Many current research efforts have focused on building cooperat ive systems that interact with the{r users in a natural language such as English. To be effective, these systems must be robust, their dialog must be coherent, and their responses must be helpful to the user. A user m o d e l (UM), which can be modified during the interaction to represent updated beliefs about the current user, is ...

BACKGROUND Improved sanitation has been shown to have great impacts on people's health and economy. However, the progress of achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on halving the proportion of people without access to clean water and basic sanitation by 2015 has thus far been delayed. One of the reasons for the slow progress is that policy makers, as well as the general public, have ...

The Fourth International Social Security Association (ISSA) Meeting of Directors of Social Security Organizations in Asia and Pacific was held in Seoul from 9 to 11 November 2005 and was organized in cooperation with the National Health Insurance Corporation of the Republic of Korea. The Meeting was attended by 131 participants from 29 countries. Also at the Meeting were representatives from th...

Forum Participants Richard Allan, MP, Secretary, UK Parliament e-Democracy Group Joanne Caddy, Directorate for Public Governance and Territorial Development, OECD Stephen Coleman, Oxford Internet Institute, UK Pierre de la Coste, author of L’Hyper-République, Paris Chrisoph Dowe, Politik Digital, Germany William Dutton, Oxford Internet Institute, UK Paul Herrnson, University of Maryland, Colleg...