The paradigm shift from algorithms to interactive computation captures the technology shift from mainframes to networks, wireless devices, and intelligent appliances, from number-crunching to embedded systems and graphical user interfaces, and from procedure-oriented to object-based and distributed computation. The following characteristics distinguish this new, interactive notion of computation:

Computational Problem: The notion of a computational problem includes performing a task or providing a service, rather than being restricted to algorithmically producing an answer to a question.

Observable Behavior: A computing component can no longer be modeled as a functional transformation from input to output, but rather in terms of an observable behavior consisting of interaction steps. For example, interactions may be interleaved inputs and outputs, modeled by dynamic streams; later input values may depend on earlier output values and vice versa.

Environments: The world, or environment of the computation is part of the model, playing an active part in the computation by dynamically supplying the computational system, or agent, with the inputs, and consuming the output values from the system. The environment cannot be assumed to be static, or even effectively computable; for example, it may include humans, or other elements of the real world. 

Concurrency: Computation may be concurrent, where the computing agent computes in parallel with its environment, and with other agents that may be in it.

The recognition that these characteristics are inherently outside the traditional (algorithmic) conceptualization of computation is the basis for this new paradigm for computing, built around the unifying concept of interaction. The interaction paradigm provides a new conceptualization of computational phenomena, placing the emphasis on interaction rather than on internal computational steps. Concurrent, distributed, reactive, embedded, component-oriented, agent-oriented and service-oriented systems all exploit interaction as a fundamental paradigm.  Contemporary approaches to Computational Models, Artificial Intelligence, Software Engineering, Programming Languages, and Networking are all part of this paradigm change. 

Peter Wegner.s claim (CACM, May 1997) that .interaction is more powerful than algorithms. challenges our fundamental assumptions about the nature of computation and the notion of computational problems, reinterpreting the Church-Turing thesis without attacking it directly.  It is an open invitation to researchers to develop the models, tools, and methods that can lend credence to this claim. Since then, pervasive/ubiquitous computing . which epitomizes interaction . has been proposed as the leading computing paradigm for the 21^st century.

Many models capturing different aspects of interaction have been introduced, including interaction automata, process algebras, and co-algebraic approaches. We believe it is now time for researchers involved in interactive systems to join their efforts and collaborate to develop a common framework that focuses on constructive models of computation that exploit interaction as a first-class concept. Accordingly, this workshop provides an opportunity for direct interaction among researchers in this new area, with the following goals:

• To understand the fundamental issues underlying the paradigm of interactive computation;

• To establish a common language- and domain-independent framework for a theory of interactive computation;

• To identify the interactive principles of effective and reliable engineering of software systems;

• To map out the design space of models of interaction, towards accomplishing the above goals.

ETAPS is the proper event for hosting the FInCo workshop, since interaction is a pervasive aspect of today.s software applications. Our goal of bridging the theory and practice of interactive computation should attract participants from a variety of fields, representing research interests of most of the main ETAPS conferences.

Dina Goldin Computer Science Brown University Box 1910 Providence, RI 02912, USA   Email: dqg_AT_cs.brown.edu URL: http://www.cs.brown.edu/people/dqg

Farhad Arbab CWI and Leiden University Kruislaan 413 1098 SJ Amsterdam, The Netherlands Email: farhad AT cwi.nl URL: http://www.cwi.nl/~farhad

Prof. Dr. Manfred Broy Technische Universität München    Institut für Informatik Boltzmannstr. 3 85748 Garching, Deutschland Email: broy_AT_in.tum.de URL: http://www4.in.tum.de/~broy	Dina Goldin Computer Science Brown University Box 1910 Providence, RI 02912, USA   Email: dqg_AT_cs.brown.edu URL: http://www.cs.brown.edu/people/dqg
Mirko Viroli DEIS Università degli Studi di Bologna via Venezia 52 47023 Cesena, Italy   Email: mviroli_AT_deis.unibo.it URL: http://www.ingce.unibo.it/~mviroli	Peter Wegner Computer Science Brown University Box 1910 Providence, RI 02912, USA   Email: pw_AT_cs.brown.edu URL: http://www.ingce.unibo.it/~mvirolics.brown.edu/people/pw

Program Committee (incomplete)

Gul Agha, UIUC, USA
Luca de Alfaro, UC Santa Cruz, USA
Luis Barbosa, Universidade do Minho, Portugal
Antonio Brogi, Università di Pisa, Italy
Jon Doyle, North Carolina State University, USA
Giorgio Delzanno, Università di Genova, Italy
José Luiz Fiadeiro, University of Leicester, UK
Rob van Glabbeek, National ICT, Australia
Kees van Hee, Technische Universiteit Eindhoven, The Netherlands
Orna Kupferman, Hebrew University, Israel
R. Prescott Loui, Washington U. in St. Louis, USA
Peter McBurney, University of Liverpool, UK
John-Jules Meyer, Utrecht U., the Netherlands
Ugo Montanari, Università di Pisa, Italy
Rocco De Nicola, Università degli Studi di Firenze, Italy
Andrea Omicini, Università di Bologna - Cesena, Italy
Catuscia Palamidessi, INRIA and LIX École Polytechnique, France
Jean-Eric Pin, Université Paris Denis Diderot and CNRS, France
Vladimiro Sassone, University of Southampton, UK
Douglas C. Schmidt, Vanderbilt University, USA
Carolyn Talcott, SRI International, USA
Bernhard Thalheim, Kiel University, Germany

Event-driven Design in Practice and Theory
Bertrand Meyer, ETH Zurich and Eiffel Software

The event-driven style of design, where operations occur not as a result of a preset scenario but in reaction to occurrences beyond the control of the program, is growing ever more important in areas ranging from GUI design and Web services to general concurrent programming. This talks describes a library for event-driven design, its applications to a variety of problems, and a theoretical framework for discussing the event-driven mode of computation.

09:00 - 09:15	WELCOME Farhad Arbab (CWI and Leiden University, Netherlands)
09:15 - 10:30	INVITED TALK Event-driven Design in Practice and Theory Bertrand Meyer, ETH Zurich and Eiffel Software
10:30 - 11:00	BREAK
11:00 - 12:20	SESSION 1: specification and analysis of interactive agents
11:00 - 11:40	A Formal Framework for Interactive Agents Carolyn L. Talcott (SRI International, USA)
11:40 - 12:20	Observable Behavior of Dynamic Systems: Component-Based Reasoning for Concurrent Objects Johan Dovland, Einar Broch Johnsen, and Olaf Owe (Univ. Oslo, Norway)
12:30 - 14:00	LUNCH                  included in the workshop registration fee
14:00 - 16:00	SESSION 2: modeling interaction
14:00 - 14:40	Interaction in Time and Space         Gabriel Ciobanu (A.I.Cusa Univ., Romania)
14:40 - 15:20	Validating for Liveness in Hidden Adversary Systems Saikat Mukherjee, Srinath Srinivasa, and SatishChandra D. (IIIT Bangalore, India)
15:20 - 16:00	AGAPIA v0.1: A Programming Language for Interactive Systems and its Typing System Cezara Drặgoi and Gheorghe Ştefặnescu (Univ. Bucharest, Romania)
16:00 - 16:30	BREAK
16:30 - 17:10	SESSION 3: programming languages for interactive computing
16:30 - 17:10	Programming Languages for Interactive Computing Roly Perera (Dynamic Aspects, United Kingdom)
17:15 - 18:15	PANEL DISCUSSION Models and Languages for Interactive Systems all speakers
18:15 - 18:30	CLOSING Dina Goldin (Brown University, USA)
	DINNER joint workshops post-conference dinner, tickets (45 Euros) must be purchased in advance

• paper submission: Jan. 31, 2007

• notification of acceptance: Feb. 28, 2007

• workshop: Mar. 31, 2007

• Call for Papers (1 page PDF)

• Call for Papers (ASCII)

• The home page of FInCo 2005

Maintained by Dina Goldin finco07_AT_cs.brown.edu