Important Dates
Paper submissions due: June 11, 2012, 11:59 p.m. PDT
Notification to authors: July 30, 2012
Final papers due: September 10, 2012

Workshop Organizers
Program Co-Chairs
Michael J. Freedman, Princeton University
Neeraj Suri, TU Darmstadt

Program Committee
Marcos K. Aguilera, Microsoft Research Silicon Valley
Yair Amir, Johns Hopkins University
Christian Cachin, IBM Research—Zurich
Allen Clement, Max Planck Institute for Software System
Mootaz Elnozahy, IBM
Pascal Felber, University of Neuchâtel
Rodrigo Fonseca, Brown University
Phil Koopman, Carnegie Mellon University
Dejan Kostić, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne
Cristina Nita-Rotaru, Purdue University
Mike Reiter, University of North Carolina
Robbert van Renesse, Cornell University
Bernard Wong, University of Waterloo

Overview
Authors are invited to submit papers to the Eighth Workshop on Hot Topics in System Dependability (HotDep '12). The workshop will be co-located with the 10th USENIX Symposium on Operating Systems Design and Implementation (OSDI '12), which will be held October 8–10, 2012, in Hollywood, CA.

HotDep '12 will bring forth cutting-edge research ideas spanning the domains of systems and fault tolerance/reliability, drawing from the two associated research communities (i.e., researchers who attend traditional "dependability" conferences such as DSN and ISSRE, and those who attend "systems" conferences such as OSDI, SOSP, and EuroSys). The workshop will build links between the two communities and serve as a forum for sharing ideas and challenges. HotDep has been alternating between DSN and OSDI since 2005; for previous HotDep workshops, see http://www.hotdep.org/.

Paper Scope and Topics
Possible topics include but are not limited to:
Dependability in large-scale systems, despite either crash or Byzantine failures
Dependability in emerging platforms, such as handheld, datacenters, or cloud computing
Dependability in the software stack, including operating systems, network protocols, runtime systems, etc.
Fault and intrusion tolerance, self-healing systems, and continuous operation throughout recovery
Techniques for better detection, diagnosis, or recovery from failures
Forensic tools for use by administrators and programmers after failure or attack
Tools/concepts/techniques/metrics for quantifying or optimizing trade-offs among dependability, availability, performance, correctness, resource utilization, and security
Authors should consider that the workshop aims to improve interactions among researchers from the dependability and systems communities, and thus the review process favors papers that are likely to generate healthy debate.

Example submissions include but are not limited to:
Innovative techniques, algorithms, or protocols for building dependable/secure systems
Reconsideration of existing problems using novel approaches with demonstrable benefits
Description of an emerging problem and potential solutions
Refuting old, entrenched perspectives on dependability
Advocacy, critical or controversial papers if based on a technical foundation

Deadline and Submission Instructions
Authors are invited to submit position papers by 11:59 p.m. PST on June 11, 2012. This is a firm deadline—no extensions will be given.

Submitted position papers must be no longer than 5 pages (8.5" x 11") of text including figures and tables, and 1 additional page solely for references. Your paper should be typeset in two-column format in 10 point type on 12 point (single-spaced) leading, with the text block being no more than 6.5" wide by 9" deep. Author names and affiliations should appear on the title page.

Papers must be in PDF and must be submitted via the Web submission form, which will be available here soon.

Authors will be notified of acceptance by July 30, 2012. Authors of accepted papers will produce a final PDF by September 10, 2012. All papers will be available online to registered attendees before the workshop. If your accepted paper should not be published prior to the event, please notify production@usenix.org. The papers will be available online to everyone beginning on the day of the workshop.

Simultaneous submission of the same work to multiple venues, submission of previously published work, or plagiarism constitutes dishonesty or fraud. USENIX, like other scientific and technical conferences and journals, prohibits these practices and may take action against authors who have committed them. See the USENIX Conference Submissions Policy for details. Questions? Contact your program co-chairs, hotdep12chairs@usenix.org, or the USENIX office, submissionspolicy@usenix.org.

Papers accompanied by nondisclosure agreement forms will not be considered. Accepted submissions will be treated as confidential prior to publication on the USENIX HotDep '12 Web site; rejected submissions will be permanently treated as confidential.