Call for Workshop Proposals

The IJCAI-2003 Program Committee invites proposals for the Workshop Program, to be held August 9-11, 2003, immediately prior to the technical conference. IJCAI-2003 workshops will provide an informal setting where workshop participants will have the opportunity to discuss specific technical topics in an atmosphere that fosters the active exchange of ideas. Members from all segments of the AI community are invited to submit workshop proposals for review. Workshops at the boundaries between sub-areas of AI are particularly encouraged. To encourage interaction and a broad exchange of ideas, each workshop will be limited to 40 participants and ample time will be allotted for general discussion. Attendance is limited to active participants only.

Workshops can vary in length, but most will last a full day. Workshop attendees must register for the main IJCAI conference, and will also pay an additional workshop fee.

Important Dates for Workshops

Proposals for workshops should be between two and three pages in length, and should contain the following information:

• A brief technical description of the workshop, specifying the workshop goals and the technical issues that will be its focus.
• A brief discussion of why and to whom the workshop is of interest.
• A preliminary workshop agenda and a proposed schedule for organizing the workshop. This should include a brief description of how the organizers intend to encourage an atmosphere appropriate for a workshop.
• If available, a list of tentatively confirmed attendees.
• A list of related workshops held within the last three years, if any,and their relation to the proposed workshop.
• The names, postal addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses (if available) of the proposed workshop organizing committee. This committee should consist of three or four people knowledgeable about the technical issues to be addressed. These people cannot all work at the same institution.
• The name of the primary contact for the organizing committee; this person must have an email address.
• A description of the qualifications of the individual committee members with respect to organizing an IJCAI workshop, including a list of workshops previously arranged by any members of the proposed organizing committee, if any.

Proposers are encouraged to send their draft proposal to potential participants for comments before submission. All proposals should be submitted by electronic mail, to the Workshop Chair, Mary-Anne Williams, at workshops03@ijcai.org, in plain ASCII text, as soon as possible but no later than October 1, 2002. Prospective organizers will be notified of the committee's decision no later than November 3, 2002.

Each workshop organizing committee will be responsible for producing a Call for Participation for their workshop by November 15, 2002. The call must make it clear that the workshop is open to all members of the AI community. It should also note that all workshop participants must register for the IJCAI conference and that the number of participants is strictly limited. Finally, it should also make clear the process by which the Organizing Committee will select the participants. By May 23, 2003, workshop organizing committees must provide any working notes to be duplicated for the workshops (up to a maximum of 200 pages), and a list of audio-visual requirements and any special room requirements. IJCAI will be responsible for the following:

• Providing publicity for the workshop series as a whole.
• Providing logistics support and a meeting place for the workshop.
• In conjunction with the organizers, determining the workshop date and time.
• Duplicating working notes as described above and distributing them to the participants.

IJCAI encourages the production of publications based on the workshops, but the IJCAI name cannot be used on such publications without prior permission. IJCAI reserves the right to cancel any workshop if deadlines are missed or if too few attendees register for the workshop to support the costs of running the workshop. To cover costs, it will be necessary to charge workshop participants a workshop fee in addition to the normal IJCAI-03 conference registration fee.

Please send proposals and inquiries to:

Mary-Anne Williams
Faculty of Information Technology
University of Technology Sydney
PO Box123 Broadway NSW 2007, Australia
Telephone: +61-2-95144503
Fax: +61-2-95141807
WWW: http://beliefrevision.org/maryanne
workshops03@ijcai.org