For 50 years the natural language interface has tempted and challenged researchers and the public in equal measure. As advanced domains such as robotic systems mature over the next ten years, the need for effective language interfaces will become more significant as the disparity between physical and language ability becomes more evident. Natural language conversation with robots and other situated systems will not only require a clear understanding of theories of language use, models of spatial representation and reasoning, and theories of intentional action and agency - but will also require that all of these models be made accessible within tractable dialogue processing frameworks. While such issues pose research questions which are significant, particularly when we consider them in the light of the many other challenges in language processing and spatial theory, the benefits of competence in situated dialogue to the fields of robotics, geographic information systems, game design, and applied artificial intelligence cannot be underestimated. This book examines the burgeoning field of Situated Dialogue Systems and describes for the first time a complete computational model of situated dialogue competence for practical dialogue systems. The book can be broadly broken down into two parts. The first three chapters examine on one hand the issues which complicate the computational modelling of situated dialogue, i.e., issues of agency and spatial language competence, and on the other hand examines theories of dialogue modelling and management with respect to the needs of the situated domain. The second part of the book then details a situated dialogue processing architecture. Novel features of this architecture include the modular integration of an intentionality model alongside an exchange-structure based organization of discourse, plus the use of a functional contextualization process that operates over both implicit and explicit content in user contributions. The architecture is described at a course level, but in sufficient detail for others to use as a starting point in their own explorations of situated language intelligence.

The photographers of the New York City Police Department are engaged in taking photos at the many demonstrations against the Vietnam War. They encounter a group named the Weathermen. This group is determined to end the war by acts of violence. The photo unit has taken pictures of their work, which consists of explosions at colleges and federal buildings. The weathermen decide to get the police department involved in their bombings. Can they be stopped? It will be decided by a member of the photo unit.

"A brilliant and beautiful book, the mature work of a lifetime, must reading for students of the globalization debate."
---Tom Hayden
""Slaves to Fashion" is a remarkable achievement, several books in one: a gripping history of sweatshops, explaining their decline, fall, and return; a study of how the media portray them; an analysis of the fortunes of the current anti-sweatshop movement; an anatomy of the global traffic in apparel, in particular the South-South competition that sends wages and working conditions plummeting toward the bottom; and not least, a passionate declaration of faith that humanity can find a way to get its work done without sweatshops. This is engaged sociology at its most stimulating."
---Todd Gitlin
." . . unflinchingly portrays the reemergence of the sweatshop in our dog-eat-dog economy."
---"Los Angeles Times"

Just as Barbara Ehrenreich's "Nickel and Dimed" uncovered the plight of the working poor in America, Robert J. S. Ross's "Slaves to Fashion" exposes the dark side of the apparel industry and its exploited workers at home and abroad. It's both a lesson in American business history and a warning about one of the most important issues facing the global capital economy-the reappearance of the sweatshop.
Vividly detailing the decline and tragic rebirth of sweatshop conditions in the American apparel industry of the twentieth century, Ross explains the new sweatshops as a product of unregulated global capitalism and associated deregulation, union erosion, and exploitation of undocumented workers. Using historical material and economic and social data, the author shows that after a brief thirty-five years of fair practices, the U.S. apparel business has once again sunk to shameful abuse and exploitation.
Refreshingly jargon-free but documented in depth, "Slaves to Fashion" is the only work to estimate the size of the sweatshop problem and to systematically show its impact on apparel workers' wages. It is also unique in its analysis of the budgets and personnel used in enforcing the Fair Labor Standards Act.
Anyone who is concerned about this urgent social and economic topic and wants to go beyond the headlines should read this important and timely contribution to the rising debate on low-wage factory labor. Robert J.S. Ross is Professor of Sociology, Clark University. He is an expert in the area of sweatshops and globalization. He is an activist academic who travels and lectures extensively and has published numerous related articles.