Preliminary Call for Papers Fourth IFIP International conference on Formal Methods for Open Object-based Distributed Systems FMOODS'2000 Stanford California, USA, 4th-6th September, 2000 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Objectives Object-based Distributed Computing is being established as the most pertinent basis for the support of large, heterogeneous computing and telecommunications systems. Indeed, several important international organisations, such as ITU, ISO, OMG, TINA-C, etc. are defining similar distributed object-based frameworks as a foundation for open distributed computing. The advent of Open Object-based Distributed Systems - OODS - brings new challenges and opportunities for the use and development of formal methods. New architectures and system models are emerging (e.g., the enterprise, information, computational and engineering viewpoints of the ITU-T/ISO/IEC ODP Reference Model) which require formal notational support. Usual design issues such as specification, verification, refinement, and testing need to take into account new dimensions introduced by distribution and openness, such as quality of service and dependability constraints, dynamic binding and reconfiguration, consistency between multiple models and viewpoints, etc. OODS is a challenging research context and a source of motivation for semantical models of object-based systems and notations, for the evolution of standardised formal description techniques, for the application and assessment of logic based approaches, for better understanding and information modeling of business requirements, and for the further development and use of Object Oriented methodologies and tools. The objective of FMOODS is to provide an integrated forum for the presentation of research in several related fields, and the exchange of ideas and experiences in the topics concerned with the formal methods support for Open Object-based Distributed Systems. Topics Topics of interest include but are not limited to: * formal models for object-based distributed computing * semantics of object-based distributed systems and programming languages * formal techniques in object-based and object-oriented specification, analysis and design * refinement and transformation of specifications * types, service types and subtyping * interoperability and composability of distributed services * object-based coordination languages * object-based mobile languages * efficient analysis techniques of specifications * multiple viewpoint modelling and consistency between different models * formal techniques in distributed systems verification and testing * specification, verification and testing of quality of service constraints * formal methods and object life cycle * beyond IDL: semantics based specification patterns * formal models for measuring the quality of object-oriented requirement or design specifications * formal aspects of distributed real-time multimedia systems * applications to telecommunications and related areas Sponsors - IFIP Conference Organizers Carolyn Talcott, General Chair Stanford University clt@cs.stanford.edu Sriram Sankar Metamata Inc. sriram.sankar@metamata.com Scott Smith (Pc co-chair) Johns Hopkins University scott@cs.jhu.edu Nalini Venkatasubramanian University of California, Irvine nalini@ics.uci.edu Evaluation and Publication of Submitted Papers Submitted manuscripts will be evaluated and selected for presentation in the conference. The proceedings of FMOODS 2000 will be published by Kluwer who are the publishers of IFIP events. The proceedings will be made available at the conference. Instructions to the Authors Authors are invited to submit full original research papers, up to 16 pages (including bibliography), 12 point, single spaced, including an informative abstract, names and affiliations of all authors, and a list of keywords facilitating the assignment of papers to referees. Important Dates 1st March 2000 Submission deadline 30th April 2000 Notification of acceptance 23rd May 2000 Camera ready copy for participants proceedings due Submission Procedure Information: to appear