This is the preliminary announcement for the International Conference on **************************************** * * * Ordinal and Symbolic Data Analysis * * * * OSDA 2000 * * * **************************************** to be held in Brussels, Belgium, in July 2000. Colleagues interested in participating are kindly asked to reply to this message (a one-sentence answer suffices). The first announcement, with a list of invited speakers and a call for contributed talks, will be mailed to the repliers. Please let us also know by e-mail of people to whom this preliminary should be sent. ---------------------------------------------------- HISTORY AND THEME: This conference follows five previous conferences which were as follows: * Conference on Ordinal Data Analysis, TH Darmstadt, March 1992; * Conference on Ordinal Data Analysis, University of Massachusetts (Amherst), October 1993; * Conference on Ordinal and Symbolic Data Analysis, Ecole Nationale Superieure des Telecommunications (Paris), June 1995; * Ordinal and Symbolic Data Analysis Conference, TH Darmstadt, March, 1997; * Ordinal and Symbolic Data Analysis Conference, University of Massachusetts (Amherst), September 1998. The common theme of the conferences is motivated by the fact that ordinal and symbolic data occur quite frequently, but theoretical tools for handling such data still require further development. ---------------------------------------------------- DATES: The conference is presently scheduled for Thursday July, 6 to Saturday July, 8 of the year 2000. This is just a few days before the conference in Namur, Belgium, of the International Federation of Classification Societies, which will last from Tuesday 11 to Friday 14 (notice that a one-day meeting on consensus theory will probably be organized there on Monday July 10). Also, the European Mathematical Society has its 3rd European Congress of Mathematics from July 10 to July 14 in Barcelona. ---------------------------------------------------- LOCATION: The campus of the Universite Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), not far away from the center of Brussels, in the heart of Europe. ---------------------------------------------------- LOCAL ORGANIZERS: Jean-Paul Doignon (ULB), Samuel Fiorini (ULB), Marc Pirlot (Faculte Polytechnique de Mons). The scientific committee will be communicated in the first announcement of the conference. ---------------------------------------------------- REGISTRATION FEES: They should be limited to a small amount, about $100 including a get-together party (in the evening before the conference) and a banquet. ---------------------------------------------------- IMPORTANT DATES: Preliminary announcement: July 15, 1999 First announcement: September 30, 1999 Submission of abstracts for contributed talks: December 31, 1999 Notification of acceptance: February 28, 2000 First program announcement: April 30, 2000 Registration (with payment): May 31, 2000 Final program: June 15, 2000 Conference: Thursday July, 6 to Saturday July, 8 of the year 2000 (the dates could vary slightly according to the program). ---------------------------------------------------- PROCEEDINGS: Publications of abstracts and/or refereed papers is under study, maybe along the same lines as after OSDA'98. ---------------------------------------------------- FURTHER INQUIRIES: They should be addressed by e-mail to the electronic address from which this preliminary announcement issues, that is: osda2000@ulb.ac.be If e-mail is not available, the following address may be used: OSDA 2000, J.-P. Doignon, U.L.B. c.p. 216, Bd du triomphe, 1050 Bruxelles, Belgium.