The IJCAI-09 Program Committee invites proposals for the Workshop Program, to be held July 11-13, 2009, immediately prior to the technical conference. IJCAI-09 workshops will provide an informal setting where 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. We particularly encourage submissions of workshops that focus on emerging topics and applications, on open research questions and challenges, or which bring together interesting groupings for the transfer of ideas and methods. To facilitate interaction and a broad exchange of ideas, each workshop will be limited to 25 - 75 participants and should plan for ample time to foster open discussions. Attendance is limited to active participants only.

Workshops can vary in length, but most will last a full day. To cover costs, it will be necessary to charge workshop participants a workshop fee. Workshop attendees do not need to register for the main IJCAI conference, but are encouraged to do so. IJCAI reserves the right to cancel any workshop if too few attendees register for the workshop to support its running costs or if the following deadlines are missed.

Important Dates for Workshops

• October 13, 2008 - Proposal Submission Deadline (REVISED DEADLINE)
• November 13, 2008 - Acceptance Notification
• November 24, 2008 - Deadline for Posting the Call for Participation
• December 12, 2008 - IJCAI-09 Workshop Program Announced
• March 6, 2009 - Submission of contributions to workshops
• April 17, 2009 - Workshop paper acceptance notification
• May 8, 2009 - Deadline for final camera ready copy to workshop organizer
• May 22, 2009 - Deadline for completed workshop notes submission to AAAI
• July 11-13, 2009 - IJCAI-09 Workshops
  

IJCAI-09 Workshops Requirements for Submission

Proposals for workshops should be a maximum of five 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, and of the impact it will have.
• A preliminary workshop format 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. The format shouldn't simply be that of a mini-conference but should aim for a dynamic sharing of ideas and emphasize discussion. We suggest that at least 50% of the workshop schedule be allocated to questions, discussions, and breaks.
• 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 the workshop, including a list of key publications demonstrating scholarship in the field and a list of workshops previously arranged, 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, Sylvie Thiebaux at ijcaiworkshops09@aaai.org, in plain ASCII text, as soon as possible but no later than October 13, 2008. Prospective organizers will be notified of the committee's decision no later than November 13, 2008.

Responsibilities of IJCAI and workshop organizers

For all accepted proposals, IJCAI will be responsible for:

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

Workshop organizers will be responsible for the following:

• Coordinating and moderating workshop participation and content, including arranging informal presentations by domain experts, arranging for expert commentators to sit on discussion panels, formulating discussion topics, etc.
• Setting up a Web site for the workshop according to the template that will be distributed upon acceptance.
• Advertising the workshop and issuing a call for participation/papers by November 24, 2008. The call must make it clear that the workshop is open to all members of the AI community. It should also note that the number of participants is strictly limited. The call should also make clear the process by which the Organizing Committee will select the participants.
• Collecting submissions, notifying acceptances in due time, and ensuring a transparent and fair selection process. All workshop organizers commit themselves to adopt the same deadlines for submissions and notifications of acceptance, i.e.,
  • March 6, 2009 - Submission of contributions to workshops
  • April 17, 2009 - Notifications
• Making the PDF of the whole workshop notes available to the workshop chair and AAAI by May 22, 2009, (up to a maximum of 200 pages) as well as a list of audio-visual requirements and any special room requirements.
• Ensuring that the workshop organizers and the participants get registered to the workshop and are invited to register to the main conference.

Selection Criteria and Process

The selection will be made by the workshops chair in consultation with the workshops committee. We reserve the right to recommend acceptance of multiple overlapping or complementary proposals conditionally to them being merged. The selection will take account of:

• Alignment with the interests of IJCAI attendees
• Alignment with emerging trends, open problems, and application areas relevant to IJCAI
• Degree of cross-disciplinarity
• Potential impact of the proposal on the field
• Evidence that workshop chairs have the ability to effectively coordinate the discussion
• Calibre and diversity of confirmed attendees
• Adequacy of the schedule and format (15mn talks back to back is inadequate)
• Overall balance between fields of interest

Workshops Committee

Alan Fern (Oregon State University, USA)

Craig Knoblock (University of Southern California, USA)

Sarit Kraus (Bar-Ilan University, Israel; University of Maryland)

Sylvie Thiebaux (Chair, Australian National University, Australia)

Please send proposals and inquiries to:
Sylvie Thiebaux
The Australian National University
National ICT Australia
ijcaiworkshops09@aaai.org