International Conference Information and Communication Technologies and Programming SECOND SPECIAL WORKSHOP ON MULTIMEDIA SEMANTICS June 20 27, 2004 Bulgaria, Macedonia, Greece Sofia Skopje - Oxrid Struga - Bitola Stavros -Thessaloniki Athos - Kavala - Blagoevgrad - Sofia The workshop is a part of the 29th in a series of conferences Information and Communication Technologies and Programming (ICT&P) (http://www.math.bas.bg/infres/ictp/), held annually since 1976. The workshop is a good opportunity for foreign experts to make contacts with Bulgarian computer scientists, as well as to visit some interesting places in Balkan peninsulas. All accepted papers will be published in the International Journal Information Theories and Applications" (IJITA). TOPICS Multimedia information retrieval is at a crossroads. It is becoming increasingly clear that multimedia information does not have a unique semantics, but exhibits multiple semantics which depend on context and use. Deriving these semantics and using them to answer user queries presents some very difficult problems for researchers. This workshop will concentrate on techniques for doing this task. The main topics include, but are not limited to: Conceptual clustering Computational semiotics Dimensional reduction Emergent semantics Intelligent browsing and visualization Multimedia semantic web Semi-automatic and automatic methods for multimedia annotation Spectral methods Visual ontologies IMPORTANT DATES Submission of papers April 1, 2004 Notification of acceptance April 15, 2004 Camera ready copy due May 1, 2004 1
WORKSHOP PROGRAM June 20, Sunday arrival in Sofia, Bulgaria. Sofia tour. Dinner in Bulgarian tavern. The land of roses, Bulgaria, is a small country of ancient culture, scenic beauty, friendly people, hospitality and warmth. Bulgaria is situated in south-eastern Europe. It occupies the central part of Balkan Peninsula on both sides of the Balkan Range (the Balkans). The grater part of the northern border with Romania passes along the Danube, and the eastern border is the Black Sea. The land borders with Yugoslavia and Macedonia to the west, with Turkey to the south-east, and with Greece to the south. Sofia is the capital city of Bulgaria. The city is located in the southern part of the Sofia valley and at the foot of the mountains Vitosha and Lyulin. The town occurred in the 8th - 7th century B.C. around the mineral spring which is now in the center of the city. The Romans conquered the town in the I century and called it Serfica. In the 9th century is given the name Sredets. It has been bearing the name of Sofia since 14th century - the name comes from the name of the church St.Sofia. Since 1878 Sofia has been the capital city of Bulgaria. A great number of monuments of architecture have been preserved, such as the Alexander Nevsky Catedral, the Public Theater Ivan Vazov, the Palace of Justice, the churches St.George and St.Sofia, etc. Sofia is the major economic, scientific and cultural center of Bulgaria. June 21, Monday 8 A.M. - 12 P.M. paper presentations in the Sofia University 2 P.M. departure from Sofia to Macedonia 6 P.M. guided tour of Skopje Skopje is the capital and the largest city of the Republic of Macedonia. It's located in the north-western part of the republic and it's 169 km away from the second largest city in Macedonia, Bitola. It lies on the both banks on the upper course of the Vardar river and is located on a major north - south Balkan route between Belgrade (320 km away) and Athens (490 km away), while from Thessaloniki is 250 km, from Sofia 170 km & from Bucharest 460 km away. Skopje is situated on an altitude of 255 meters above the sea level. It has been mentioned for the first time by Claudius Ptolomeius, under its ancient name Scupi. In the 2 nd century BC Scupi was founded by the Romans. 10 P.M. arrival in Ohrid, Macedonia. Dinner in Albanian tavern The Republic of Macedonia is located on the Balkan Peninsula in Southeastern Europe. The territory of the republic is sometimes called Vardar Macedonia after the Vardar River, that flows through the country southeast into Greece. The republic is landlocked. It has common boundaries with Albania in the West, Bulgaria in the East, Greece in the South, and Serbia in the North. 2
June 22, Tuesday 10 A.M. -12 P.M. boat trip through Lake Ohrid. Lake Ohrid, a natural tectonic lake in the south-west corner of Macedonia, is the deepest lake in Europe at 290m (960ft), and one of the world's oldest. A third of its 450 sq km (175 sq mi) surface area belongs to Albania. Nestled amid mountains at an altitude of 695m (2280ft), the Macedonian section of the lake is the more beautiful, with striking vistas of the water from the beach and hills. 2.30 P.M. - 5.30 P.M. guided tour through Ohrid. The town of Ohrid is the Macedonian tourist Mecca. Some 30 'cultural monuments' in the area keep visitors busy. Predictably, the oldest ruins readily seen today are Roman. Lihnidos (Ohrid) was on the Via Egnatia, which connected the Adriatic to the Aegean, and part of a Roman amphitheatre has been uncovered in the old town. Under Byzantium, Ohrid became the episcopal centre of Macedonia. The first Slavic university was founded here in 893 by Bishop Kliment of Ohrid, a disciple of St Cyril and St Methodius, and from the 10th century until 1767 the patriarchate of Ohrid held sway. 6.30 P.M. dinner June 23, Wednesday 10A.M. - 12 A.M. guided excursion to the Church of Sveti Naum on a hill above the lake, 30km south of Ohrid 4.30 A.M. guided excursion to the town of Struga Struga is situated on the northern part of the Lake Ohrid, on the both banks of river Crni Drim. It is believed that in the ancient times, there was a little town here called Etelion. The city was founded during the middle ages. Struga is the capital of poetry and one of the cradles of the Macedonian spiritual revival in the 19 th century, for it is the birthplace of the outstanding poets and educators, the brothers Dimitar and Konstantin Miladinov. Here, one is charmed by the source of the river Crni Drim, which flows into Lake Ohrid and runs across it, only to emerge again with its clear and greenish water, and beautify the already delightful town of Struga. This town is a famous tourist resort, and it is an eternal inspiration for poets from all over the world. 7.30 P.M. dinner 3
June 24, Thursday 8.30 A.M. departure to Bitola Bitola is the second largest city in Macedonia. It's located on 169 km from the capital Skopje and from the nearby city Prilep, is just 41 away, while from Ohrid is 66 km away. The city lies on an altitude of 600 meters above the sea level, at the foothills of the mountain Baba and it has 80,386 inhabitants, while the entire Bitola municipality counts over 100,000 people. It is the regional, economic and university center of south-western Macedonia. Today's city was founded after the arrival of the Slavs in these areas, near the ancient city of Heraklea Lynkestis. Because of the numerous churches and monasteries which existed in the city, and its surrounding, the city was named Obitel, which is the origin of the present name, Bitola. 12.30 P.M. departure to Stavros, sea resort near Thessaloniki, Greece Thessaloniki, the second largest city in Greece with a population of 1,000,000 inhabitants, is one of the oldest cities in Europe. It stretches over twelve kilometers in a bowl formed by low hills facing a bay that opens into the Gulf Thermaikos. It was founded about 315 B.C., on a site of old prehistoric settlements going back to 2300 B.C., by Cassander, King of Macedonia, and was named after his wife, Thessaloniki, sister of Alexander The Great. Since then, Thessaloniki has become the chief city of Macedonia and its most important commercial port. In Roman times it was visited by Saint Paul, who preached the new religion, and who later addressed his two well-known epistles (the oldest written documents of Christian literature) to the Christians of Thessaloniki. 6 P.M. - 8 P.M. dinner in Greek tavern with life music June 25 Friday 9 A.M. 6 P.M. guided excursion with bus and boat to Thessaloniki, and Athos. A Visit to Mount Athos (for men). Mount Athos is simply one of the most beautiful places on earth, more like a fantasy than what we know of as reality. Enormous monasteries, like castles or fortresses dot the coast and appear on the mountain slopes with every bend in the road. There are caves that still house hermits as they have for thousands of years and many simple houses or kelions that have several monks in each and a small church. There are churches with more gold than some countries have in their vaults and icons that perform miracles. There are virgin forests and animals that are found nowhere but the Holy Mountain. There are monks from every country in the Orthodox world and even some from nonorthodox countries. The seashore is perhaps the most beautiful in the Aegean, pristine and rarely used for swimming since monks don't generally go to the beach. There are incredible gardens cared for with a love of nature and of God. For spiritual seekers Athos has the appearance of heaven on earth. Boat excursion (for women). 4
June 26 Saturday 8 A.M. departure to Kavala Kavala, the prefectural capital, is one of the most attractive of Greece's largest cities rising like an amphitheatre from the beautiful harbor up to a huge Byzantine fortress. Built on the ancient city of Neopolis, the cities population doubled in 1922 when the Greeks from Asia Minor made there way here during the exchange of populations. The spacious squares, contemporary buildings, and shopping centers on the west side of the city form a pleasant contrast to the traditional old houses, tiny gardens and flagged alleyways of the eastern side. 2 P.M. 6 P.M. Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria final workshop discussions in the American University Blagoevgrad, about 100 km south of Sofia, is known for the American University in Bulgaria (AUBG), founded there in 1990 and the Bulgarian South Western University. Late evening arrival in Sofia June 27, Sunday Departure from Sofia to your destination CONFERENCE FEE The conference fee - 200 euro ACCOMMODATION FEE 2 day hotel in Sofia about 180 USD 3 day 4 star hotel in Oxrid, 2 day 3 star hotel in Stavros, breakfast, 2 dinners, bus for the whole trip, guided tours, all entrance tickets, boat trips, guide during the whole time - 400 USD (350 USD for an accompanying person) SUBMISSION INFORMATION Please submit papers not exceeding 8 pages to wgrosky@umich.edu. The final version should be a camera-ready version in digital format. More information will be sent to authors of accepted papers. The accepted papers will be published in the International Journal Information Theories and Applications, 5
SESSION CO-CHAIRS Frederic Andres National Institute of Informatics Tokyo, Japan andres@nii.ac.jp Farshad Fotouhi Wayne State University Computer Science department fotouhi@cs.wayne.edu William I. Grosky Department of Computer and Information Science University of Michigan-Dearborn Dearborn, Michigan 48128 wgrosky@umich.edu Peter Stanchev Science and Mathematics Department Kettering University Flint, Michigan 48504 pstanche@kettering.edu 6