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IR-L Digest, Vol.XVI, No.38, Issue 474

IRLIST Digest                                       ISSN 1064-6965
October 11, 1999
Volume XVI, Number 38
Issue 474

******************************************************************

  I. QUERIES
        1. Forum on Hilbert Problems in Information Science
III. NOTICES
     A. Publications
        1. Last Chance for Free Software
     B. Meetings
        1. ECAI 2000: CFTutorial Proposals
        2. Neural Networks and Control: CFPapers
        3. CFPapers: Advanced Techniques for Modelling and Design of
           Fuzzy Logic Systems
        4. Evolutionary Computation and Intelligent Control Systems:
           CFPapers
        5. Fourth International Conference on Knowledge-Based
           Intelligent Engineering Systems & Allied Technologies:
           Special Session on Intelligent Techniques for Internet
           Resources: CFPapers
        6. RIAO 2000: Content-Based Multimedia Information Access:
           CFPapers and Application Demonstrations

******************************************************************
I.  QUERIES

I.1.
Fr: Miles Efron <efrom@ils.unc.edu>
Re: Forum on Hilbert Problems in Information Science

Dear Colleagues,

What are the fundamental problems of Information Science? We believe that articulating a set of profound yet solvable questions will aid the progress of our field. At the turn of the 19th Century mathematician David Hilbert posed such a set of questions to his colleagues. At the turn of the 20th Century we propose an analogous project: a two-month electronic forum that discusses questions of fundamental interest to the information science community. Towards this end, we have created a web site and discussion forum for this purpose and offer two sets of questions as seeds for discussion.

We encourage your participation. You may find the website at
http://ils.unc.edu/hilbert/. At the end of our two-month discussion Gary Marchionini and Bob Losee will produce a synthesis of questions. All contributions will be attributed in the forum. Moreover, all questions and any pertinent discussion that are included will carry the entire attribution trail.

We hope that you will find the conversation thought provoking. Your contributions will ensure that it is. Please forward this message to anyone you think may have an interest.

Gary Marchionini, Bob Losee, and Miles Efron

Miles Efron
School of Information & Library Science
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
mefron@metalab.unc.edu

******************************************************************

III. NOTICES

III.A.1.
Fr: Philip A. Bralich <bralich@hawaii.edu>
Re: Last Chance for Free Software

As of next week all of Ergo Linguistics Tools including the newest "Roswell
Teaches English" will change from free software to paid software. Those of you would like to work with these tools for free should download them before October 15th. You can get to the site at http://www.ergo-ling.com.

These software products will be kept on the ergo server but will be distributed and advertised more widely and will no longer be offered for free. We are making this last time free offer for researchers and students of NLP and theoretical linguistics. All programs are written in C++ have programmer SDK's available upon request are Windows 95/98/NT compatible.

The programs include:
MemoMaster -- An add on for speech recognition products that significantly increases the navigation and control abilities of those products as well as adding more sophisticated messaging and reminders and notes.

BracketDoctor -- A program for linguists which provides tree diagrams and
labelled bracketings for sentences in the Penn Treebank II style. Great for students who would like to include computer generated trees in their papers using this standardized framework.

ChatterBox -- A product that provides sophisticated question and answer abilities that are easily added to animations (e.g Microsoft Agents) and are useful for educational and entertainment programs.

Roswell Teaches English -- A stand alone product to help students of English as a Second Language practice their English using natural language questions and responses. Includes a manual and textbook.

Phil Bralich

Philip A. Bralich, Ph.D.
President and CEO
Ergo Linguistic Technologies
2800 Woodlawn Drive, Suite 175
Honolulu, HI 96822
Tel: (808)539-3920
Fax: (808)539-3924
bralich@hawaii.edu
http://www.ergo-ling.com

**********

III.B.1.
Fr: Hans-Juergen Buerckert <hjb@dfki.de>
Re: ECAI 2000: CFTutorial Proposals

CALL FOR TUTORIAL PROPOSALS -- Deadline 1 Nov 1999

The ECAI-2000 Organising Committee invites proposals for tutorials to be held in conjunction with the conference. The tutorials will be held on 21-22 August 2000, immediately prior to the start of the main conference.

IMPORTANT DATES
1 Nov 1999  Deadline for proposals
1 Dec 1999  Notification of acceptance
15 Dec 1999 Deadline for tutorial summaries
7 Jan 2000  Publication of ECAI-2000 tutorial programme
1 May 2000  Camera-ready tutorial notes

We invite proposals for four-hour tutorials on topics relating to theoretical and applied AI. The aim is to offer conference delegates both tutorials on up-to-date AI technologies, and case study tutorials on the application of the AI technologies to real-world problems. For further details please visit ECAI2000 Homepage http://www.ecai2000.hu-berlin.de/

Dr. Hans-Jürgen Bürckert
DFKI GmbH
Stuhlsatzenhausweg 3
D-66123 Saarbrücken, Germany
Phone/Fax: +49.681.302-5321 / -2235
Mobile: +49.171.717-2065
Email: hjb@dfki.de
http://www.dfki.de/~hjb/

**********

III.B.2.
Fr: Conference, AISTA2000 <AISTA2000@ise.canberra.edu.au>
Re: Neural Networks and Control: CFPapers

Call for papers for special session on:
"Neural Networks and Control"
at
International Conference on Advances in Intelligent Systems:
Theory and Applications AISTA'2000
2-4 February 2000
Canberra - Australia
http://beth.canberra.edu.au/conferences/aista2000/index.htm

In cooperation of: IEEE Act Section, Australia
University of Canberra, Australia
Australian Intelligent Cybernetic Systems, Australia
Due Date: 25 October 1999

The International Conference on Advances in Intelligent Systems: Theory and Applications - AISTA'2000 aims at bringing together theoreticians and practitioners of intelligent systems from Australia and around the world to exchange ideas, present their recent research and discuss possible collaborations. A special session of the conference is devoted to "Neural Networks and Control". Papers are being solicited for this session. Topics of this special session include, but are not limited to, the following area:

· Neural Networks for Adaptive and Intelligent Control
Neural Network for:
Adaptive and Optimal Control,
Intelligent Control and Robotics,
Intelligent Agents,
Industrial Automation,
Signal Processing,
System Identification and Control
Image processing and vision

Paper Submission
Papers will be selected based on their originality, significance, correctness, relevance and clarity of presentation. Four copies of manuscripts (4 pages) should be submitted to the following address:

AISTA'2000 Secretariat
Special Session on Neural Networks and Control
School of Computing
University of Canberra
ACT 2601, Canberra, Australia

The manuscripts should present original work, which has not been published or being reviewed for other conferences.

Important Dates
25 October 1999   Deadline for submission of manuscripts
20 November 1999  Notification of acceptance
10 December 1999  Deadline for camera-ready copies of accepted manuscripts
2-4 February 2000 Conference sessions

Further Information
For further information contact aista@canberra.edu.au or see the conference homepage at: http://beth.canberra.edu.au/conferences/aista2000/index.htm

International Program Committee:
Jacek M. Zurada, University of Louisville, USA
David E. Goldberg, University of Illinois, USA
Kalmanje KrishnaKumar, University of Alabama, USA
Juha Karhunen, Helsinki University of Technology, Finland
Sugisaka Masanori, Oita University, Japan
Jay Liebowitz, University of Maryland-Baltimore County USA
Russell C. Eberhart, Purdue University Indianapolis, USA
Jason Yi-Bing Lin, Chiao Tung University, Taiwan
Shun-ichi Amari, The Institute of Physical and Chemical Research, Japan
Bernd Reusch, University of Dortmund, Germany
Hamid Arabnia, The University of Georgia, USA
Weiyi Meng, State University of New York at Binghamton, USA
Mehmed Kantardzic, University of Louisville, USA
Ning Zhong, Yamaguchi University, Japan
Xindong Wu, Colorado School of Mines, USA
Jerzy Pejas, Technical University of Szczecin, Poland
Jarmo Alander, University of Vaasa, Finland
Takeshi Furuhashi, Nagoya University, Japan
Janos D. Pinter, Dalhousie University, Canada
Jeremy L Wyatt, University of Birmingham, UK

**********

III.B.3.
Fr: Conference, AISTA2000 <AISTA2000@ise.canberra.edu.au>
Re: CFPapers: Advanced Techniques for Modelling and Design of
    Fuzzy Logic Systems

Call for papers for special session on:
"Advanced Techniques for Modelling and Design of Fuzzy Logic
Systems"
at
International Conference on Advances in Intelligent
Systems:
Theory and Applications AISTA'2000
2-4 February 2000, Canberra - Australia
http://beth.canberra.edu.au/conferences/aista2000/index.htm

In cooperation with: IEEE Act Section, Australia
University of Canberra, Australia
Australian Intelligent Cybernetic Systems, Australia
Due Date: 25 October 1999

The International Conference on Advances in Intelligent Systems: Theory and Applications - AISTA'2000 aims at bringing together theoreticians and practitioners of intelligent systems from Australia and around the world to exchange ideas, present their recent research and discuss possible collaborations. A special session of the conference is devoted to "Advanced Techniques for Modelling and Design of Fuzzy Logic Systems". Papers are being solicited for this session. Topics of this special session include, but are not limited to, the following area:

· Fuzzy Logic Control,
· Fuzzy Expert Systems,
· Neural Genetic Systems,
· Neural-Fuzzy-Genetic Systems,
· Fuzzy Evolutionary Systems,
· Fuzzy Neural Systems,
· Hybrid Intelligent Systems for Control and Optimisation
· Qualitative and Approximate-Reasoning

Paper Submission
Papers will be selected based on their originality, significance, correctness, relevance and clarity of presentation. Four copies of manuscripts (4 pages) should be submitted to the following address:

AISTA'2000 Secretariat
Special Session on Fuzzy Logic Systems
School of Computing
University of Canberra
ACT 2601, Canberra, Australia

The manuscripts should present original work, which has not been published or being reviewed for other conferences.

Important Dates
25 October 1999   Deadline for submission of manuscripts
20 November 1999  Notification of acceptance
10 December 1999  Deadline for camera-ready copies of accepted manuscripts
2-4 February 2000 Conference sessions

Further Information
For further information contact aista@canberra.edu.au or see the conference homepage at: http://beth.canberra.edu.au/conferences/aista2000/index.htm

International Program Committee:
Jacek M. Zurada, University of Louisville, USA
David E. Goldberg, University of Illinois, USA
Kalmanje KrishnaKumar, University of Alabama, USA
Juha Karhunen, Helsinki University of Technology, Finland
Sugisaka Masanori, Oita University, Japan
Jay Liebowitz, University of Maryland-Baltimore County USA
Russell C. Eberhart, Purdue University Indianapolis, USA
Jason Yi-Bing Lin, Chiao Tung University, Taiwan
Shun-ichi Amari, The Institute of Physical and Chemical Research, Japan
Bernd Reusch, University of Dortmund, Germany
Hamid Arabnia, The University of Georgia, USA
Weiyi Meng, State University of New York at Binghamton, USA
Mehmed Kantardzic, University of Louisville, USA
Ning Zhong, Yamaguchi University, Japan
Xindong Wu, Colorado School of Mines, USA
Jerzy Pejas, Technical University of Szczecin, Poland
Jarmo Alander, University of Vaasa, Finland
Takeshi Furuhashi, Nagoya University, Japan
Janos D. Pinter, Dalhousie University, Canada
Jeremy L Wyatt, University of Birmingham, UK

**********

III.B.4.
Fr: Conference, AISTA2000 <AISTA2000@ise.canberra.edu.au>
Re: Evolutionary Computation and Intelligent Control Systems: CFPapers

Call for papers for special session in:
"Evolutionary Computation and Intelligent Control Systems"
at International Conference on Advances in Intelligent Systems:
Theory and Applications AISTA'2000
2-4 February 2000, Canberra - Australia
http://beth.canberra.edu.au/conferences/aista2000/index.htm
Due date for submission of manuscripts: 25 October 1999


The International Conference on Advances in Intelligent Systems: Theory and Applications - AISTA'2000 aims at bringing together theoreticians and practitioners of intelligent systems from Australia and around the world to exchange ideas, present their recent research and discuss possible collaborations. A special session of the conference is devoted to "Evolutionary Computation and Intelligent Control Systems". Papers are being solicited for this session. Topics of this special session include, but are not limited to, the following area:

· Evolutionary Systems for Intelligent and Adaptive Control
Hybrid Evolutionary-Neural Network Control,
Hybrid Evolutionary-Fuzzy Logic Control,
Genetic Algorithms & Evolutionary Programming,
Evolutionary Systems & Optimal Control,
Evolutionary Control Systems for Robotics and Automation,
Intelligent Agents,
Parallel Computing Applications
Identification and Control using Evolutionary Programming

Paper Submission
Papers will be selected based on their originality, significance, correctness, relevance and clarity of presentation. Four copies of manuscripts (4 pages) should be submitted to the following address:

AISTA'2000 Secretariat
Special Session (Evolutionary Computation and Intelligent Control Systems)
School of Computing
University of Canberra
ACT 2601, Canberra, Australia

The manuscripts should present original work, which has not been published or being reviewed for other conferences.

Important Dates
25 October 1999   Deadline for submission of manuscripts
20 November 1999  Notification of acceptance
10 December 1999  Deadline for camera-ready copies of accepted manuscripts
2-4 February 2000 Conference sessions

Further Information
For further information contact aista@canberra.edu.au or see the conference homepage at: http://beth.canberra.edu.au/conferences/aista2000/index.htm

International Program Committee:
Jacek M. Zurada, University of Louisville, USA
David E. Goldberg, University of Illinois, USA
Kalmanje KrishnaKumar, University of Alabama, USA
Juha Karhunen, Helsinki University of Technology, Finland
Sugisaka Masanori, Oita University, Japan
Jay Liebowitz, University of Maryland-Baltimore County USA
Russell C. Eberhart, Purdue University Indianapolis, USA
Jason Yi-Bing Lin, Chiao Tung University, Taiwan
Shun-ichi Amari, The Institute of Physical and Chemical Research, Japan
Bernd Reusch, University of Dortmund, Germany
Hamid Arabnia, The University of Georgia, USA
Weiyi Meng, State University of New York at Binghamton, USA
Mehmed Kantardzic, University of Louisville, USA
Ning Zhong, Yamaguchi University, Japan
Xindong Wu, Colorado School of Mines, USA
Jerzy Pejas, Technical University of Szczecin, Poland
Jarmo Alander, University of Vaasa, Finland
Takeshi Furuhashi, Nagoya University, Japan
Janos D. Pinter, Dalhousie University, Canada
Jeremy L Wyatt, University of Birmingham, UK

In cooperation with:
University of Canberra, Australia
IEEE Act Section, Australia
Australian Intelligent Cybernetic Systems, Australia

**********

III.B.5.
Fr: Slawomir Zadrozny <zadrozny@ibspan.waw.pl>
Re: Fourth International Conference on Knowledge-Based Intelligent
    Engineering Systems & Allied Technologies. Special Session on
    Intelligent Techniques for Internet Resources: CFPapers

Fourth International Conference on
Knowledge-Based Intelligent Engineering Systems & Allied Technologies.
(http://www.eng.bton.ac.uk/eee/research/kes2000/)
30 August-1 September 2000
University of Brighton, Sussex, U.K.
Special Session on
Intelligent Techniques for Internet Resources
Call For Papers

The wealth of semi-structured information, as well as of services, currently available on the Internet offers an exciting opportunity for the development of intelligent, flexible query and data-mining systems. Intelligent techniques, such as fuzzy and evolutionary ones, are also at the basis of new agent-based architectures for Internet applications. Moreover, promising lines of research are being opened to apply intelligent techniques at the lower levels of the Internet networking protocols and in network administration. The Special Session aims to cover newest developments in those areas, with special emphasis on design and implementation aspects.
Topics of the Special Session cover, but are not limited to:

* Intelligent information retrieval over the Internet
* Flexible querying of databases over the Internet
* Agent-based architectures for Internet applications
* Data mining techniques for distributed data
* Soft computing methods for active networking
* Intelligent techniques for multimedia on the Internet

INSTRUCTIONS FOR AUTHORS
The Special Session will consist of an invited keynote paper and some selected contributions. Interested authors must submit 5 copies of their paper to one of the Session Chairs. Electronic submissions in Postscript or PDF format are welcome. Submitted papers must comply to the Conference guidelines for submission (http://www.eng.bton.ac.uk/eee/research/kes2000/). All papers will be strictly refereed by at least three experts in the field.

PUBLICATION
The session papers will be published in the Conference Proceedings. After an additional refereeing, expanded versions of selected papers will be collected in a volume of the "Studies in Fuzziness and Soft Computing" series, published by Physica-Verlag.

IMPORTANT DATES
Deadline for Submission:            January 20th, 2000
Acceptance/Rejection Notification:  March 20th, 2000

Camera-ready papers due:            April 10th, 2000
Session Chairs:
Dr. Ernesto Damiani
Universita di Milano - Polo di Crema
Via Bramante 65 26013 Crema, ITALY
phone: +39-0373-898240
edamiani@crema.unimi.it

Dr. Slawomir Zadrozny
Systems Research Institute
Polish Academy of Sciences
ul. Newelska 6, 01-447 Warszawa, POLAND
phone: +48-22-364103
zadrozny@ibspan.waw.pl

Slawomir Zadrozny
Systems Research Institute phone: +48 22 364103
Polish Academy of Sciences fax: +48 22 372772
01-447 Warszawa
ul. Newelska 6
POLAND

**********

III.B.6.
Fr: Donna Harman <donna.harman@nist.gov>
Re: RIAO 2000: Content-Based Multimedia Information Access:
    CFPapers and Application Demonstrations

RIAO 2000
"Content-Based Multimedia Information Access"
College de France
Paris, France
April 12-14, 2000
Call for Papers and Application Demonstrations

The RIAO (Recherche d'Informations Assistee par Ordinateur = Computer-Assisted Information Retrieval) International Conference is held every 3 years. Sites for the conference have been Grenoble (1985), Boston (1988), Barcelona (1991), New York (1994) and Montreal (1997). Paris will host the next RIAO conference in Spring 2000. The conference is organized by the Centre de Hautes Etudes Internationales d'Informatique Documentaire (C.I.D.) and the Center for the Advanced Study of Information Systems (C.A.S.I.S.). The theme of the upcoming conference is "Content-Based Multimedia Information Access". The conference scope will range from the traditional processing of text documents to the rapidly growing field of automatic indexing and retrieval of images and speech and, more generally, to all processing of audio-visual and multimedia information on various supports, including the Net. The conference is of interest for several scientific communities, including Information Retrieval, Natural Language Processing, Spoken Language Processing, Computer Vision, Human-Computer Interaction and Digital Libraries. RIAO 2000 will, thereby, serve as a forum for cross-discipline initiatives and innovative applications. Authors are invited to submit short or long papers on the conference topics. Innovative applications and products submissions are also sought for demonstration at special conference sessions. The deadline for electronic submission is November 8, 1999. The final version of the selected papers is requested for January 15, 2000.

For more information and format for submission, please see the web site at: http://host.limsi.fr/RIAO or contact the Conference secretariat at: riao2000@limsi.fr

**********

III.B.6.
Fr: Robert van Liere <Robert.van.Liere@cwi.nl>
Re: Eurographics/IEEE TCVG Symposium on Visualization:
    CFPapers

Call for Papers
Joint EUROGRAPHICS - IEEE TCVG Symposium
on Visualization
May 29-31, 2000
Amsterdam, the Netherlands
http://www.cwi.nl/vissym00

Aims and Scope
Following nine Eurographics workshops on Visualization in Scientific Computing and the Eurographics - IEEE TCVG Symposium on Visualization in 1999, we invite you to participate in the second Joint Eurographics - IEEE TCVG Symposium on Visualization.

Papers and case studies will form the scientific content of the event. Papers are invited that present research results from all areas of visualization. Case studies report on practical applications of visualization to data analysis. Suggested topics for research papers include, but are not limited to:

- Flow visualization
- Information visualization
- Human factors in visualization
- Large data sets
- Volume rendering
- Internet-based visualization
- User interaction techniques
- Multi-Variate visualization
- Surface extraction
- Data base visualization
- Visualization systems
- Multi resolution techniques

Case studies are invited from any application area, including: Physics, Aerospace, Automotive, Biomedicine, Chemistry, Molecular Biology, Finance, Mathematics, Hypermedia Structures, Data Mining. Accepted papers and case studies will be published in a book by Springer-Verlag.

Important Dates
3 December 1999 :  Paper submission deadline
17 January 2000 :  Notification of acceptance
18 February 2000 : Camera ready copies
29-31 May 2000 :   EG-IEEE VisSym'00

Paper Submission
Authors are requested to prepare their contribution as a full paper. Accepted papers will be published in a book by Springer-Verlag. Accepted research and case study papers are limited to 10 pages. In the book one additional page of color plates per paper is available. Further instructions for the preparation and uploading of papers are available via http://www.cwi.nl/vissym00. If you are not able to upload your paper electronically you alternatively can send two copies of the full paper including figures and images by regular mail to
Conference co-chair Robert van Liere (see address below)

Program Committee
* Dirk Bartz Univ. of Tuebingen, Germany
* Ken Brodlie Univ. of Leeds, UK
* Daniel Cohen-Or Tel Aviv University, Israel
* Sabine Coquillart INRIA, France
* Roger Crawfis Ohio State Univ. USA
* Stephen Eick Visual Insights, USA
* Thomas Ertl Univ. of Stuttgart, Germany
* Sarah Gibson MERL, USA
* Michel Grave ONERA Chatillon France
* Eduard Groeller Vienna Univ. of Technology, Austria
* Markus Gross ETH, Switzerland
* Hans Hagen Univ. of Kaiserslautern, Germany
* Ivan Herman CWI, the Netherlands
* Arie Kaufman SUNY Stony Brook, USA
* Daniel Keim Univ. of Halle, Germany
* David N. Kenwright NASA, USA
* Wim de Leeuw CWI the Netherlands
* Robert van Liere CWI, the Netherlands
* Wilfrid Lefer Univ. of Littoral, France
* Nelson Max LLNL, USA
* Robert Moorhead Mississippi State Univ, USA
* Gregory Nielson Arizona State Univ., USA
* Hans-Georg Pagendarm DLR, Germany
* Hanspeter Pfister MERL, USA
* Frits Post Delft Univ. of Technology, the Netherlands
* William Ribarsky Georgia Inst. of Technology, USA
* Martin Rumpf Univ. of Bonn, Germany
* Georgios Sakas FHG, Germany
* Roberto Scopigno IEI-CNR Pisa, Italy
* Deborah Silver Rutgers University, USA
* Pavel Slavik Czech Technical Univ., Czech Republic
* Robert Spence Imperial College London, UK
* Hans Spoelder Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands
* Jarke van Wijk Eindhoven Univ. of Technology, the Netherlands

EG-IEEE VisSym'00 Committee
Symposium Co-Chairs:
Robert van Liere, Center for Mathematics and Computer Science
Ivan Herman, Center for Mathematics and Computer Science
William Ribarsky, College of Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology
Papers Co-Chairs:
Frits Post,Technical University Delft
Jarke van Wijk, Technical University Eindhoven
Local organization co-chairs:
Wim de Leeuw, Center for Mathematics and Computer Science
Guy Melancon, Center for Mathematics and Computer Science

Related Events
VisSym'00 is followed by: 6th Eurographics Workshop on Virtual Environments. This workshop will be held on June 1st and 2nd also at the Center for Mathematics and Computer Science.

Contact
Any questions concerning the goals, scope and organization can be addressed to: vissym00@cwi.nl or to:

Robert van Liere
Symposium Co-Chair of VisSym '00
Center for Mathematics and Computer Science
Department of Software Engineering
Kruislaan 413
1098 SJ, Amsterdam
The Netherlands
email: robertl@cwi.nl
tel: +31 20 5924118
fax: +31 20 5924199

******************************************************************

IV. PROJECTS

IV.C.1.
Fr: Joan K Lippincott <joan@cni.org>
Re: 1999 TIIAP (Technology) Grant Awards 

The TIIAP awards have been important catalysts to development of networked services. Here are the latest awards.

Washington, DC -- More than $17 million in matching funds is being awarded to 43 non-profit and governmental organizations across the United States to help fund innovative uses of advanced networking technologies, the Clinton-Gore Administration announced. The funds will be used to improve delivery of social services, enhance the capabilities of our public safety officials, and to bring the benefits of information technology to underserved areas of the country.

"These investments will help close the digital divide by promoting innovative applications of the Internet and information technology in underserved urban and rural communities." President Clinton said. "These projects demonstrate the remarkable potential of information technology to help create opportunity for all Americans".

"We cannot overestimate the importance of access to the information age tools required to succeed in this global economy," said Secretary Daley. "Tomorrow's economy will demand technological literacy and we must rise to the challenge of ensuring that our workforce of tomorrow will be prepared. Greater access to the Internet creates more users with better skills and greater demand for services. This year's grant recipients are truly leading the way in the use of new computer and information technologies that will help transform people's lives," said Secretary Daley.

The Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information
Administration (NTIA) administers the Telecommunications and Information
Infrastructure Assistance Program (TIIAP), which awards grants annually to non-profit organizations and state and local governments, for innovative, yet practical, projects using information technologies. This year's 43 grant recipients were chosen from over 702 applicants. The $17.6 million in TIIAP funds will be matched by $21 million in funding from non-Federal sources, resulting in a $38.6 million investment in our nation's information infrastructure.

"In awarding this year's grants, we noticed several interesting and important trends," said Larry Irving, assistant secretary of Commerce and administrator of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). "Specifically, we are pleased to see that more and more communities are making comprehensive databases and advanced communication tools available to their citizens and community leaders, empowering them to more effectively determine the community's needs and target resources better."

"Our nation's health care organizations are finding niche areas where telemedicine can help improve the quality of care being delivered and, in some cases even save lives, as well as saving costs. And, rural communities are finding more ways to bring educational opportunities, access to social services, and health care to its most isolated citizens."

This year's grants include:
* Second Harvest in Illinois will provide near real-time communication links between food banks and organizations that feed the hungry to help alleviate the nearly 60 million pounds of food that gets wasted each year in the U.S.;
* the Georgia-based Shepherd Center will place laptops with video-conferencing capability in the homes of victims of spinal cord and brain injuries. These victims, who face a lifetime of challenges, will have greater access to their care givers as well as to clinics and seminars that can help them in their recovery;
* the Cleveland Housing Network in Ohio will use Internet-based technology to let community based organizations share data resources and collaborate on solutions for community revitalization. The project addresses common national problems, such as access to affordable housing, and allows those closest to the problems to have the tools to address them; and
* Dance partners, a project of Ballet Arts Minnesota, will use interactive telecommunications technology to spread the reach of cultural dance to underserved communities, including the elderly and disabled. Whereas the 50 largest dance companies are concentrated in only ten of our largest cities, this project has the potential to bring increased exposure to dance in rural areas.

"The lessons learned from these grants will be shared across the nation and throughout the world. There is tremendous global interest in learning how the tools of the 21st century can be used to improve the quality of lives," said Irving. "The experiences of these TIIAP grant recipients will help inform those who are just beginning to determine how to bring the benefits of new technologies to their communities and villages."

Descriptions of each of the 43 grant recipients, along with contact information, are posted on NTIA's website at <http://www.ntia.doc.gov/>.
"We encourage people who are interested in learning about the grant program to visit the website or call us at (202) 482-2048," said Bernadette McGuire-Rivera, administrator of NTIA's grants office.

The TIIAP program was initiated in 1994. It has awarded $135 million in award funds that has spurred over $339 million in total investments. NTIA serves as the principal adviser to the executive branch on domestic and international telecommunications issues. TIIAP awards grants annually to non-profit organizations to help bring the benefits of technology to rural and underserved areas.

******************************************************************

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