(Note to authors: Please check the WWW2010 Blog for late breaking news updates.)

WWW2010, the premier international conference on Web research, calls for outstanding submissions along the following tracks:

  • Original and creative research papers, theoretical and/or practical
  • “Application and experience” papers involving novel, large, deployed systems
  • Tutorial proposals on any topic of interest to the community
  • Workshop proposals on any topic that is strongly related to WWW, but too nascent to cover thoroughly in the main conference
  • Demonstrations of potentially high-impact, innovative systems

All paper, demo, tutorial and poster submissions can be made via the following site:

https://cmt.research.microsoft.com/WWW2010

Please note: Upon submission the CMT is not configured to send an ack email by default. You can always download your paper to verify the submission procedure succeeded. Please do not email submissions to the conference chairs.

Authors must create a record for their paper within October 26,  09:00PM PDT and submit the abstract (but not necessarily the full paper in PDF format). The abstract should be at most 2000 characters long, describe the problem being solved and the approaches used in a few sentences, so as to facilitate assignment of the full paper to reviewers. Authors will not be able to submit a full paper if they do not have an abstract in the system within the deadline. Choose one primary and up to 5 secondary topics. Use the drop down menu to select topics. Be inclusive rather than exclusive, so that a larger section of reviewers can view your submission and bid if they feel like.

There is no need to submit an abstract for poster submissions before the October 26 deadline.

Important Dates

All submission deadlines are at 9:00pm PDT (or PST after November 1).

..2009/10/10 .. Workshop proposals due
..2009/10/26 .. Abstracts for papers and demos due
..2009/11/02 .. Papers and demos due
..2009/11/15 .. Tutorial proposals due
..2009/12/11 .. Panel proposals due
..2010/01/21 .. Paper notifications out
..2010/01/26 .. Poster submissions due
..2010/02/11 .. Camera ready papers due
..2010/02/18 .. Poster author notifications out
..2010/02/22 .. Camera ready posters due
..2010/02/26 .. Developers Track papers due
..2010/04/26 .. Conference begins

Areas and Topics of Interest

This year, papers will not be partitioned into tracks at the time of submission. The program committee is not partitioned into tracks either. Instead, we have areas, and, within areas, more specific topics. Papers will be assigned to reviewers based on topics indicated by the authors at submission time. Authors may select topics from multiple areas as well as topics that cross area boundaries. A submission may belong to one or perhaps a few of the following areas and associated topics (see the list of topics for a more detailed description):

Search

  • Web indexing, searching, query processing, scoring, ranking, query log analysis.

Data Mining and Machine Learning

  • Deriving actionable insight from Web information sources: query logs, Web graph, social networks, click trails, text documents, etc.

Bridging Structured and Unstructured Data

  • Information extraction and integration, and next-generation searching and querying techniques that exploits these.

Social Networks

  • Models, algorithms, systems and issues around social networks and collaborative environments.

Semantic Web

  • Metadata representation and standards, ontologies, reasoning and logic, agents.

Security and Privacy

  • Theory and practice of data and system security, privacy, anonymization and cloaking, information contract codification, protocols.

Internet Monetization

  • Markets, auctions, games, pricing, advertising, and other Web-specific economic activities.

Software Architecture and Infrastructure

  • Processes, principles, methods, models, and architectures supporting the design and development of Web applications.

Performance, Scalability and Availability

  • System engineering issues for traditional and emerging Web applications.

Networking and Mobility

  • Communication protocols, robustness, security, mobile applications, content distribution.

Users Interfaces and Rich Interaction

  • Designing, streamlining and evaluating the interaction boundaries between users and the system, studies in cognitive load and its mitigation, multiparty interaction.

Rich Media

  • Web-scale management of rich media such as video, images, audio, and music; interactive media and collaboration.

Web Services and Service-Oriented Computing

  • Models, methodologies and tools for analyzing, designing,  composing, publishing and discovering Web services.

See the list of topics for a more detailed description.

Submission Tracks

Orthogonal to areas and topics, papers and proposals will be processed into the following tracks:

Research Papers

This is the regular outlet for cutting-edge conceptual research results.

Posters

The poster track will continue the established tradition of providing an interaction opportunity for researchers and practitioners to present and demonstrate their new and innovative work-in-progress and to obtain feedback from their peers in an informal setting. It gives conference attendees a forum where they can learn about novel on-going research projects that might not yet be complete, but whose preliminary results are already interesting. It also provides poster presenters with an excellent opportunity to receive invaluable feedback from knowledgeable sources.

The submission details for posters are the same as for the main refereed papers track, except that the page limit is 2 pages (no extra pages can be purchased) and no revisions can be made to accepted posters. No XHTML version of accepted posters is required.

Posters will be peer-reviewed by members of the Posters Committee based on originality, significance, quality, and clarity. Poster authors are not required to transfer copyright. Accepted poster papers will be allocated 2 pages in the conference proceedings. In addition to the 2-page submission, accepted poster authors will be asked to generate a full-size poster and possible demonstration to be displayed in a dedicated poster area and presented during a poster session at the conference. To encourage high-quality submissions, awards will be presented to the Best Poster and the Best Student Poster. Inquiries can be sent to the poster track chairs.

Application and Experience (A+E) Papers

Some submitted papers will be marked by the authors as describing innovative (academic or commercial) implementations of Web systems, novel applications of Web technology, and experience in applying recent research advances to practical situations. The emphasis is innovative and visionary approaches to  systems architecture, and non-obvious lessons learnt in the process. Research papers and application and experience (A+E) papers are reviewed by the same committee. Authors are asked to flag their papers as “A+E” if appropriate.

Demo Papers

These short papers must be accompanied by an implemented and thoroughly tested system that will be demonstrated during the demo sessions and possibly reception hours at the conference. The systems must pursue one or more innovative ideas in data analysis, algorithms, system architecture, user interaction, etc. In addition, some A+E submissions may be accepted as demos.

Workshop Proposals

Half- and full-day workshops provide smaller and more informal fora to focus on sub-areas of WWW that are too nascent, or, as of now, somewhat peripheral to WWW. We invite leading researchers to propose workshops with a clear charter that promise to become mainstream in WWW in several years.

Tutorial Proposals

Half- and full-day tutorials from leading researchers and system builders form a core part of the WWW program, valuable to researchers and developers seeking to pick up new skills or the latest developments in an area.

Panel Proposals

Authors who intend to submit a Panel proposal should follow carefully review the following panel guidelines.

Developers Track

The Developers Track focuses on the general WWW development community. Participants are invited to present new trends and interesting ideas, code and APIs of applications, platforms and emerging standards. Demonstrations of technical “nitty-gritty” are strongly encouraged. Focus areas include, but are not limited to, Browsers and Plugins, Web Metrics, Health, Science and Education, Web Social Impact, Information Integration and Mash-ups, Web Software and Tools, Information Mining and Reporting, Mobile Web, Monetization, Multimedia, Scalable System and Cloud Computing, Search, Security, Semantic Web, Social Network, Standards and Protocols, User Interface, Open Source (FLOSS) Development for the Web.

This track is an ideal venue for short reports of both industry and academic technical works.

This year, the proceedings of the Developers Track will be published online; the authors of the accepted works will have the option to publish a 3-page report.

Paper and Demo Guidelines

Formatting and Submission Process

Research papers must adhere to the conference’s duplicate submission policies, must be formatted according to the conference’s camera-ready format, and are limited to 10 pages. It is the authors’ responsibility to ensure that their submissions adhere strictly to the required format. In particular,  the format cannot be modified with the objective of squeezing in more material. Submissions that do not comply with the formatting guidelines detailed here will be rejected without review. There are separate abstract and full paper submission deadlines (see above) and authors must upload PDF files to the conference submission management Web site.

Demo papers should be focused on new Web technology, advances in applying Web technology, or innovative use of Web-based techniques. Demo papers must be submitted in camera-ready format and are limited to 4 pages. They should describe the demonstrated system, indicate what is going to be demonstrated, and state the significance of the contribution to the Web technology or applications. Proposals must not be published or under consideration for publication elsewhere.

See Sheridan Printing for details.

Review Process

WWW 2010 submissions will be not processed in disjoint tracks as in earlier years. Instead, to better accommodate the highly interdisciplinary nature of Web research, the review process has been redesigned to recognize that many papers cannot be neatly partitioned into exclusive tracks with disjoint sets of committee members. A number of fine-grained topics have been defined, with a coarser set of areas containing topics. Areas may have some overlap in terms of topics. Each submitted paper needs to be marked with at least one and up to four topics. Furthermore, WWW 2010 has a unified pool of PC members. Each PC member will indicate the set of topics of expertise. The program and area chairs will use these inputs to assign papers to reviewers.

Each paper will be reviewed by at least three members of the Program Committee, and one or two area chairs may write brief summaries or recommendations depending on the difficulty of the decision. The areas are not partitioned; in principle, a paper may be reviewed by any suitable reviewer in the committee. Submissions will be evaluated on creativity of the proposed problem, originality of the solution, technical depth, impact to the community, and quality of presentation.

Preparation and Submission of Camera-ready Copies

Authors of accepted papers will be contacted by the Proceedings Editor, who will provide the authors with the information necessary to prepare and upload the camera-ready copies of their papers and submit the accompanying copyright transfer form. There is a firm deadline for submission of camera-ready copies (see above). It is the authors’ responsibility to ensure that their camera-ready copies adhere strictly to the formatting instructions and are submitted by the deadline. Failure to comply with the instructions may result in the paper not being included in the proceedings. Should the Proceedings Editor have any problems with a submitted camera-ready copy, e.g., missing fonts or the like, he will do his best to contact the responsible author as soon as possible.

Research papers accepted as posters will need to be shortened to 4 pages in the camera-ready version. Some A+E submissions may also be accepted as demos; these will also need to be shortened to 4 pages. Both Poster and Demonstration papers will appear in the proceedings.

Attendance Requirement

Submission to the conference constitutes an agreement that at least one author of each accepted paper or proposal will attend the conference and present the work in the accepted format. In case of a change in status (full paper to poster, or A+E paper to demo) the authors may decline to participate immediately after notification of results.

Guidelines for Tutorials and Workshops

Tutorials

Tutorial proposals must clearly identify the intended audience and its assumed background.  Proposals must be no more than 5 pages and must provide a sense of both the scope of the tutorial and depth within the scope. The intended length of the tutorial (1.5, 3 or 6 hours) should also be indicated, together with justification that a high-quality presentation will be achieved within the chosen time period and the indication of the main learning outcomes. Proposals should also include contact information (name, email, address, telephone number, and FAX number) and a brief bio of the presenters. If the proposed tutorial has been given previously, the proposal should include where the tutorial has been given and how it will be modified for WWW 2010. Tutorial presentations will be published electronically and made available to WWW participants.

Workshops

As in previous years, WWW 2010 will feature a number of co-located workshops. The series of workshops at WWW2009 are intended to provide a forum for researchers and practitioners in Web technologies to discuss and exchange positions on current and emerging Web topics. Workshop attendants will exchange ideas and experiences, establish common ground in research areas or practical problems, and hopefully identify new opportunities for collaboration and new directions for future activity. Preference will be given to timely topics that will favor highly interactive discussions.

A workshop proposal should be no more than 5 pages and must include:

  • A concise title.
  • The names and affiliations of the organizers, a typical workshop should count no more than 3 co-chairs affiliated with different organizations.
  • Proposed duration of the workshop (half or full day).
  • A two-paragraph description of the workshop topic and themes.
  • A statement of the workshop’s objective/goals.
  • A description of the workshop format – how many papers do you hope to present, how many invited speakers, etc.
    • type of activities (e.g., short paper presentation, invited talks, demos, posters, etc.)
    • approximate timeline (breaks should be synchronized with scheduled breaks if possible)
  • A statement detailing:
    • Why is the workshop topic is important?
    • Why is the workshop timely?
    • How is it relevant to WWW?
  • If the workshop was conducted before, where was it conducted?
    • Please give details on number of attendees, number of submissions and acceptance ratio.
  • An indication on whether the workshop registration will be open to all interested registered parties or limited
  • When relevant, a description of how workshop submissions will be evaluated, and a tentative PC list (with indication of whether PC members have already been contacted and/or have expressed interest)
  • A short bio of the workshop organizers, including a description of their qualifications relative to the topic area, and past experience in organizing/facilitating workshops or research meetings.

Workshop proposals should be submitted in PDF as an email message to www2010-workshop-chairs at googlegroups.com. The subject of the email should be prepended by “WWW 2010 workshop proposal” and include the name of the workshop.

Preliminary inquiries can be sent to: www2010-workshop-chairs at googlegroups.com

WWW 2010 offers the usual serviced workshops, where registration, catering, room allocation and audio/visual will be organized by the conference organizers. The serviced workshops will take place on Monday and Tuesday, before the conference. The workshops will be hosted at the conference venue. Workshop proposals may have any duration from half-a-day to 1 day. Please indicate your preference for a date. Note that proposals must be unconditional concerning scheduling. It is very likely that some workshops will not get their preferred date.