Call for Papers Background IAAI features real, deployed AI applications, selected for their innovation. An application is considered deployed if it has been used for a minimum of several months and relied on for operational business decisions. Four categories of innovation are recognized: demonstration of a new technology, application of existing technology to a new domain, application of existing technology to an old domain in an innovative way, and demonstration of a novel integration of different technologies. Taken together, the award winners provide clear evidence of the commercial value of AI technology as a key component of complex information systems. The papers presented at IAAI are case studies that provide a valuable guide to designing, building, managing, and deploying systems whose value depends on AI technology. The papers also illustrate the applicability and limitations of various AI techniques. IAAI-96 IAAI was founded because of the belief that we, the AI community, needed to "get the story out." The intent was to benefit AI and the AI community by demonstrating that AI research has significant operational payoffs in the real world. The method was to feature innovative, deployed AI applications with measurable benefits. The primary purpose of IAAI is to tell these success stories. Other purposes are to recognize application developers at a national conference and to provide a forum for them to exchange experiences and lessons learned in the "heartland" of AI. These purposes have, for the most part, been realized. There is another important purpose that IAAI can serve, one which also directly benefits the AAAI membership: to promote the interchange of ideas between basic and applied AI. It is our experience that AI technology transfer is a two way street; i.e., not only that AI applications can benefit from the latest advances in AI research and that these benefits can increase support for AI research, but also that quality AI research is stimulated by real problems. David Waltz expressed this idea best in his ballot statement as nominee for President-Elect of AAAI: "It is essential to develop an effective dialog between basic and applied AI. Applied AI needs a steady stream of fundamental AI results in order to generate novel applications of increasing power; basic AI needs to be informed by applied AI about the nature and relative importance of application domains, and the efficacy and relevance of various proposed systems and formalisms for building applications." Collocating IAAI with the National Conference, and encouraging joint attendance and cross-fertilization, is an attempt to promote this dialog. Our objectives for IAAI-96 are to enhance the content and maintain the focus of IAAI as an applications oriented conference, distinct from the research oriented National Conference, while minimizing - or even eliminating - the logistical barriers between them. We aim to serve the AI community by highlighting success stories for the world at large, while also providing valuable and interesting content for the AAAI membership. We want to expand the conference to cover the full range of AI technologies, to increase the number and quality of papers submitted and accepted, and to increase participation. We want IAAI to be valuable for all members of the AI community, especially those graduate students who form the major portion of attendees at the National Conference and who are likely to find jobs not in academia but in organizations which apply AI. Most important, we want IAAI to complement the National Conference in order to achieve the benefits of an effective interchange between basic and applied AI. The following paragraphs discuss our plans for revitalizing IAAI. Our ideas fall into two categories: content and logistics. We are broadening the program committee, to include representation from the speech, natural language, vision, and robotics communities. We are asking AI vendors, especially those who exhibit at the National Conference, to encourage their customers to submit papers, or to submit joint papers, describing their most successful applications. (Phil Klahr deserves special recognition for his extensive and largely successful efforts in this area for many years.) We have asked the AAAI Fellows to make a special commitment to identify worthy applications and to encourage their submission. We are contacting program committees of AAAI cosponsored conferences, to ask them to identify appropriate applications in their areas. We are insisting on a renewed commitment from IAAI Program Committee members to solicit papers for submission personally and to assist potential submitters who have a worthy application but may have difficulty preparing a paper. Logistically, we are proposing a single registration fee and a combined Proceedings for the National Conference and for IAAI. These will allow for more extensive interactions between participants, and will ensure that all researchers are aware of the current state of real AI applications. We are working closely with the National Conference's Program Committee and with the KDD-96 Program Committee to schedule invited talks and panels to minimize potential conflicts on topics of mutual interest and, perhaps more important, to schedule joint sessions where appropriate. (Ed Feigenbaum's 1993 talk "Tiger in a Cage" was an extremely effective joint session.) AI-on-Line panels, which originated as part of the National Conference and then became joint events, encouraged interactions between participants. We are also trying to coordinate session times better, although this is difficult because of the different presentation lengths. Finally, and most important, we solicit and welcome additional ideas, suggestions, discussion, and, most of all, participation from the entire cross-section of AAAI members. IAAI is sponsored by AAAI for the benefit of the members. We promise to consider carefully all suggestions, and to adopt those which are feasible, either for this year's conference or the next. Please keep an eye out for worthy applications, and submit papers or encourage colleagues to do so. Please submit Panel and Invited Talk proposals, as described in the Call for Papers, Panels, and Invited Talks, and also submit suggestions, ideas, etc. for panels or invited talks that you would like to hear - even if you are unable to organize it yourself. We call upon the entire AAAI membership to take responsibility for the success of this conference through active participation and to ensure an effective and rewarding dialog between basic and applied AI.