[Sigdl-l] CFP: Query Log Analysis: Social and Technological Challenges - a WWW2007 Workshop

[Einat Amitay]

            Call for Papers - WWW2007 Workshop

     Query Log Analysis: Social and Technological Challenges

            May 8, 2007, Banff, Alberta, Canada
              http://querylogs2007.webir.org/


The past few years have seen a surge in research that uses personal search
histories and search systems' query logs. Such research is enabling users
to find more of what they are looking for, quickly and easily. However, it
comes at a social cost. Query logs capture explicit descriptions of users’
information needs. Logs of interactions that follow a user’s query (e.g.,
click-though and navigation patterns) capture derivative traces that
further characterize the user and their interests. The data is rich with
personal detail, creating opportunities and risk. The social and
technological challenges of working with such data have important
implications for query log analysis research.

This workshop will provide an interdisciplinary venue for collective
thinking about query log analysis from all its angles. By bringing together
stakeholders from various disciplines we hope to expand the understanding
of the problems and concerns raised by all parties. This workshop will open
a dialogue within the research community on collecting query log data,
sharing information without compromising user privacy, and tapping into the
collaborative knowledge that can be found in query logs.

Topics of interest include (but are not limited to):

Technology
      Ranking with query logs (QLs)
      Query refinement using QLs
      Collaborative filtering based on QLs
      Targeted advertising using QLs
      Use of sessions and cookies in QLs

Social
      Ethics of QL collection and use
      Legal issues in QL collection and use
      Policies and practices of query logging
      Implications of QL data
      Raising public awareness about query logs

Security
      Anonymization of QL data
      User-driven masking of QL recording
      Blocking QL recording

Standards
      Developing standards for producing and sharing logs
      Producing QL practices similar to the Robots Exclusion Standard

We invite submissions of papers describing original work in these areas or
in related areas. Papers may describe empirical research, work in progress,
or theoretical explorations.

Important dates:
Paper Submission - 12 February, 2007
Acceptance Notification - 21 March, 2007
Revisions due - 30 March, 2007

Registration is limited. Interested participants are asked to submit a
statement of interest describing their research or area of expertise and
their reason for wanting to participate.

How to submit papers/position papers/attendance requests:
Regular papers (up to 8 pages long) and position papers (up to 4 pages)
should be submitted in PDF format to:
http://www.easychair.org/WWW2007Workshops/

Authors should follow the guidelines for conference submissions found at
http://www2007.org/submission-workshops.php. Please indicate if the work
described is also published elsewhere.

Attendance requests – please email a short bio and a short position
statement to einat at il.ibm.com or to any of the other organizers (up to 500
words, PDF preferred).

Papers accepted to the workshop will be included in the WWW2007 Workshop
proceedings and distributed to participants on a CD-ROM. Attendees are
invited to submit a full paper to a special issue of the ACM Transactions
on the Web with an expected publication date is early 2008.


Organizers
---------------
Einat Amitay, IBM Research, Haifa Lab
einat at il.ibm.com

G. Craig Murray, University of Maryland
gcraigm at umd.edu

Jaime Teevan, Microsoft Research
teevan at csail.mit.edu

Program Committee:
--------------------------
Eytan Adar, U of Washington
Eugene Agichtein, Emory University
Steve Beitzel, Telcordia Technologies
Mark J Boyd, eBay
Susan Dumais, Microsoft Research
Jim Jansen, Penn State
Thorsten Joachims, Cornell
Diane Kelly, UNC
Tie-Yan Liu, Microsoft Research Asia
Llew Mason, Amazon.com
Jian-Yun Nie, U of Montreal, Canada
Filip Radlinski, Cornell
Daniel Russell, Google
Amanda Spink, Queensland University of Technology
Falk Scholer, RMIT, Australia
Ramakrishnan Srikant, Google
Tao Yang, Ask.com

For additional details and a list of confirmed speakers and panelists
please visit the workshop website at http://querylogs2007.webir.org/