KDD Nuggets 1994, No 1, January 17 Contents: * Padhraic Smyth -- ONLINE INFORMATION ABOUT NASA DATA SETS * Douglas H. Fisher -- AI and Statistics workshop, Jan 95 * David Scott Lewis -- FREE E-Mag on Intelligent Computing * Jos Uiterwijk -- Extracting Information from Chess Databases The KDD Nuggets is an informal list for the dissemination of information relevant to Knowledge Discovery in Databases (KDD), such as announcements of conferences/workshops, tool reviews, application examples, information requests, interesting ideas, outrageous opinions, etc. Contributions to kdd@gte.com; Add/delete requests to kdd-request@gte.com -- Gregory Piatetsky-Shapiro -------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 11 Jan 94 10:35:08 PST From: pjs@bvd.Jpl.Nasa.Gov (Padhraic Smyth) Subject: online NASA information database ONLINE INFORMATION ABOUT NASA DATA SETS: KDD researchers interested in large scientific databases might be interested in browsing through the online information database at the National Space Science Data Center (NSSDC). Th NSSDC, located at Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Maryland, USA, was established by NASA to archive space and Earth science data for access by the NASA (and other) space and Earth science research communities. The database can be accessed as follows: telnet to "nssdca.gsfc.nasa.gov" and login as "NODIS", no password required. Navigating the database is pretty self-explanatory. It contains a wealth of information on various near-earth and planetary remote-sensing data sets and provides information on where and how this data can be accessed. Although it is unlikely that an individual KDD researcher could make much headway in data analysis of these data sets without collaborating with particular scientists, it may be a useful starting point for anyone interested in getting involved with the vast quantities of NASA science data. Documents available from NSSDC include "NASA Space and Earth Science Data on CD-ROM", #93-27, August 1993 (a listing of all the currently available data sets available on CD-ROM - the data is typically available at no cost to government, university, or non-profit organisations at at nominal cost ($6 per CD) to others). I don't know how requests from non-US requestors are dealt with. Also available from NSSDC is a quarterly newsletter entitled the NSSDC Newsletter. If you require specific information on particular datasets and for some reason can not get this information from the NSSDC database, feel free to contact me at JPL and I'll see if I can help. Padhraic Smyth, JPL pjs@galway.jpl.nasa.gov -------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 14 Jan 94 08:39:21 CST From: dfisher@vuse.vanderbilt.edu (Douglas H. Fisher) Subject: AI and Stats announcement Call For Papers Fifth International Workshop on Artificial Intelligence and Statistics January 4-7, 1995 Ft. Lauderdale, Florida PURPOSE: This is the fifth in a series of workshops which has brought together researchers in Artificial Intelligence and in Statistics to discuss problems of mutual interest. The exchange has broadened research in both fields and has strongly encouraged interdisciplinary work. This workshop will have as its primary theme: ``Learning from data'' Papers on other aspects of the interface between AI & Statistics are *strongly* encouraged as well (see TOPICS below). FORMAT: To encourage interaction and a broad exchange of ideas, the presentations will be limited to about 20 discussion papers in single session meetings over three days (Jan. 5-7). Focussed poster sessions will provide the means for presenting and discussing the remaining research papers. Papers for poster sessions will be treated equally with papers for presentation in publications. Attendance at the workshop will *not* be limited. The three days of research presentations will be preceded by a day of tutorials (Jan. 4). These are intended to expose researchers in each field to the methodology used in the other field. The Tutorial Chair is Prakash Shenoy. Suggestions on tutorial topics can be sent to him at pshenoy@ukanvm.bitnet. LANGUAGE: The language will be English. TOPICS OF INTEREST: The fifth workshop has a primary theme of ``Learning from data'' At least one third of the workshop schedule will be set aside for papers with this theme. Other themes will be developed according to the strength of the papers in other areas, including but not limited to: - integrated man-machine modeling methods - empirical discovery and statistical methods for knowledge acquisition - probability and search - uncertainty propagation - combined statistical and qualitative reasoning - inferring causation - quantitative programming tools and integrated software for data analysis and modeling. - discovery in databases - meta data and design of statistical data bases - automated data analysis and knowledge representation for statistics - cluster analysis SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS: Three copies of an extended abstract (up to four pages) should be sent to H. Lenz, Program Chair or D. Fisher, General Chair 5th Int'l Workshop on AI & Stats 5th Int'l Workshop on AI & Stats Free University of Berlin Box 1679, Station B Department of Economics Department of Computer Science Institute for Statistics Vanderbilt University and Econometrics Nashville, Tennessee 37235 14185 Berlin, Garystr 21 USA Germany or electronically (postscript or latex documents preferred) to ai-stats-95@vuse.vanderbilt.edu Submissions for discussion papers (and poster presentations) will be considered if *postmarked* by June 30, 1994. If the submission is electronic (e-mail), then it must be *received* by midnight June 30, 1994. Abstracts postmarked after this date but *before* July 31, 1994, will be considered for poster presentation *only*. Please indicate which topic(s) your abstract addresses and include an electronic mail address for correspondence. Receipt of all submissions will be confirmed via electronic mail. Acceptance notices will be mailed by September 1, 1994. Preliminary papers (up to 20 pages) must be returned by November 1, 1994. These preliminary papers will be copied and distributed at the workshop. PROGRAM COMMITTEE: General Chair: D. Fisher Vanderbilt U., USA Program Chair: H. Lenz Free U. Berlin, Germany Members: W. Buntine NASA (Ames), USA J. Catlett AT&T Bell Labs, USA P. Cheeseman NASA (Ames), USA P. Cohen U. of Mass., USA D. Draper UCLA, USA Wm. Dumouchel Columbia U., USA A. Gammerman U. of London, UK D. J. Hand Open U., UK P. Hietala U. Tampere, Finland R. Kruse TU Braunschweig, Germany S. Lauritzen Aalborg U., Denmark W. Oldford U. of Waterloo, Canada J. Pearl UCLA, USA D. Pregibon AT&T Bell Labs, USA E. Roedel Humboldt U., Germany G. Shafer Rutgers U., USA P. Smyth JPL, USA D. Spiegelhalter Cambridge U., UK MORE INFORMATION: For more information write dfisher@vuse.vanderbilt.edu or write to ai-stats-request@watstat.uwaterloo.ca to subscribe to the AI and Statistics mailing list. -------------------------------------------------- From: callewis@netcom.com (David Scott Lewis) Subject: FREE E-Mag on Intelligent Computing Date: Wed, 12 Jan 94 * * * P R E S S R E L E A S E * * * P R E S S R E L E A S E * * * B R I E F R E L E A S E FREE MAGAZINE Free, electronic magazine features article summaries on new generation computer and communications technologies from over 100 trade magazines and research journals; key U.S. & international daily newspapers, news weeklies, and business magazines; and, over 100 Internet mailing lists & USENET groups. Each issue (10/year) includes listings of forthcoming & recently published technical books and forthcoming shows & conferences. Bonus: Exclusive interviews with technology pioneers. E-mail subscription requests to: listserv@ucsd.edu (Leave the "Subject" line blank.) In the body of the message, type: SUBSCRIBE HOTT-LIST (do not include first or last names) * * * P R E S S R E L E A S E * * * P R E S S R E L E A S E * * * G E N E R A L R E L E A S E HOTT -- Hot Off The Tree -- is a FREE monthly (10/year) electronic magazine featuring the latest advances in computer, communications, and electronics technologies. Each issue provides article summaries on new & emerging technologies, including VR (virtual reality), neural networks, PDAs (personal digital assistants), GUIs (graphical user interfaces), intelligent agents, ubiquitous computing, genetic & evolutionary programming, wireless networks, smart cards, video phones, set-top boxes, nanotechnology, and massively parallel processing. Summaries are provided from the following sources: Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, San Jose Mercury News, Boston Globe, Financial Times (London) ... Time, Newsweek, U.S. News & World Report ... Business Week, Forbes, Fortune, The Economist (London), Nikkei Weekly (Tokyo), Asian Wall Street Journal (Hong Kong) ... over 50 trade magazines, including Computerworld, InfoWorld, Datamation, Computer Retail Week, Dr. Dobb's Journal, LAN Times, Communications Week, PC World, New Media, VAR Business, Midrange Systems, Byte ... over 50 research journals, including ** ALL ** publications of the IEEE Computer and Communications Societies, plus technical journals published by AT&T, IBM, Hewlett Packard, Fujitsu, Sharp, NTT, Siemens, Philips, GEC ... over 100 Internet mailing lists & USENET discussion groups ... plus ... * listings of forthcoming & recently published technical books; * listings of forthcoming trade shows & technical conferences; and, * company advertorials, including CEO perspectives, tips & techniques, and new product announcements BONUS: Exclusive interviews with technology pioneers ... the first issues feature interviews with Mark Weiser (head of Xerox PARC's Computer Science Lab) on ubiquitous computing, Nobel laureate Joshua Lederberg on the information society, and MCC CEO (and former DARPA director) Craig Fields on the future of computing TO REQUEST A FREE SUBSCRIPTION, CAREFULLY FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS BELOW Send subscription requests to: listserv@ucsd.edu Leave the "Subject" line blank In the body of the message input: SUBSCRIBE HOTT-LIST If at any time you choose to cancel your subscription input: UNSUBSCRIBE HOTT-LIST Note: Do *not* include first or last names following "SUBSCRIBE HOTT-LIST" or "UNSUBSCRIBE HOTT-LIST" The HOTT mailing list is automatically maintained by a computer located at the University of California at San Diego. The system automatically responds to the sender's return path. Hence, it is necessary to send subscription requests and cancellations directly to the listserv at UCSD. (I cannot make modifications to the list ... nor do I have access to the list.) For your privacy, please note that the list will not be rented. If you have problems and require human intervention, contact: hott@ucsd.edu The next issue of the reinvented HOTT e-magazine is scheduled for transmission in February. Please forward this announcement to friends and colleagues, and post to your favorite bulletin boards. Our objective is to disseminate the highest quality and largest circulation periodical on the Information Superhighway. I look forward to serving you as HOTT's new editor. Thank you. H O T T U P D A T E I've received a steady stream of superb suggestions over the past weeks regarding the WWW and cross-posting. In response, I plan to launch a WWW/Postscript version of HOTT by 4Q 94. Also, I'll be attempting to launch a gated version to a USENET group. We'll probably call it: bit.listserv.hott or bit.magazines.computing I'm targeting the first issue for a gated USENET group. Further details will be provided in a late January update and the first issue of the e-mail edition. For the protection of your privacy, the HOTT mailing list will NEVER be rented. However, it has become necessary to seek corporate sponsors to help defray costs for subscriptions, reprint permissions, and related expenses (e.g., a new host site -- we're pushing UCSD to its limits!). But we can't get sponsors unless we have at least 100,000+ subscribers. Once we launch a USENET group, we'll be recommending that our Internet subscribers switch to the moderated (and closed) USENET group. Converting most of our Internet subscribers to a USENET will pose much less of a strain on our host system, especially when we exceed 250,000 subscribers. Besides, it's actually easier to read a magazine on a newsreader than it is by e-mail, but it's a lot harder for me to get accurate readership numbers. I'll keep you posted (no pun intended). BTW, we'll continue to offer an e-mail subscription option for those without (or with limited) access to USENET. NEW FEATURES (Consider the following to be a ** very ** preliminary announcement of new features I plan to add to HOTT ... but I can't until we get several sustaining sponsors.) There are numerous features that I plan to add over the next year. First, I want to expand trade magazine coverage to over 200 sources, including at least 30 British trade publications. Also, I want to provide summaries of U.S. and U.K. national news programs, i.e., ABC, CBS, NBC, and BBC. I'd like to transmit selected full-text features from The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The (London) Financial Times, and a Japanese English-language daily (plus article summaries from a few other Japanese English-language dailies; there are a half- dozen English-language dailies published in Japan). Eventually, I'd like to add The New York Times (if I can negotiate a reasonable rate), The San Jose Mercury News, and The Boston Globe. And maybe even Newsbytes and the Japanese English-language equivalent to Newsbytes. I'm currently negotiating with The Los Angeles Times Syndicate for Michael Schrage's "Innovation" column (Michael is willing to comp HOTT on an experimental basis) and I'd like to add a few other syndicated columns. And I have several other surprises! Wish us luck! BTW, information on HOTT archives will be provided in the first issue. -- ************************************************************************* * David Scott Lewis * * Editor-in-Chief and Book & Video Review Editor * * IEEE Engineering Management Review * * (the world's largest circulation "high tech" management journal) * * Internet address: d.s.lewis@ieee.org Tel: +1 714 662 7037 * * USPS mailing address: POB 18438 / IRVINE CA 92713-8438 USA * ************************************************************************* -------------------------------------------------- From: uiterwyk@cs.rulimburg.nl (Jos Uiterwijk) Subject: Extracting Information from Chess Databases Date: 12 Jan 94 The ICCA Journal, Vol. 16, No. 4, Dec 1993 (the Journal of the International Computer Chess Association, email to icca@cs.rulimburg.nl for more info) contains an article: IGM John Nunn: Extracting Information from Endgame Databases. The author presents a characterization of endgame databases as tools for human users. A characterization is given of their use for checking and correcting existing theory, for analysis of otb-endings, for exploration of endings to extend theory, to discover general rules or to reduce positions to a form which is easily memorizable. Finally, the topic of the artistic use of endgames in studies is touched.