Message from Wendy and Tom, Co-Chairs Workshops provide a valuable opportunity for small communities of people with diverse perspectives to engage in vibrant discussions about a topic of common interest. Workshops can focus on research or applied topics. Workshops addressing the conference's theme 'Connect' and its Special Areas are desired (focus areas for 2004 are ambient intelligence, European HCI research, games, mobile communications, and robotics & transport). We encourage submissions addressing basic research, applied research, new methodologies, emerging application areas, design innovations, and HCI education. Each workshop will result in a SIGCHI Bulletin article that gives the HCI community a new, organized way of thinking about the topic and that suggests promising directions for future research. Many workshops result in edited books or special issues of journals, and you could aim for that in the design of your workshop.
About Workshops
Workshops are held on Sunday 25 April and Monday 26 April 2004. A workshop may be one or two days in length. Design your schedule for a length of 6 hours per day, with a lunch break and two coffee breaks. Most workshops have 12 to 15 participants. Focused interaction among participants is important, so participants must have informed positions based on prior experience.
A fee is charged to each workshop participant to cover the cost of room booking and materials. The workshop fee will be waived for two of the workshop’s organizers.
How to Submit
A workshop submission requires four documents: a proposal, an extended abstract, a call for participation, and cover sheet and technical requirements. Send all submission material to chi2004-workshops@acm.org.
Proposal Prepare a three-page proposal for the Workshops review committee. The proposal and other materials are due 6 October 2003. The proposal must describe the topic, a detailed plan for conducting the workshop (before, during, and after), and the organizers’ backgrounds. Please keep in mind that the focus of the workshops is small group face-to-face discussion; therefore, workshops typically receive minimal technology support. This limited technology support is reflected in the low fee for workshops. Nevertheless, workshop organizers are strongly encouraged to arrange to bring their own projectors to support whole-group interactions.
Extended Abstract Prepare a description of the workshop using a maximum of two pages, suitable for publication in the CHI2004 Extended Abstracts. It should contain a summary of the workshop’s goals and issues. It must be prepared in the Conference Publications Format, except that no abstract is required.
Call for Participation Prepare a 250-word call for participation suitable for publication in the CHI2004 Advance Program and on the CHI2004 web site. It should describe the workshop, the participant selection criteria, and where potential participants should send position papers.
Cover Sheet and Technical Requirements Each submission should be accompanied by a cover sheet stating contact information for the corresponding workshop organizer and a specification of any technology requirements for the workshop (e.g., a screen for projecting laptops). Please note that CHI2004 will not provide projectors this year in order to keep workshop attendance costs low.
Review Criteria
Workshop submissions will be reviewed by a committee representing a cross-section of HCI researchers and practitioners. Review criteria include the workshop’s potential for generating stimulating discussions and useful results; the expected community interest level in the topic; the organizers’ ability to demonstrate in the proposal a well-organized process and plan for the workshop; the overall balance of topics in the Workshops program; and the fit with the conference theme or special areas. If multiple submissions are received on the same or similar topics, the organizers may be encouraged to merge them.
Upon Acceptance
Organizers will be notified of acceptance or rejection during the week of 1 December 2003.
Organizers of accepted workshops will receive detailed instructions on how to submit final publication-ready materials, which are due 7 January 2004. Workshop organizers select participants on the basis of position papers submitted to them. A position paper is generally 2-4 pages long, and outlines the submitter’s view on the workshop theme and the reasons for the submitter’s interest in the topic. Position papers must be submitted by 12 January 2004. Participants must be notified of selection by 23 February 2004.
Confidentiality of Submissions
Confidentiality of submissions is maintained during the review process. All submitted materials for rejected papers will be kept confidential in perpetuity. All submitted materials for accepted papers will be kept confidential until the date of the conference, 24 April 2004. Submissions should contain no information or materials that will be proprietary or confidential at the time of publication, and should cite no publications that will be proprietary or confidential at the time of publication.
Before The Conference
The organizers work with the Workshops Co-Chairs to identify mailing lists and other opportunities for the CHI2004 Publicity Contractor to solicit diverse participation. You will:
select, invite, and confirm participants
send the list of confirmed participants to the Workshops Co-Chairs
distribute position papers and other preworkshop materials to participants in advance of the workshop
develop a final agenda of workshop activities
At the Conference
At the workshop, the organizer is responsible for facilitating discussion, maintaining productive interaction, and encouraging participation. The emphasis should be on group discussion, rather than on presentation of individual position papers. Diversity of perspectives should be encouraged. CHI2004 provides meeting rooms, coffee breaks, and screens. Participants (with the exception of two organizers) are charged a modest registration fee. Organizers are encouraged to produce a poster summarizing the results of the workshop for display during the conference.
Presenters are encouraged to bring their own laptops for their presentation. CHI2004 will identify local vendors for on-site rental equipment at presenters' expense (details forthcoming) but due to budget constraints will not be able to provide computer support in every session. A digital projector (800x600 or better) will be provided for Macintosh or PC laptop projection.
After the Conference
It is important for workshop results to be communicated to a larger audience. In addition to the optional poster that may be produced by the organizers during the conference, each workshop will produce a report for publication in the SIGCHI Bulletin. We encourage additional avenues of communication, such as organizing a Special Interest Group (SIG) at the conference, preparing an edited book or special issues of journals following the conference, or maintaining a web site to network with others who might be interested.
