AI, Simulation and Planning Conference - AIS 2000
March 6-8, 2000
Tucson, Arizona, USA
Co-Sponsored by Society for Computer Simulation & in Co-Operation with ACM SIGSIM
THEME: Toward Collaborative/Distributed Modeling & Simulation Environments

This file is also available in PDF.
 
Definitions/Terms Extended Abstract Submission Procedure [Due Sep 21, 1999]
Web Browsers Full Paper Electronic Submissions [Due Jan 18, 2000]
Viewing/Creating/Editing Multimedia Files More Advanced (Multimedia) Electronic Submissions [Due Jan 18, 2000]
Creating/Viewing Tools/Plugins For Simple Multimedia (HTML) Files Presentation Slides Electronic Submissions:
Viewing Tools/Plugins for Rich Multimedia (HTML) Files Testing
Preparation/Tools for Rich Multimedia Files Full Paper Deadline/Contact Information
Definitions/Terms:
Rich multimedia files contain one or more of the following: audio, video, and animation. Other multimedia submissions are simple (i.e., contain text, figures, and hot-links.) Widely and freely available web-browsers can bring together a multitude of text, figures, audio, video, and animation. Authors need to determine which of the following types of multimedia files is most suitable for their submission and accordingly prepare and submit their contributions.

Web Browsers:
Netscape (4.0) and Internet Explorer (4.0) are the possible web-browsers. Your multimedia submission must be viewable in either of these two browsers. These browsers support a wide range of applications such as Java Script.

Viewing/Creating/Editing Multimedia Files:
The following tables provide specific information about tools/plugins that may be employed to prepare simple/rich multimedia files.

Creating/Viewing Tools/Plugins For Simple Multimedia (HTML) Files:
A variety of tools such as latex2html and word-97 can be used to create html files (see Table 1). All submitted contributions must be either in html, postscript, or PDF format. No other format is acceptable.
 
View: (postscript/PDF) Support format (viewing)  Price Support Platform URL, Notes
Ghostview Postscript free Mac, Windows 3.x/95/NT, & Unix.  http://www.cs.wisc.edu/~ghost
Portable Document Format Reader PDF free Mac, Windows 3.x/95/NT, & Unix. http://www.adobe.com/supportservice/custsupport/download.html

Table 1

Note: Word 6.0 running on Mac is problematic - a malicious bug  prevents saving the document, claiming that one is out of memory.

Viewing Tools/Plugins for Rich Multimedia (HTML) Files:
The tools/plugins in the table below can be used to view rich multimedia submissions. Some of these products are available for free. Only multimedia submissions that can be viewed using free tools/plugins are acceptable.
 
View: (Video/Audio) Support format (viewing)  Price Support Platform URL, Notes
Apple Quick-Time Plug-In QuickTime animation, music, MIDI, audio, video, and VR panoramas and objects free Macintosh 68K/Power Mac, Windows 3.x/95/NT.  http://www.netscape.com/plugins/audio-video.html#apple_quicktime_3_plug-in
REALPLAYER REALPLAYER free Macintosh 68K/Power Mac, Windows 3.x/95/NT. http://www.netscape.com/plugins/audio-video.html#realplayer
MPEGTV player / Plug-In Streaming-capable Netscape plug-in that plays MPEG video $10 Unix http://www.netscape.com/plugins/audio-video.html#mpegtv_plug-in
CineWeb  Streaming AVI, MOV, MPG, WAV, MID, and MP2 files $30  Windows 3.x / 95 / NT.  http://www.netscape.com/plugins/audio-video.html#cineweb
Animation Java script, GIF 918a N/A PC, Mac, & Unix http://www.microsoft.com/liquidmotion/

Table 2

Preparation/Tools for Rich Multimedia Files:
The tools given below can be used to create/edit rich multimedia files. Note: use tools that can generate multimedia files that are viewable using free/public-domain software as shown above. Java applets, scripts, and applications can be submitted as long as they rely only on public-domain JDK 1.1.x APIs.
 
Create/Edit: (Video/Audio) Support Format (create/edit) PC and Macintosh price  Platform URL, Notes
  QuickTime animation, music, MIDI, audio, video, and VR panoramas and objects N/A Macintosh, Windows 95/NT http://www.apple.com/quicktime/authoring/
RealPublisher Real Audio/Video $50 Windows 3.x / 95 / NT.  http://www.real.com, server side software required
Adobe Premiere 5.0  Video (AVI, MOV, MPG, WAV, MID, and MP2) files $895 Windows 95 / NT or Macintosh http://www.adobe.com, Hardware required to convert AV signal into video file (AVI, MPEG, MOV) or use digital camera software to edit the video file
MS Liquid Motion GIF 918a $55, $149 Windows 95 / NT http://www.microsoft.com/liquidmotion/

Table 3

EXTENDED ABSTRACT SUBMISSION PROCEDURE

Extended Abstracts:

Page Limit: Extended abstracts should be 2-3 pages long excluding references.
Formatting: In preparing your extended abstract, please observe the following guidelines: 1. Your text should be no smaller than 8 point type, and no larger than 11 point. Also, choose a standard font.
2. Line spacing should be 1½ or single-spaced. Extended abstracts Submission: Submissions are to be made by ftp. Connect to ftp://ftp.acims.arizona.edu/pub/Incoming/AIS2000/Abstracts.When you connect, make sure to specify the directory path all at once. From this initial directory, select the sub-directory for the particular submission format (HTML, PDF, Postscript). When you create your file, use the first author's last name followed by the first and middle initials. You may upload your extended abstract as a zipped file. A sample file to upload (using gzip compression on a Unix workstation) for first author John A. Doe would be: doeja.ps.gz; the same file compressed on a PC using WinZip would be called doeja.zip.

NOTE: In order to protect your submissions, upon uploading of your extended abstracts, you will not be able to view your papers.  Furthermore, papers are removed from the ftp site on a daily basis. Therefore, authors will be notified of the receipt of their submissions within 24 hours of the time of submission via email.  Consequently, please  include your email address along with your name in  your extended abstract.
Full PAPER SUBMISSION PROCEDURE
All papers should be submitted electronically for inclusion in the conference proceedings and its accompanying CD-ROM.

Full Paper Electronic Submissions
Authors may electronically submit a compressed Postscript file of their conference paper. The format requirements for the Postscript page layout are the same as for the hardcopy found in the author kit. Submissions are to be made by ftp. Connect to ftp://ftp.acims.arizona.edu/pub/Incoming/AIS2000/Papers. When you connect, make sure to specify the directory path all at once. From this initial directory, select the sub-directory for the particular submission format (HTML, PDF, Postscript). When you create your file, use the 4 alphanumeric paper code followed by the first author's last name followed by the first and middle initials. Remember that this file should be compressed using either zip or gzip. A sample file to upload (using gzip compression on a Unix workstation) for first author John A. Doe with  paper code #a101 would be: a101doeja.ps.gz; the same file compressed on a PC using WinZip would be called a101doeja.zip. Creating a Postscript for LaTeX involves using dvips or a close relative. For MS Word documents, Postscript is created by invoking "Print to file" and then choosing a Postscript-compatible printer.

More Advanced (Multimedia) Electronic Submissions:
Alternatively, authors may decide to submit a hypertext (multimedia) version of their paper. We encourage multimedia presentations that are rich in nature (sound, animation, etc.). All multimedia presentations must be HTML and web compatible. Multimedia requiring special-purpose browser software plugins may be used, but the plugins must be available free of charge on the web. Some plugins will not work on a wide variety of platforms, but that is acceptable. Submissions may include more than one file. For example, the HTML file may reference JPEG or GIF graphs or GIF animated graphs. PDF files are appropriate also. All files contained in the submission must be ZIPped up together into one single file. If the author chooses to store these files on different subdirectories, the directory structure must be preserved on the ZIPped file. For internal links, use a relative addressing scheme, such that the directory structure of your submission can be moved around freely. In the end, each submission will reside in a separate subdirectory of your conference, i.e., the naming conventions provided apply to the ZIPped file only, not to the files referenced internally. Submissions are to be made by ftp, using the same instructions as provided above for minimal submissions. External URLs may be referenced. For example, some authors may like to provide a link to their own homepage within the address section of the paper. It is also perfectly acceptable to include references to web pages in the reference list at the end of the paper. However, external references should be used sparingly and prudently, as they are bound to lead, over time, to broken links. External references must use an absolute addressing scheme.

Presentation Slides Electronic Submissions:
Authors can also include softcopy of their presentations as well. Any such submission should be web compatible. For example, Microsoft PowerPoint files can be viewed inside web browers with freeely available plugins.

Testing:
We strongly suggest that all your multimedia files (especially rich multimedia files) be tested prior to submission. Testing can be done in two stages:

  1. Use individual applications to test audio, video, and/or animation,
  2. Use a web-browser that has the appropriate free/public-domain plugins to test whether your submissions areself-contained or not.
Full Paper Deadline:
Deadline for submissions of paper and presentation files to the ftp site (ftp.acims.arizona.edu/pub/Incoming/AIS2000/Papers) is January 18, 2000. Please closely observe the due date since the printed proceedings has to be made ready for the first day of the conference.

Contact Information:
Hessam S. Sarjoughian & François E. Cellier
University of Arizona, USA
Email: hessam@ece.arizona.edu, cellier@ece.arizona.edu
URL: www.acims.arizona.edu