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<h2> Call for Participation </h2>

<h1>AI for Electronic Commerce</h1>

<h4>
a AAAI-99 Workshop<br>
July 18/19, 1998<br>
Orlando, Florida
</h4>
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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.

<p>

Topics of AI for EC include, but are not limited to:
<ul>
<li> shopping agents, e.g., find and compare
<li> recommender services, e.g., in e-storefront
<li> data mining of customer buying patterns
<li> customer service help
<li> buyer and seller economic decision-making, e.g., pricing and bidding
<li> markets, auctions, negotiations, and contracts
<li> agent communication, knowledge exchange, and XML
<li> brokering, matchmaking, and reputation services
<li> promotions, advertising, and navigation of buyer attention
<li> procurement and supply chain business processes
<li> product catalogs
</ul>


See the <a href="http://www.cs.umbc.edu/aiec"> workshop website</a>
for a more detailed list of topics, including of topics where
significant progress has already occurred.

<h4> Format </h4>

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.

<h4> Attendance and submissions </h4>

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 <a
href="mailto:aiec-submission@cs.umbc.edu">aiec-submission@cs.umbc.edu</a>
by March 12, 1999.  Inquiries can be sent to <a
href="mailto:aiec@cs.umbc.edu">aiec@cs.umbc.edu</a>.

See the longer-version Call For Participation at the <a
href="http://www.cs.umbc.edu/aiec"> AIEC99 website</a> for full
details on attendance and submissions.

<h4> Workshop committee </h4>

<ul>

<li> <a href="http://umbc.edu/~finin">Tim Finin</a>, (chair),
University of Maryland Baltimore County, finin@cs.umbc.edu, phone:
410-455-3522, fax: 410-455-3969.
    
<li> <a href="http://www.research.ibm.com/people/g/grosof"> Benjamin
Grosof</a>, (chair), IBM T.J. Watson Research Center.  Phone:
914-784-7783, Fax: 914-784-7455

<li> <a href="http://www.cs.umbc.edu/~jklabrou"> Yannis Labrou</a>,
University of Maryland Baltimore County, jklabrou@cs.umbc.edu.

<li> <a href="http://www-formal.stanford.edu/leora"> Leora
Morgenstern</a>, IBM T.J. Watson Research Center, leora@watson.ibm.com
    
<li> <a href="http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/wellman"> Michael
Wellman</a>, Univ. Michigan, wellman@umich.edu,
</ul>

<h4> For more information </h4> 

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


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