[ontolog-forum] CFP: COSIT 2011 Workshop on Ontology of Spatial Thinking

[Karl Grossner <karlg@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

*** apologies for cross-posting ***

SECOND CALL FOR WORKSHOP PAPERS: Ontology of Spatial Thinking and Reasoning: Multidisciplinary Reconciliation

A half-day workshop held the afternoon of September 12, 2011 in conjunction with the Conference on Spatial Information Theory (COSIT'11)

Belfast, Maine, USA, September 12-16 2011

Please visit http://sand.spatial.ucsb.edu/cosit for workshop details; Conference details are at http://www.cosit.info

WORKSHOP AIM
This workshop will discuss the ontology of spatial thinking and reasoning, that is, what concepts, principles and methods do people with different backgrounds, disciplines, training, etc., use to think and reason about spatial aspects of problems? This topic has been discussed by at least three research communities during the past two decades: those conducting basic research in behavioral and cognitive science, those developing and evaluating software and information systems, and those designing and evaluating education programs in physical science, geography, or other fields. Our hope is to bring representatives from these three communities together in an effort to make progress on the goals of each community. In particular, the organizers are interested in theoretical bases for the development of curricula to foster spatial thinking in the sciences and humanities.

Some important relevant questions include:

* Are there spatial concepts, principles, and reasoning tasks that are general across all fields, and if so, what are useful or appropriate ways to organize them?

* How can we arrive at useful enumerations of each of these sets of concepts?

* Is a unified ontology of spatial thinking and reasoning a feasible and worthwhile goal, and if so, for what purposes? The organizers of this workshop presume so, but allow that these are open questions.

These concerns have been of central interest to members of the COSIT community, and a COSIT meeting therefore seems an appropriate, even ideal, venue for an in-depth discussion of them.

PARTICIPATION
We invite submissions of short position papers (2-3 pages) by interested researchers from any of the numerous disciplines involved in this topic: cognitive psychology, education, geography and cartography, linguistics, computer science, geographic information science, mathematics, etc. Position papers submitted will be reviewed by the organizers for suitability to the workshop topics. Accepted papers from registered attendees will be made available beforehand on the workshop web page, and included in the electronic conference proceedings.

Please send submissions in PDF format by email to Karl Grossner (karlg@xxxxxxxxxxxxx)

A summary report of the workshop will be published (at minimum) on the website of the TeachSpatial project (http://teachspatial.org). We will also explore the possibility/advisability of developing a journal special issue on the topic.

IMPORTANT DATES
Position paper submission due:    July 11, 2011
Acceptance notification:        July 25, 2011
COSIT early-bird registration:    August 1, 2011

Workshop date:                   September 12, 2011 - Afternoon

WORKSHOP ORGANIZERS
Karl E. Grossner, Center for Spatial Studies *
Daniel R. Montello, Department of Geography *
Donald G. Janelle, Center for Spatial Studies *

* University of California, Santa Barbara
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