CALL FOR PAPERS AND DEMONSTRATIONS

SPLASH 2010 Workshop on Flexible Modeling Tools
http://www.ics.uci.edu/~nlopezgi/flexitools/

Monday, October 18, 2010, Reno, Nevada, USA. (In conjunction with
SPLASH/OOPSLA/Onward!)


"Flexible modeling tools" hold the promise of bridging the gap
between formal modeling and free-form authoring. This workshop will
bring together researchers and practitioners to explore ideas and
showcase early results in this emerging field.

Both formal modeling and free-form authoring offer important
benefits for software architects and designers, as well as others.
Unfortunately, contemporary tools often force users to choose one
style of work over the other. During the exploratory phases of
design, it is more common to use white boards than modeling tools.
During the early stages of architectural analysis, it is more common
to use office tools like PowerPoint and Excel. These tools offer
ease of use, freedom from strict representation rules, and the
ability to prepare attractive presentations for a variety of
stakeholders. However, users miss out on the clarity, consistency,
and completeness that can accrue from using modeling tools, as well
as the powerful visualization, navigation, manipulation, and
guidance that semantics-driven tools can provide.

At this workshop, people who build tools and people who use tools
for software development will discuss the reasons for the current
state of the practice, and will focus on tool users' needs and tool
capabilities to address those needs. Papers and live demonstrations
will present work on free-form authoring tools and formal modeling
tools, as well as hybrid tools that aim to achieve the benefits of
both.

Full call for papers:
http://www.ics.uci.edu/~nlopezgi/flexitools/cfp.html


IMPORTANT DATES:

Submission deadline: Monday August 9, 2010 Notification of
acceptance: Friday September 3, 2010 Early registration:
Mid-September, 2010 Workshop: Monday October 18, 2010


SUBMISSION:

Prospective participants are invited to submit 2-4 page position
papers on any topic relevant to the dichotomy between modeling tools
and more free-form tools. In particular, papers analyzing specific
problems with existing tools, detailing requirements for flexible
modeling tools, analyzing the usability tradeoffs involved in
flexible modeling, describing approaches for architecting and
building flexible modeling tools, and actual examples of such tools
are all appropriate.

Alternatively, prospective participants can submit a 2-4 page
description of a live demonstration they would present of a working
prototype of a flexible modeling tool. The description should
indicate which essential capabilities of the tool would be the focus
of the demonstration.

Submissions must conform to the ACM SIGPLAN Proceedings Format
(http://www.sigplan.org/authorInformation.htm) and must be submitted
through Easy Chair
(www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=flexitools2010) by the
submission deadline noted below. Submissions will be judged based on
novelty, insightfulness, quality, relevance to the workshop, and
potential to spark discussion. Accepted submissions will be posted
on the workshop website.


WORKSHOP FORMAT

The workshop will consist of a few brief presentations from a subset
of the accepted position papers and demonstrations. Each
presentation will be accompanied by considerable discussion. To fuel
this discussion, all participants will be asked to prepare:

a) Two problems they have experienced with existing modeling tools,
or two tasks or situations for which modeling tools would be helpful
but are not used typically used; and b) Two features/differences in
behavior or ideas for radical new tools they would like to see.

In addition, there will be an area where all accepted papers and
demonstrations can be displayed as posters, to be viewed by all
participants throughout the day.

Finally, all participants are encouraged to bring working prototypes
of tools along with them. If there is sufficient interest, a SPLASH
BOF will be organized to provide an opportunity to discuss and
showcase tools and some of the workshop results in greater depth.

ORGANIZERS

Doug Kimelman, IBM T.J. Watson Research Center, USA
Harold Ossher, IBM T.J. Watson Research Center, USA
Andre van der Hoek, University of California, Irvine, USA
Margaret-Anne Storey, University of Victoria, Canada

PROGRAM COMMITTEE

Elisa Baniassad, The Australian National University, Australia
Krzysztof Czarnecki, University of Waterloo, Canada
Rob DeLine, Microsoft Research, USA
Michael Desmond, IBM Research, USA
Miryung Kim, University of Texas at Austin, USA
Andrew Ko, University of Washington, USA
Michele Lanza, University of Lugano, Switzerland
Crista Lopes, University of California, Irvine, USA
Marian Petre, Open University, UK
Dave Thomas, Bedarra Research Labs, Canada