Introduction

This document contains reports on three panels about important issues for Answer Set Programming (ASP), namely

• on ``Extensions of the Language of Logic Programming,'';
• on ``Methodology of Answer Set Programming''; and
• on ``Potential Areas for the Use of ASP''.

In each of the panels members from WASP actively participated, either as panelists and/or organizers. The first two panels have been held at the

• 7th International Conference on Logic Programming and Non-Monotonic Reasoning (LPNMR-7) in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, January 6-8, 2004.

The third panel took place at the

• 9th European Conference on Logics in Artificial Intelligence (JELIA'04), held in Lisbon, Portugal, September 27-30, 2004.

The two panels at LPNMR-7 can be seen as supplement of the panel report on potential use areas of ASP, which has been postponed in the project plan to the end of the second project year. The issues discussed in these two panels, however, are also of importance for assessing potential use areas of ASP, which in turn have an influence on ASP development. The panels gave WASP Members the opportunity to exchange views and opinions about these issues among each other and with world-wide experts in the field of non-monotonic logic programming outside Europe. In particular, most of the panelists were from the United States, and their views and opinions provide valuable input for the WASP activities.

Finally, the proposed panel on ``Potential Areas for the Use of ASP'' was held at the JELIA'04 conference. Having a WASP steering-committee meeting at JELIA as well, many WASP members attended this panel (either as panelists or in the audience) but also numerous other JELIA participants showed up at this panel, resulting in an audience of about 50 people. Therefore, this panel as well could successfully bring together ASP-experts and experts from other fields of AI in order to discuss application areas for ASP and in which ways the ASP-community should develop.

In what follows, the three panels are described in detail.