Dear Logic Programmers,

Welcome to the August 2005 issue of the ALP Newsletter. I hope many of you are enjoying a well-deserved summer break.

We are about a couple of months away from ICLP 2005 in Sitges; Maurizio and Gopal have assembled a top-notch program and I hope that the response in terms of participants to the conference will be as outstanding. I am looking forward meeting you in this beautiful Spanish town.

I feel the need to make a little remark regarding the choice of locations for the ICLP events. In recent times, ICLP has taken place in really beautiful locations (e.g., Sitges, Saint Malo); although I appreciate the beauty of these places, the truth is that traveling to and lodging in such locations is expensive.  If one of the goals of the ALP is to increase participation to logic programing activities (and ICLP is the leading event), then we should facilitate attendance instead of making it prohibitively expensive. As my personal experience, for the last two years I have tried to bring doctoral students with me to ICLP, but I had to give up, given the excessive cost. In this sense, I am happy to see ICLP 2006 taking place in Seattle (big city, easy to reach, plenty of alternative accomodations). I hope this type of considerations will be kept into account when selecting future sites for ICLP. In order to promote the growth of the logic programming field, it is of the utmost importance to encourage and facilitate participation of students, and attendance to conferences is a great way to stimulate students. Just to mention another personal anedocte, last year PADL took place in Dallas -- the ability to find cheap flights and accommodations allowed me to take 5 doctoral students to this conference (which featured a large number of student participants, thanks also to the co-located summer school). The experience was terrific and the students gained so much from this. Let's make this type of events more frequent!

Regarding the ALP newsletter, I am glad to see the dissertation section continuing; please encourage your students to send me information about their work (even if they have not completed their work yet).
We also have some news regarding the Area Editors for the ALP Newsletter. After a dedicated and excellent service to the Newsletter, Amy Felty is leaving her post as the Theorem Proving area editor; the new Theorem Proving area editor is Brigitte Pientka from McGill University. On behalf of the whole ALP community, I would like to extend a big 'THANK YOU' to Amy for her outstanding job, and extend a warm 'WELCOME' to Brigitte.

To bring this one to closure, I would like once again to welcome your comments/critics/suggestions/... on how you would like to see the ALP Newsletter evolve in the near and not-so-near future.

           ‘till the next one.

                                   Enrico