== Call for Workshop Proposals == = Workshops at the Fifth AAAI International Conference on Weblogs and Social Media = == July 17-21, 2011 in Barcelona, Spain == === Sponsored by the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence === == Important Dates for Workshop Organizers == * January 7, 2011: Workshop Proposal Submission * January 18, 2011: Workshop Acceptance * March 22, 2011: Workshop Paper Submission * April 8, 2011: Workshop Paper Acceptance Notification * July 21, 2011: ICWSM-11 Workshops Day The ICWSM-11 Committee invites proposals for Workshops Day at the Fifth International AAAI Conference on Weblogs and Social Media (ICWSM-11). The Workshops Day will be held at the end of the conference on July 21, 2011 in Barcelona, Spain. Workshop participants will have the opportunity to meet and discuss issues with a selected focus - providing an informal setting for active exchange among researchers, developers and users on topics of current interest. ICWSM-11 is being co-located with IJCAI-11, and we plan to have a special conference rate for IJCAI registrants. Members of all segments of the social media research community are encouraged to submit proposals. To foster interaction and exchange of ideas, the workshops will be kept small, with 25-50 participants. Attendance is limited to active participants only. The format of workshops will be determined by their organizers, who are encouraged to avoid a mini-conference format that is dominated by long talks and short discussions. Instead, the organizers should leave ample time for discussions and interaction between the participants, and should encourage the submission and presentation of position papers that discuss new research ideas. Workshops will typically be a half-day in length, although full-day proposals will be considered. == Proposal Content == Proposals for workshops should be about two (2) pages in length, and should contain the following: * A description of the workshop topic. Identify the specific issues and research questions on which the workshop will focus. * A brief discussion of why the topic is of particular interest at this time. * A list of related workshops held previously at related conferences and a brief statement on how the proposed workshop differs from the previous workshops or how it follows-up on the work presented at previous workshops. * A brief description of the proposed workshop format, regarding the mix of events such as paper presentations, invited talks, panels, and general discussion. * An indication as to whether the workshop should be considered for a half-day or full-day meeting. * The names and full contact information (email and postal addresses, fax and phone numbers) of the organizing committee - three or four people knowledgeable in the field - and short descriptions of their relevant expertise. (Please specify main contact.) Strong proposals include organizers who bring differing perspectives to the workshop topic and who are actively connected to the communities of potential participants. * A list of potential attendees. Workshops are an excellent forum for exploring emerging approaches and task areas, for bridging the gaps between the social science and technology fields or between subfields of social media research, for elucidating the results of exploratory research, or for critiquing existing approaches. Because workshops are intended for focused exploration of special topics, topics that are already the subject of regular meetings are not appropriate. == Workshop Organization == Workshop organizers will be responsible for the following: * Producing a call for submissions/participation. The call for papers is due January 25, 2011; due to the short turnaround time, you should create a draft in tandem with your proposal. This call will be posted on the ICWSM-11 site within 3-4 days. Organizers are responsible for additional publicity such as distributing the call to relevant newsgroups and electronic mailing lists, and especially to potential audiences from outside the ICWSM community. Organizers are encouraged to maintain their own web site with updated information about the workshop. * Selecting participants. Workshop attendance is by invitation of the organizers. Selection of attendees will be made by the organizers on the basis of submissions due March 22, 2011. Workshop organizers will need to provide ICWSM-11 with a preliminary list of the participants on April 8, 2011. * Coordinating the production of the workshop papers and abstracts. AAAI coordinates the collection, production, and distribution of the technical reports or working notes for the workshops. Workshop papers and abstracts must be received by AAAI no later than April 22, 2011, and volumes are limited to a total of 200 pages. Workshop organizers who want to publish the papers from their workshop (or significant portions of it) will have the opportunity to do so through the AAAI Press. The Press (which retains the right of first refusal to publish) will furnish details of its program to interested organizers and authors. ICWSM will provide logistical support, and meeting places for the workshops, and will determine the dates and times of the workshops. ICWSM reserves the right to drop any workshop if the organizers miss the above deadlines. Workshops are not to be used as a vehicle for marketing products. A reduced workshop registration fee will be offered to ICWSM-11 technical program registrants. == Submission Deadline == Proposals must be received by January 7, 2011. Decisions about the Workshops Day program will be made by January 18, 2011. Submissions must be in PDF format and can be made via the EasyChair conference system at: http://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=icwsm2011workshops http://bit.ly/icwsm-w == Workshops Co-Chair == John Breslin College of Engineering and Informatics / DERI NUI Galway, University Road, Galway, Ireland +353 91 492622 john.breslin@nuigalway.ie @johnbreslin == Conference Information == http://www.icwsm.org/ icwsm11@aaai.org @icwsm