Subject: towards culturally situated agents

* * * call for papers and participation * * * issues in cross cultural communication " towards culturally situated agents " http : / / www . nttmsc . com . my / kido / pricai98cfp . html 24th of november 1998 , singapore introduction culture underlies every aspect of social behavior and influences communication style , personality , character , motivation , knowledge and cognition . there is an extensive body of work on cross-cultural differences in communication styles in the linguistics and cultural anthropology literature . in the intelligent user interface design community , over the years , fueled by the recognition that different types of users are motivated by different needs and goals , attention has been given to the development of adaptive user interfaces . however , this line of research and development has given little consideration to the influence that culture plays in shaping what users want out of the computational experience . in order to create interfaces that accommodate different user styles , therefore , it is important to understand these cultural influences , since , in many cases , a user will react to interfaces on the basis of cultural background . similarly , if we are to view an agent , software or robot as a social member of a " cyber society , " then that agent must be able to invoke cultural knowledge in order to communicate flexibly with human users and possibly other agents . if agents are reflective only of their designers ' communicative behaviors and are not able to adapt to the styles of other agents which they meet in heterogeneous , distributed environments and virtual reality worlds , then our agents may be trapped in a tower of babel . the goal of this workshop is to discuss cultural influences as they ( may ) inform interactions among human and software agents . this workshop is intended to attract participants from those communities concerned with such a perspective of communication . topics of interest the workshop aims to be interdisciplinary in nature and is therefore open to contributions from various research fields . the topics which the workshop addresses are relevant , for instance , in : anthropology , sociology , sociolinguistics , human computer interaction ( hci ) , cscw , machine learning , adaptive systems research , collaborative virtual environments , multi-media multi-user environments , ethnology , social sciences , psychology and cognitive science . the scope of this workshop includes , but need not be restricted to the following topics : * the nature of cross cultural communication , including case studies and examples * the origin and evolution of communication * linguistic and ethnographic studies of cross cultural communication * negotiation strategies among humans from different cultural backgrounds * negotiation strategies among agents informed by different cultural principles * user interfaces and new media for cross cultural communication * the impact of internet technology on cross cultural communication * culturally situated metaphors in interface , machine and agent design * ethnomethodology in interface and agent design * culturally dependent metaphors and language of describing and talking about humans , machines and agents : influences on the design process , theory / model building , and scientific experimentation * case studies of program execution problems due to agent to agent and human to agent miscommunication * standards which are open to the development of multiple ontologies of mult iagent communication in heterogeneous environments * working examples of culturally adaptive agents in multiagent or human-agent systems papers should address these topics in the context of how they relate to issues in agent design and agent behavior . participation and submission of papers the workshop will comprise a few keynote talks , a panel discussion with participants from different research areas and presentations of preliminary findings by workshop participants . participants will be selected by the organizing committee ( see below ) based on submitted papers . potential participants who wish to present their work at the workshop should submit a short paper ( up to 5 , 000 words ) or extended abstract ( 1 , 500 to 2 , 500 words ) . contributions should describe work in progress , completed work , positions , or give significant insight into the issues on cross cultural communication . other potential participants should send a statement of interest ( one page ) , briefly describing their work and their interest in the workshop . some of the participants will be asked to contribute a paper to the final working notes . all participants will be invited to bring a poster presenting their work . submissions should be sent by e-mail ( ascii , unix compatible postscript , or rtf ) to the workshop chair , takashi kido , msc-kido @ po1 . infosphere . or . jp for more information about the workshop , please contact the workshop chair , takashi kido , msc-kido @ po1 . infosphere . or . jp important dates * abstracts / papers due by : july 18 1998 * notification of acceptance : september 20 , 1998 * camera - ready version of final paper due : october 18 , 1998 * date of workshop : sunday , november 22 , 1998 organizing committee kido takashi ntt msc kuala lumpur , malaysia - - - - - - - - - patricia o'neill - brown asia pacific technology program u . s . department of commerce washington , dc , usa - - - - - - - - - - - kerstin dautenhahn department of cybernetics university of reading uk - - - - - - - - - stephen smoliar fx palo alto laboratory us - - - - - - - - - workshop chair please send abstracts / papers or any questions to kido takashi ntt msc sdn bhd ( 437563 - h ) letter box no . 37 , 18th floor , ubn tower no . 10 . jalan p . ramlee , 50250 kuala lumpa , malaysia kuala lumpur , malaysia phone : + 60 3 238 4077 fax : + 60 3 238 4037 - 202 0476 e - mail : msc-kido @ po1 . infosphere . or . jp
