural
description frameworks, models of multi-agent planning, organization
and decision-making, systems modeling abstractions and languages,
programming skeletons, etc.

Correspondingly, in addition to the traditional areas covering data-
driven (such as Linda) and control-driven (such as Manifold) models
and languages, this Special Track aims at putting together
contributions from all the many areas where the concept of coordination
is relevant, such as multi-agent systems, software architectures,
middleware platforms, groupware and workflow management, etc.,
providing them with a forum where they can discuss their different
viewpoints and share ideas. On this very subject, it is worth to
remind that the last editions of this Track were undoubtedly successful
under many points of view, but in particular in attracting relevant
and consistent contributions from many different research communities.

According to that, major topics of interest include (but are not
limited to) the following:

* Novel models, languages, programming and implementation techniques
* Applications
* Internet- and Web-based coordinated systems
* Coordination of multi-agent systems, including mobile and
intelligent agents
* Languages for service description and composition
* Models, frameworks and tools for Group Decision Making
* All aspects related to Cooperative Information Systems
(e.g. workflow management, CSCW)
* Software architectures and software engineering techniques
* Configuration and Architecture Description Languages
* Middleware platforms (e.g. CORBA, Jini)
* Coordination technologies, systems and infrastructures
* Emergent Coordination and Self-organization.
* Relationship with other computational models such as object
oriented, declarative (functional, logic, constraint) programming
or their extensions with coordination capabilities
* Formal aspects (semantics, reasoning, verification)


Proceedings and Post-proceedings
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Papers accepted for the Special Track on Coordination Models, Languages
and Applications will be published by ACM both in the SAC 2006
proceedings and in the Digital Library.

It is worth to notice that after the last editions of the Special Track
on Coordination, four special issues were published, namely

"Coordination Models and Languages in AI"
Applied Artificial Intelligence 15(1)
http://lia.deis.unibo.it/journals/aai2001/

"Coordination as a Paradigm for Systems Integration"
Journal of Systems Integration 10(2)
http://lia.deis.unibo.it/journals/josi2001/

"Coordination and Knowledge Engineering"
The Knowledge Engineering Review 17(4)
http://uk.cambridge.org/journals/ker/

"Coordination and Collaboration Technologies"
Journal of Cooperative Information Systems 13(1)
http://www.worldscinet.com/ijcis/ijcis.shtml
and
"Coordination Systems"
Journal of Concurrency and Computation: Practice and Experience
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/jhome/77004395

while a sixty one
"Role of Contexts for Coordination in MAS"
Web Intelligence and Agent Systems Journal
http://www.iospress.nl/html/15701263.php


is currently under preparation.

So, among the papers accepted and presented this year at the SAC 2006
Special Track on Coordination, a further selection is likely to be
performed after the symposium to produce a special issue of some
international journal: several contacts are currently ongoing.


Track Program Chairmen
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ronaldo Menezes Alessandro Ricci

Department of Computer Sciences DEIS
Florida Institute of Technology Universita di Bologna
150 West University Blvd. Via Venezia 52
Melbourne, FL 32901, USA Cesena - Italy
voice# +1 (321) 674-7623 voice# +39 054 7339217
fax# +1 (321) 674-7046 fax# +39 054 7339208
mailto:rmenezes@... mailto:aricci@...


Guidelines for Submission
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Original papers from the above-mentioned or other related areas will
be considered. This includes three categories of submissions: 1)
original and unpublished research; 2) reports of innovative computing
applications in the arts, sciences, engineering, business, government,
education and industry; and 3) reports of successful technology
transfer to new problem domains. Each submitted paper will be fully
refereed and undergo a blind review process by at least three
referees. The accepted papers in all categories will be published in
the ACM SAC 2006 proceedings.


Submission Format
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

* Submit your paper *electronically* in either PDF or postscript
format. Please *note*: neither hardcopy nor fax submissions
will be accepted. Submissions should be printable on a standard
printer on common paperformats like letter and DIN A4. Please use
a Postscript previewer such as Ghostview to check the portability
of Postscript documents.

* The author(s) name(s) and address(es) must NOT appear in the body
of the paper, and self-reference should be in the third person.
This is to facilitate blind review.

* The body of the paper should not exceed 4,000 words. Accepted
full papers should not exceed 5 pages in a double column format
(with the option, at additional expense, to add three more
pages). Accepted poster papers will be published as extended
2-page abstracts in the symposium proceedings.

* All submissions must be received by September 3, 2005.



Submission Procedure
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Submission is a three-step process:

Please follow these instructions in order to submit a paper:
1. Use the abstract submission interface to provide the main
information on your paper. You will be given an id/password
which must later be used to access the system during the following
steps, so be careful to remember it.

2. Once an abstract has been submitted, you can access the paper
submission interface to upload the file of your complete paper.

Id/password allow to revise the summary form
information and to upload modified versions of the submission. Please
use the tracking number in all future correspondence about your paper.


Referees
~~~~~~~~
Over the last eight years, the Special Track on Coordination Models,
Languages and Applications has built its success also over the work of
many volunteer referees. Anyone wishing to review papers should express
her/his intention by sending an email to the chairmen


Track Home Page
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Further information can be found at the special track home pages:

http://confs.deis-ce.unibo.it/sac/sac2006
http://sac2006cm.cs.fit.edu/


Important Dates
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
* September 3, 2005: Paper Submission
* October 15, 2005: Author Notification
* November 5, 2005: Camera-Ready Copy