mack (02/24/83)
This newsgroup is for the discussion of artificial intelligence issues
in a Canadian context. You may well ask why are AI issues in a Canadian
context different from said issues in a U.S. or North American context.
You may well argue that science should have no national context at all.
And I might agree. But science and science policy *do* have a national
context.
Most countries in the developed world now have information technology
strategies (e.g. Japan, U.K., France, West Germany, U.S.,Sweden,..)
Canada does not. Computer scientists need to point this out to the
government and its decision-makers not in the narrow "Send more money" sense
but with the emphasis on the role that our profession must play in the new
economy. AI is one of the information sciences/technologies.
The Science Council has recently been emphasising the need for planning
for the new environment. As part of that activity the Science Council organised
a Workshop in Ottawa, January 19-21. Ray Reiter and I threw together a set
of notes on the role of AI and typed them up. The representatives of
the AI community at the workshop seemed to think that the notes would
serve as the starting point for discussion. Nick Cercone, the President
of the CSCSI asked me to make them available over Usenet so I'll submit
them as a (long) news article to this newsgroup.
The executive would like lots of honest feedback on these notes.
I'd like to emphasize that although we feel AI is important and has been
somewhat overshadowed in Canada we see it as an integral component of
the discipline of Computer Science. The main problem is to educate
the science policy planners and other scientists about the nature and
role of computer science. I'd also like to see lots of discussion
in this newsgroup of technical AI issues and sharing of ideas and software.
This medium might help to foster much more communication and joint efforts
across Canada.