[DL] ESWC 2008 Call for Panel Proposals

[Raphaël Troncy]

[Apologies for cross and multiple postings. Please circulate to
colleagues and prospective interested parties.]

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          5th European Semantic Web Conference (ESWC2008)
                   Tenerife, Spain, June 1-5 2008.

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Call for Panel Proposals:
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Proposal submission deadline: February 8, 2008
Notification date: February 29, 2008
Final panel description for inclusion in the proceedings: March 14, 2008

The ESWC is the leading European Conference on Theory, Practice and
Applications of Semantic Web Technologies, constantly attracting a high
number of high
quality submissions participants from academia and industry. For the
first time, ESWC will host panels during the main technical programme.

ESWC2008 panels should focus on emerging technologies, controversial
issues, or unsolved problems in the Semantic Web community. Panels are
expected to stimulate lively, thoughtful, and sometimes provocative
discussions. Panelists are expected to actively engage the audience and
help them broaden their understanding of the issues.

All areas of interests to ESWC participants are acceptable as a panel
topic. Panel proposals will be accepted on the basis of their audience
appeal, credentials of panelists, originality, and focus on disputed topics.

Panel Proposal Submission Procedure:
------------------------------------

Panel proposals must include:

     * Panel title
     * Panel organizer(s)/moderator(s)
     * Short description of the topic (suitable for inclusion in the
program)
     * Panel objective, scope, and target audience
     * Extended abstract of the panel, including suitable references
     * Panel format
     * The names and affiliations of the panelists
     * A statement for each panelist, indicating whether the panelist's
participation is (a) confirmed or (b) pending in the case s/he has
already been contacted and is not yet committed or (c) not yet contacted.

Please append short bios for moderator and each panelist, from whom
prior approval to participate should be obtained. Each panel proposal
should also indicate whether other similar panels have happened in other
recent conferences or workshops. If there have been similar panels then
the panel proposal should point out the differences between the previous
panels and the proposed panels.

Proposals should be 4-6 pages long and can be submitted in either HTML
or PDF. Please send proposals for ESWC2008 panels to <raphael.troncy at cwi.nl>

Panel formats:
--------------

Panels should last 90 minutes and typically include three to five
panelists plus a moderator. Be creative about the panel format. A
typical format includes:
     * moderator introduction
     * brief position statements by domain experts (It is essential that
this part of the panel does not exceed a total of 30 minutes.)
     * discussions (at least 40 minutes)
     * closing statements from panelists and moderator

You are also welcome to use various forms of multimedia presentations to
help engage the audience.

Duties of the Panel Moderator:
------------------------------

The panel moderator is the most important participant in a panel. The
moderator must take an active role during the panel to ensure that the
panelists stay on time and on track and to stimulate debate.

The most important part of the moderator's job, however, occurs well
before the panel starts. It is the duty of the moderator to force the
panelists to prepare lively and controversial initial presentations and
to be prepared for the debate part of the panel. Panel moderators thus
must spend a significant amount of time "herding cats", i. e., getting
the panelists to adequately prepare.

Raphaël Troncy (ESWC 2008 Panel Chair)

-- 
Raphaël Troncy
CWI (Centre for Mathematics and Computer Science),
Kruislaan 413, 1098 SJ Amsterdam, The Netherlands
e-mail: raphael.troncy at cwi.nl & raphael.troncy at gmail.com
Tel: +31 (0)20 - 592 4093
Fax: +31 (0)20 - 592 4312
Web: http://www.cwi.nl/~troncy/