[Asis-l] CFP: 3rd Int'l Workshop on Collaborative Information Retrieval (CIR2011) at CIKM 2011

[Gene Golovchinsky]

Workshop on Collaborative Information Retrieval (CIR 2011)
CIKM'2011, Glasgow, UK, October 28th.
http://cir2011.fxpal.com/

Organizers
----------

- Gene Golovchinsky, FX Palo Alto Laboratory, Inc, USA.
- Jeremy Pickens, Catalyst Repository Systems, USA.
- Meredith Ringel Morris, Microsoft Research, USA.
- Juan M. Fernández-Luna, University of Granada, Spain.
- Juan F. Huete, University of Granada, Spain.
- Julio C. Rodríguez-Cano, University of Informatics Science, Cuba.

Introduction and Goal
---------------------

This is the third workshop we are organizing on the topic of collaborative
information retrieval. The first workshop, held in conjunction with JCDL 
2008,
focused on broad topics and sought to establish a vocabulary for discussion
about collaborative information seeking, to identify work practices and
disciplines that might benefit from collaborative information seeking,
and to establish a community of researchers with related interests. The 
second
workshop, held in conjunction with CSCW 2010, built on the previous 
results, and
focused on issues of communication and awareness in support of 
collaborative
information seeking.

Our goal in this third workshop is to focus on algorithmic and other 
software
issues related to information seeking in a collaborative setting. We 
would like
to explore a variety of algorithms for mediating collaboration, and also to
examine how different user interface elements can be used to support 
associated
activity. Algorithmic aspects will include the coordination of input from
multiple people, fusion and distribution of search results, and 
modifications to
ranking algorithms based on group-specific information. Interface 
aspects will
include support for awareness of individual and of group activity, 
role-specific
interfaces, support for communication among collaborators, and support for
transparency of search algorithms to foster a better understanding of 
the search
space. It is also important to consider the effect that the starting 
context
(e.g., IM chat, discussions in a social network, transitions from 
single-user
to collaborative search, etc.) has on the algorithms and on the UI.

For more information, please see the Call For Papers at
http://cir2011.fxpal.com/, which also includes a Demo session during which
participants are encouraged to demonstrate interactive collaborative 
information
seeking systems.

Call for Papers
---------------

Support for explicit collaboration is an essential part of many information
seeking activities. Explicit collaboration differs from recommendation 
systems
and collaborative filtering in that the people engaged in information 
seeking
have an explicitly shared information need. Hence, rather than inferring
similarities of intent, the system is free to mediate the sharing of 
knowledge
and division of labor. In the last few years, several research groups have
pursued various issues related to collaboration during search, including 
support
for awareness, algorithmic mediation, conceptual and software frameworks
for collaboration, and collaboration through a range of different devices.

Explicit collaboration implies a certain emphasis on interaction. The 
system has
to not only communicate search results to the user, but also mediate
communication and data sharing among its users. There are new algorithms 
that
need to be invented that use inputs from multiple people to produce search
results, and new evaluation metrics need to be invented that reflect the
collaborative and interactive nature of the task. Finally, we need to 
integrate
the expertise of library and information science researchers and 
practitioners
by revisiting real-world information seeking situations with an eye for 
shared
information needs and explicit collaborative search.

We are looking for several kinds of submissions for the workshop.

- Position/work in progress papers, four to six pages in length in the 
standard
ACM format, the describe work related to collaborative information seeking.
Papers will be reviewed and a few will be selected for presentation; the 
rest
will be invited to submit a poster instead. The submission date for 
papers is
June 29th.
- Posters will present late-breaking or just-starting work in the area. 
Poster
submissions should be two to four pages in the standard ACM format. The 
workshop
schedule will include time to view and discuss posters. The submission 
date for
posters is June 29th.

- Demos will show working systems that support collaborative search or 
other
information seeking activities. Each accepted demo will include a plenary
presentation slot of 15-20 minutes, during which significant aspects of the
system can be described and demonstrated. We will also set aside time for a
session (analogous to the poster session) during which participants could
interact with the demo presenters and their systems. Those interested in
participating in the demo track should submit a two to four page paper 
in the
standard ACM format that will describe key aspects of the system and how it
supports various aspects of collaborative search. These papers are also 
due on
June 29th. In addition, because system building is sometimes 
unpredictable in
the amount of time involved, to help us plan the schedule, we would like to
receive an interim progress report from those intending to participate 
in the
demo track some time in early September. Such a report should consist of a
series of screenshots or a video screen-cast (or even a link to a 
working online
system!). We’ll settle on an exact date once we see how many participants we
have in this track. Demo acceptances are contingent on having a viable 
system
available in time for the workshop; if participants are unable to get a 
system
ready in time for the workshop, we will reclassify the submission as a 
Poster.

Important Dates
---------------

- Submission date: June 29, 2011
- Notification of acceptance: July 29, 2011
- Revised papers due: August 12, 2011
- Conference dates: 24-28, 2011
- Workshop Date: October 28, 2011

Submission Procedure
--------------------

Submissions to the workshop will be handled through the EasyChair site. 
Please
log into EasyChair from the following URL 
http://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=cir20110
to submit papers. Please note the trailing 0 on the URL!

For further questions
--------------------

Please contact the organizers with any questions about the workshop. You can
follow the workshop on Twitter with the #cir2011 hashtag.