I am on the program committee for Advances in the Theory of Computing (AITC'09), to take place in Timișoara, Romania on September 26-29. The conference is a new, experimental theory track for a larger and more established conference (The 11th International Symposium on Symbolic and Numeric Algorithms for Scientific Computing, SYNASC'09).
The deadline for regular papers is May 30. You know you always wanted to visit Romania, so use the next couple of weeks to wrap up a result and send it in!
Alternatively, the conference will double up as a workshop (papers in the "presentation track" will not be published in proceedings, allowing you to submit elsewhere). The deadline for such presentations is July 1st.
So come to discuss the most exciting developments in theory, while enjoying your 1-liter beers with a view of one of the most beautiful Romanian cities.
Why should I publish in a worthless conference?
ReplyDeleteWho do you think argued for the workshop-style presentation track?
ReplyDeleteSorry that it is unrelated to your post, but what do you think about this:
ReplyDeletehttp://blog.computationalcomplexity.org/2009/05/shaving-logs-with-unit-cost.html
Dear Anonymous number one,
ReplyDeleteWith all due respect I believe your comments perfectly illustrate what (I believe) is wrong with the conference culture in TCS. Having interacted with other scientific communities (e.g. physicists in Complex Systems) this is why I find attending their conferences so much more rewarding.
The conference that I organize cannot (and doesn't pretend to) compete with large, established venues (STOC/FOCS/SODA/ICALP). Frankly at this point it can't compete with FCT/SOFSEM for the matter.
Is it, on the other hand, a bogus conference ? No, as you can check, with one (European) exception all the PC members are or have been affiliated (as students or faculty) with a tier-1 U.S. University or nationwide research lab. As Mihai said, we have recognized the need (and made every effort) to accomodate those good people that don't want to publish a paper in the conference proceedings.
May I then suggest then that it is simply a lack of common courtesy to display this attitude towards (well-meaning) unpaid efforts of your peers ?
Leave your office for a second and you will find that the vast majority of people in the world don't care about STOC/FOCS, about extractors, holographic algorithms, communication complexity or shaving up a log factor from running times, more generally about YOUR WORK, whatever that is. Hell, even your practitioner colleagues often don't. Who might care then ? Guess what, your community.
I know it might be hard to believe in this world of my-result-is-better-than-yours and endless STOC/FOCS bickering, but science is not all about competition and padding one's resume. We're in this together primarily for the love of the same area, broadly construed, and should act like a community.
Don't care about the conference ? Simply ignore it but please keep your ego to yourself.
Sincerely,
Gabriel Istrate
Are you sure that the first
ReplyDeleteanon is not Mihai himself,
which famously labeled
SWAT as worthless?
Are you sure that the first anon is not Mihai himself, which famously labeled SWAT as worthless?
ReplyDeleteI'm reasonably sure I don't have double personality and posting anonymously on my own blog. (I'm married to a psychiatrist, after all, and I think she would have spotted it.)
The comment was very expectable, of course :)
I will not not-say that the conference is worthless. However, I am sure that giving a presentation will be a worthy and fun experience.
Mihai,
ReplyDeleteAre you married ? I thought you were divorced ...
peace,
j
I am currently married, yes.
ReplyDelete