Call for Participation

                      AI FOR ELECTRONIC COMMERCE

                          a AAAI-99 Workshop
                           July 18/19, 1998
                           Orlando, Florida

Electronic commerce (EC) is the buying and selling of goods and
services in cyberspace. Already a multi-billion-dollar segment of the
world economy, it is a fast-growing and exciting field. This workshop
addresses the challenges, opportunities, practical applications, and
theoretical aspects of using AI in e-commerce. We particularly
encourage submissions about practical applications and techniques, and
about the newer area of business-to-business e-commerce, e.g.,
supply-chain management.

Topics of AI for EC include, but are not limited to: 

     shopping agents, e.g., find and compare 
     recommender services, e.g., in e-storefront 
     data mining of customer buying patterns 
     customer service help 
     buyer and seller economic decision-making, e.g., pricing and bidding 
     markets, auctions, negotiations, and contracts 
     agent communication, knowledge exchange, and XML 
     brokering, matchmaking, and reputation services 
     promotions, advertising, and navigation of buyer attention 
     procurement and supply chain business processes 
     product catalogs 

See the workshop website for a more detailed list of topics, including
of topics where significant progress has already occurred.

FORMAT 

The format of the workshop will be a mixture of presentations and
discussions. Presentation time will be mostly devoted to papers, along
with brief panels. Discussion time will total approximately one-third
of overall workshop time. The first part of the workshop will focus
more on practical applications, and the later part of the workshop
will focus more on theory and discussion.

ATTENDANCE AND SUBMISSIONS 

The workshop will be limited to about 50 invited participants. To
participate, you must submit a short statement (one or two pages)
describing your relevant background and interests. Paper submissions
of three kinds are invited: technical papers; position papers that
describe opportunities and challenges; and application descriptions
that focus on AI aspects. Submit your statement and optional paper
electronically to aiec-submission@cs.umbc.edu by March 12,
1999. Inquiries can be sent to aiec@cs.umbc.edu. See the
longer-version Call For Participation at the AIEC99 website for full
details on attendance and submissions.

WORKSHOP COMMITTEE 

     Tim Finin, (chair), University of Maryland Baltimore County, 
           finin@cs.umbc.edu, phone: 410-455-3522, fax: 410-455-3969. 
     Benjamin Grosof, (chair), IBM T.J. Watson Research Center. 
           Phone: 914-784-7783, Fax: 914-784-7455 
     Yannis Labrou, University of Maryland Baltimore County, jklabrou@cs.umbc.edu. 
     Leora Morgenstern, IBM T.J. Watson Research Center, leora@watson.ibm.com 
     Michael Wellman, Univ. Michigan, wellman@umich.edu, 

FOR MORE INFORMATION 

For more information, see the workshop web site at
http://www.cs.umbc.edu/aiec or contact one of the workshop
organizers. Information about the AAAI-99 conference and its workshop
program is available at http://www.aaai.org .