June 2008 - Infovis - infovis.org

Ambient Information Systems 2008: Journal Special Issue and Submission Deadline Extension
by William R. Hazlewood 22 Jun '08

22 Jun '08

****NEWS UPDATES**** We have been invited to contribute a special issue on Ambient Information Systems in the International Journal of Ambient Computing and Intelligence (IJACI). The authors of the best papers submitted to AIS2008 will be invited to submit extensions to their papers in this special issue. Both short and long papers will be considered for inclusion. With this news in mind we have decided to extend the deadline for submission by 2 weeks to the 11th June. The new CFP is below. =================================================== CFP: Workshop: Ambient Information Systems (AIS2008) http://ambientinformation.org/ At Ubicomp 2008 (http://ubicomp.org/ubicomp2008/) Sunday, September 21, 2008, COEX, Seoul, South Korea Short work-in-progress papers (up to 4 pages), Long papers (up to 10 pages) Demonstrators, designs, and artwork *New Deadline: Submissions due: July 11th 2008 by 11:59pm PST * Authors of the best submitted papers will be invited to contribute to a special issue on Ambient Information Systems in the International Journal of Ambient Computing and Intelligence (IJACI). =================================================== OVERVIEW Ambient Information Systems describe a large set of applications that publish information in a highly non-intrusive manner, following on from Mark Weiser's concept of calm technology. Building on the success of AIS2007 at Pervasive 2007, this workshop will bring together researchers working in the areas of ambient displays, peripheral displays, slow technology, glanceable displays, and calm technology, to discuss and collaborate on developing new design approaches for creating ambient information systems. We are calling for paper submissions describing early-stage and mature research on Ambient Information Systems and for demonstrators across the spectrum from technology to art and design. MOTIVATION The current research in pervasive and ubiquitous computing suggests a future in which we are surrounded by innumerable information sources all competing for our attention. These technologies will manifest in novel devices and as devices embedded in common objects such as refrigerators, automobiles, toys, furniture, clothes, and possibly our own bodies. While this vision of the future has prompted great advancements in context-aware computing, wireless connectivity, multi-sensor platforms, smart materials, and location-tracking technologies, there is a concern that this proliferation of technology will increasingly overwhelm us with information. Our belief is that information should move seamlessly between the periphery and the center of one's attention, and that good technology is highly transparent. We see ambient information systems as a way to support these ideas. Some work has already been done to create interesting ambient information systems (e.g., AmbientDevices' Stock Orb, Koert van Mensvoort's Datafountain, Jafarinami et al.'s Breakaway, Mynatt et al.'s Audio Aura and Digital Family Portrait, and Mankoff et al.'s Daylight Display and BusMobile). However, ambient information systems research is fragmented, and suffering from a lack of consensus on terminology, methodology, plausibility, and general agreement on how to think about such technologies. We see this workshop as an opportunity for invited participants to explore and discuss such issues. OBJECTIVE The workshop will be used as an opportunity to work as a group to identify problems in the design, development, and evaluation of AIS and to derive fundamental challenges of AIS research. Attendees should develop a deeper understanding of the challenges that need to be addressed and some potential solutions to the problems that have been encountered by others. The group discussions throughout the workshop will also be used to encourage new collaborations within the community. We will publish the accepted submissions and slides on the workshop's website upon receiving consent from the authors. The publication of submissions to the website will not be considered official publications and therefore will not prohibit attendees from developing their work further and publishing it elsewhere. This will be made clear on the website and on the online proceedings. After the workshop, the organizers will contact relevant journals with the goal of producing a special issue on ambient information systems containing extended versions of the best papers from this workshop. The organizers will also put together a document outlining the grand challenges for the field of ambient information systems with a view to publishing either in the special issue or as a stand-alone journal publication. WORKSHOP TOPICS The workshop topics are for the most part listed as a set of questions: * How are ambient information systems distinct from other information technologies? * What are examples of useful heuristics, frameworks, taxonomies, or design principles for the implementation of ambient information? * Should Ambient Information Systems move beyond the traditional scope of vision; is there merit in Ambient Noise, Ambient Smells, Tactile Ambience, and Ambient Taste? * How much ambient information can one perceive and comprehend? * What, if any, are the appropriate interaction methods for these information devices? * Where should ambient systems be placed to improve their chances of being used, without becoming distracting or annoying? * What sorts of information are best conveyed by an ambient display? * What are the appropriate methods for evaluating ambient information systems, particularly those that are not necessarily task-based? * How do we describe the values of these particular technologies in our everyday lives? * How can we make use of existing technologies? (e.g. smart materials, wearable systems, etc.) * What knowledge from other domains should we apply? (e.g. from art, cognitive science, design, psychology, sociology) We are also particularly interested to hear about ambient information systems in the following areas: * Resource Consumption, e.g., power, heat, water, food, and for shared or personal resources * Work and workload "progress" (e.g., explicitly or implicitly gathered data, or those based on a workflow) If you have any topics you'd like to suggest please comment on the topics list on the website: http://ambientinformation.org/topics/ WORKSHOP FORMAT The workshop format will consist of a short presentation by each participant, which should conclude with a problem statement describing a possible grand challenge for research on ambient information systems. These problem statements will be ordered, and the participants will decide which are most relevant to future research on ambient information systems. We will then break out into groups and discuss strategies for addressing the selected topics. SUBMISSIONS We invite submissions including descriptions of works in progress, research contributions, position statements, demonstrations, and vision papers. Submissions should be whatever length is most appropriate for the presented idea, but we ask that it be no longer than 10 pages in the ACM SIGCHI Proceedings format (http://www.sigchi.org/chipubform/) Each submission must conclude with a specific question regarding issues faced conducting research in this domain. Please send you submission in PDF format to: submissions(a)ambientinformation.org SPECIAL ISSUE OF IJACI Authors of the best submitted papers will be invited to contribute to a special issue on Ambient Information Systems in the International Journal of Ambient Computing and Intelligence (IJACI) to appear later in 2008. Both short and long papers will be considered for inclusion. DEADLINES AND DATES Submissions due: July 11th 2008 by 11:59pm PST Acceptance notifications by: July 25th 2008 WORKSHOP ORGANIZERS William R. Hazlewood (whazlewo(a)indiana.edu) School of Informatics, Indiana University @ Bloomington Lorcan Coyle (lorcan.coyle(a)ucd.ie) Systems Research Group, University College Dublin Youn-kyung Lim (younlim(a)gmail.com) Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology Zach Pousman (zach(a)cc.gatech.edu) Georgia Institute of Technology PROGRAM COMMITTEE (subject to additions) Frank Bentley, Motorola Labs, USA Jodi Forlizzi, Carnegie Mellon University, USA Steve Neely, University College Dublin, Ireland Aaron Quigley, University College Dublin, Ireland Albrecht Schmidt, Research Group Embedded Interaction, Germany John Stasko, Georgia Institute of Technology, USA Erik Stolterman, Indiana University, USA Martin Tomitsch, Vienna University of Technology, Austria Andrew Vande Moere, University of Sydney, Australia

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VizSec 2008 Call for Posters and Demos
by John Goodall 20 Jun '08

20 Jun '08

VizSEC 2008 Workshop on Visualization for Cyber Security http://vizsec.org/workshop2008/ September 15, 2008 / Cambridge, MA USA In conjunction with RAID 2008 Submission deadlines: Poster and Demo submissions - July 18, 2008 The 5th International Workshop on Visualization for Cyber Security will provide a forum for new research in visualization for computer security. We are pleased to be holding this year's meeting in conjunction with the 11th International Symposium on Recent Advances in Intrusion Detection. The VizSec Workshop will be held at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts USA on Monday, September 15, 2008. The full and short paper deadline has passed. We are accepting submissions (2 page abstract) for posters and demonstrations. Poster and Demo abstracts will be made available on the VizSec web site. This year's VizSec Keynote Speaker will be Ben Shneiderman, Professor in the Department of Computer Science, Founding Director (1983-2000) of the Human-Computer Interaction Laboratory, and Member of the Institute for Advanced Computer Studies at the University of Maryland at College Park. Dr. Shneiderman will give a presentation entitled Information Forensics: Harnessing visualization to support discovery. As a result of previous VizSec workshops, we have seen both the application of existing visualization techniques to security problems and the development of novel security visualization approaches. However, VizSec research has focused on helping human analysts to detect anomalies and patterns, particularly in computer network defense. Other communities, led by researchers from the RAID Symposia, have researched automated methods for detecting anomalies and malicious activity. The theme for this year's workshop, which will be held in conjunction with RAID 2008, will be on bridging the gap between visualization and automation, such as leveraging the power of visualization to create rules for intrusion detection and defense systems. We encourage VizSec participants to stay for the RAID Symposium and RAID participants to come a day early to participate in VizSec. There will be a discount for joint registration. We also solicit papers that report results on visualization techniques and systems in solving all aspects of cyber security problems, including: * Visualization of Internet routing * Visualization of packet traces and network flows * Visualization of intrusion detection alerts * Visualization of attack tracks * Visualization of security vulnerabilities * Visualization of attack paths * Visualization of application processes * Visualization for forensic analysis * Visualization for correlating events * Visualization for computer network defense training * Visualization for offensive information operations * Visualization for building rules * Visualization for feature selection * Visualization for detecting anomalous activity * Deployment and field testing of VizSec systems * Evaluation and user testing of VizSec systems * User and design requirements for VizSec systems * Lessons learned from development and deployment of VizSec systems Posters Posters can be used to describe work in progress or updates to previously published VizSec research or R&D. Poster submissions should consist of a 2 page abstract. Poster will be presented at the VizSec/RAID reception. Abstracts will be made available on the web site. Demos Demonstrations can be used to show new or updated development efforts. Demo submissions should consist of a 2 page abstract. Demonstrations will take place at the VizSec/RAID reception. (You will need to bring a laptop for demos.) Abstracts will be made available on the web site. Formatting Instructions All accepted, camera-ready manuscripts must be submitted using the LaTeX2e or Word templates provided by Springer for LNCS 'Proceedings and Other Multiauthor Volumes.' http://www.springer.com/computer/lncs?SGWID=0-164-7-72376-0 Submission Instructions Please submit PDF papers using the EasyChair workshop site: http://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=vizSEC08 VizSec 2008 is sponsored by: NSA's National Information Assurance Research Laboratory (NIARL) Microsoft CA Labs Applied Visions http://vizsec.org/workshop2008/ -- john goodall, phd . JohnG(a)SecureDecisions.avi.com 518.248.8195 (mobile) . 518.632.4195 (office) Secure Decisions division of Applied Visions Inc. http://securedecisions.com . http://vizsec.org

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FINAL CALL: Visual Analytics Challenge 2008 (a participation category of IEEE VAST 2008 symposium)
by Plaisant, Catherine 13 Jun '08

13 Jun '08

LAST CALL Deadline JULY 11 (no extension possible) ------------------------------------------------ Visual Analytics Challenge http://www.cs.umd.edu/hcil/VASTchallenge08/ ------------------------------------------------ a submission category of the IEEE Symposium on VISUAL ANALYTICS SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 2008 http://vis.computer.org/VisWeek2008/VAST If you can do JUST ONE of those tasks: - Analyze social network graphs or - Analyze the changes editors make to a wiki page, or - Analyze boat sightings on the ocean, or - Analyze building evacuation patterns THEN you can submit a mini-challenge entry for any of those tasks. If you can - Put all that data together and analyze the overall situation THEN you can submit to the grand challenge * The most deserving entries will have their two-page summary PUBLISHED in the PROCEEDINGS of the VAST 2008 symposium and may participate in a panel at the conference. * ALL submitted entries will have their two-page summary PUBLISHED on an archival website at NIST (National Institute of Science and Technology), along with other entry materials * Teams who submit an entry will be invited to a special CLOSED session during VisWeek 08 to discuss the results of the challenge, compare their experience, and influence next year's challenge. --- VAST 2008 Challenge Chairs --- Georges Grinstein, University of Massachusetts Lowell Catherine Plaisant, University of Maryland Jean Scholtz, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory Questions: challengecommittee(a)cs.umd.edu http://www.cs.umd.edu/hcil/VASTchallenge08/

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Visual Analytics Evaluation- Special Issue of IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications (CG&A)
by Plaisant, Catherine 10 Jun '08

10 Jun '08

------------------------------------------------------------------------ - Special Issue of IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications (CG&A) on Visual Analytics Evaluation ------------------------------------------------------------------------ - 2nd Call for Papers Guest Editors: Catherine Plaisant, Georges Grinstein and Jean Scholtz Submissions Due: September 12, 2008 Author Notification: December 15, 2009 Final Versions Due: January 30, 2009 Publication: May/June 2009 Issue of IEEE CG&A Visual analytics (VA) is the science of analytical reasoning facilitated by interactive visual interfaces. Assessing the effectiveness of visual analytics technology is challenging because VA tools often combine several disparate components, both low and high level, integrated in complex interactive systems used by analysts. These components include analytical reasoning, visual representations, computer human interactions, data representations and algorithms, tools for collaboration and especially for communicating the results of their usage. Users' activities can be exploratory and can take place over days, weeks or months. Users may not follow a predefined or even linear work flow. Users may work alone or in groups. To understand these complex behaviors, evaluation efforts can be targeted at the component level, the system level, and the work environment level, and require realistic data and tasks. Traditional evaluation metrics such as task time completion, number of errors, or recall and precision are insufficient to quantify the utility of visual analytics tools, and new research is needed to improve our visual analytics evaluation methodology. We invite submissions in all areas related to the Evaluation of Visual Analytics. Topics include, but are not limited to * Evaluation metrics and tools * Insight characterization and measures * Benchmark task and data set development * Methodology of longitudinal case studies * Characterization of the challenges of VA evaluation * Survey of existing VA evaluation methodologies * Lessons learned from specific evaluation activities * Automation of evaluation * Synthetic data set generation and usage Articles should be no more than 10 magazine pages, where a page is 750 words and an image counts as 200 words. Citations should consist of the 12 most relevant references. Background can be provided for non-expert readers in sidebars. Color images can be interspersed through the article and should be limited to a total of 10. Visit CG&A style and length guidelines at http://www.computer.org/cga/author.html. If your article is expanded from a workshop or conference paper: please provide in your cover letter please a citation to the Original publication, then briefly summarize (50 words or less) what new material you have added for this submission (at least 25%). This must include new results or insights, not just additional description. Please submit your paper using the online manuscript submission service at https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/cs-ieee. When uploading your paper, please select the appropriate special issue title under the category "Manuscript Type." Also include complete contact information for all authors and coauthors in the submission. If you have any questions about submitting your article, please contact Manuscript Assistant Alkenia Winston at cga-ma(a)computer.org. Please direct any correspondence prior to submission the guest editors: Email: plaisant(a)cs.umd.edu; grinstein(a)cs.uml.edu; jean.scholtz(a)pnl.gov Phone: (301) 405-2768 - Catherine Plaisant Phone: (978) 934-3627 - Georges Grinstein

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