Subject: Final CFP: Flexible Hypertext Workshop
Date: Wed, 22 Jan 1997 14:24:40 +1100 (EST)
From: Maria Milosavljevic <mariam@mpce.mq.edu.au>
To: salt@cstr.ed.ac.uk, elsnet-list@cogsci.ed.ac.uk

Apologies if you receive this message more than once.
--------



      Flexible Hypertext Workshop --- Final Call for Participation
            http://www.mri.mq.edu.au/~mariam/flexht/

              A Workshop Held in Conjunction with 
 The Eighth ACM International Hypertext Conference (Hypertext'97)

              Southampton, UK --- April 6-11, 1997
               http://journals.ecs.soton.ac.uk/ht97/


Workshop Theme:
---------------

Hypertext has become a popular form for encoding electronically-available
information, particularly on the world wide web and as an interface for
multimedia products. However, a common problem with hypertext documents is
that they are static and inflexible; that is, their content cannot be
modified dynamically in order to address a particular user's knowledge or the
context of delivery. As a result, document authors must construct documents
which appeal to a variety of backgrounds, and multimedia products are
developed according to one intended audience model (for example, separate
encyclopedias for adults and children). The recognition of this problem has
led towards building more flexible hypertext systems in order to provide
user-tailored information. 

This workshop is intended as an inter-disciplinary exploration into flexible
hypertext systems. Flexible hypertext systems are systems which can present
different users with different views of the same hypertext network, or which
can dynamically create the hypertext network and the content of the documents
at the nodes of that network at run-time. This workshop aims to draw together
a number of research groups taking different approaches to flexible hypertext
systems, in order to promote the cross-fertilisation of ideas and highlight
the prospects for future collaboration. The target research areas include
(but are not limited to): 

- Information retrieval and filtering: the use of information retrieval or
other techniques to determine the relevance of the nodes within a static
hypertext network for the individual user. That is, the content of the
documents remain static, but links to other documents are flexible. 

- Adaptive hypertext: the adaptation of an existing hypertext network of
documents to a model of the user. That is, providing flexible document
content and flexible views of a static hypertext network. 

- Dynamic hypertext: employing text generation or other techniques to
dynamically create both the hypertext network and the documents within the
network as the user requests them. The hypertext network does not exist in
any form; it is built dynamically. 

Organising Committee:
---------------------

(In alphabetical order)

- Peter Brusilovsky, School of Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University. 
- Maria Milosavljevic, Microsoft Research Institute, Department of Computing,
- Johanna D. Moore, Department of Computer Science, University of Pittsburgh. 
- Jon Oberlander, Human Communication Research Centre, University of
Edinburgh. 
- Oliviero Stock, Cognitive & Communication Technologies Division, IRST. 

Workshop Format:
----------------

The workshop will run for one full day. The number of attendees will be
limited to 20 in order to encourage participation in workshop discussions.
Participation will be on the basis of submitted position papers or by
invitation. The workshop will include a limited number of paper presentations
(3-6) and general group discussions. Group discussions will focus on the
issues raised in the position papers, as well as on some focus questions. A
workshop dinner will also be organised to encourage informal discussion. 

A draft outline of the programme: 

     Welcome and Introduction 
     Three Workshop Sessions consisting of: 
          1 to 2 Position Paper Presentations (15-30 minutes), and 
          Group Discussion on the Issues Raised (30-60 minutes) 
     Open Session: 
          Open Research Questions 
          General Discussion 
     Closing: 
          Planning for post-workshop activities 
          Conclusions and Wrap-up 
     Workshop Dinner 

Position Papers:
----------------

We invite position papers describing demonstrated techniques for improving
the flexibility of hypertext documents. We are particularly interested in
papers which present innovative solutions to providing flexible hypertext
documents, or which address any unresolved problems with providing flexible
hypertext documents. We are also interested in receiving papers of a more
speculative nature which focus on the future of flexible hypertext systems.
Those aspects of the paper which are important for discussion in the workshop
should be clearly outlined in the paper. 

Papers should be 3-5 pages long, and should be put up on the Web. If you
don't have access to a web server, then some space will be allocated for you. 

Electronic submission of the URL address of the position paper will be
preferred, although papers submitted as ascii (html) or postscript will be
accepted. To submit a position paper, send the URL address and an ascii
version of the paper itself to: mariam@mpce.mq.edu.au 
If this is not possible, please send hard copies to: 

Maria Milosavljevic
MRI Language Technology Group
Department of Computing
Macquarie University
Sydney NSW 2109
Australia 
email: mariam@mpce.mq.edu.au
Tel: (+61 2) 9850 6345
Fax: (+61 2) 9850 9529 

Papers should arrive by 31st January 1997. 

Before the workshop, all attendees will be able to access the position papers
from the web. We strongly encourage attendees to read these before the
workshop.