TAC 2009 papers, posters/demos, and presentations

• Proceedings paper submission form (Extended Deadline: February 25, 2010)
• copyright release form

Each team that submits runs for evaluation is requested to write a paper for the TAC 2009 proceedings that reports how the runs were produced (to the extent that intellectual property concerns allow) and any additional experiments or analysis conducted using TAC 2009 data. A draft version of the proceedings papers is distributed as a notebook to TAC 2009 workshop attendees. The final proceedings are published on the TAC web site only after the workshop. The notebook version of papers gives workshop attendees something concrete to discuss during the meeting itself, while the final proceedings give participants the opportunity to revise their papers based on findings from workshop discussion.

All teams are strongly encouraged to present their system(s) and results during a poster/demo session at the TAC 2009 workshop. A limited number of teams are also allowed to give full oral presentations at the workshop; full presentations are selected by the TAC Advisory Committee based on presentation proposals rather than on entire papers.

Unless specifically invited by the TAC Advisory Committee, a team may contribute a paper to the proceedings and give a presentation at the TAC 2009 workshop only if it has also submitted at least one run for evaluation.

Copyright release

Any organization whose paper will appear in the TAC proceedings must sign a copyright release form. Teams that are giving an oral presentation must also fill in the speaker section of the form. The senior author at each organization can sign for other authors, but if a team consists of multiple organizations, a signed copyright release form is required from each organization.

To submit copyright forms: Print out the copyright form, fill it in, sign it, and send the signed form to NIST as a fax or emailed pdf attachment. In your email message or fax cover letter, please provide your TAC 2009 team name, email address, and subject "TAC 2009 copyright release". Signed forms should be sent to:

ATTN: Lori Buckland
Fax #: +1 301-975-5287
Email: lori.buckland@nist.gov

Papers

Each team is requested to write a paper that will be included in the workshop notebook and the final proceedings. The paper should consist of a description of the team's TAC 2009 system(s) and any additional experiments or analysis of TAC 2009 tasks, evaluations, and results. Papers do not undergo a standard peer review, although the TAC Advisory Committee reserves the right to exclude non-responsive papers. (Participants are encouraged to expand on the work reported in their TAC proceedings papers and submit the results to peer-reviewed conferences, journals, and other venues.)

Each team should write a single paper for all tracks in which the team participated. Paper length is limited to 10 pages for the first track, plus two additional pages per additional track (e.g., a team that submits runs for three tracks would be allowed a total of 14 pages). NIST reserves the right to exclude papers that exceed the page limit.

Papers must print in black-and-white on 8.5 x 11 inch paper. These are the only paper formatting requirements:

• standard US-letter size (not A4)
• minimum 10pt type
• no page numbers
• minimum 2 cm bottom margin
• maximum 10 pages for the first track, plus 2 additional pages for each additional track
• authors' names and affiliations should appear on the paper
• single .pdf or .ps file only (no Word documents)

The notebook paper and signed copyright release form(s) should be submitted to NIST by October 22, 2009. The paper should be submitted using the online notebook paper submission form. The copyright release form(s) should be sent by email or fax when the paper is submitted.

The final (proceedings) version of the paper should be submitted to NIST by February 25, 2010, using the online proceedings paper submission form.

Posters/Demos

Each team is strongly encouraged to present a poster and/or demo at the TAC 2009 workshop. Prior to the poster session, all teams are invited to give a boaster for their poster/demo. A boaster is a very short (maximum 3-minute) "advertisement" that helps everyone identify those posters/demos they particularly want to see.

Posters should be no more than 4 feet wide and 5 feet tall. Pins are provided to attach the poster to a padded wall in a hallway (so it is better to not back the poster with anything like foamcore).

For demos, NIST will provide tables, outlets, and wireless Internet access to the NIST Visitor's network, to which participants can connect their own laptop. The Visitor's network does not route packets to the rest of NIST's internal networks, but it is behind a NIST firewall. Therefore, if you need to send something back to NIST during your demo (such as an X-window, for example), please notify tac-manager@nist.gov in advance.

N.B. regarding Internet access: Because of the potential danger of viruses and other malware, NIST requires that workshop attendees connecting to the NIST Visitor network must meet a number of conditions. The conditions are spelled out in a form that users must sign before access is granted. The form requires a user of a non-NIST machine who wishes to connect the machine to the NIST Visitor network to certify that:

1. the machine has antivirus software installed and the signatures were updated within the past week;
2. all security-relevant patches have been installed within the past month;
3. file sharing software has been turned off and will not be activated while the computer is attached to the NIST Visitor's network.

Users will also need to acknowledge that they understand that NIST networks are government-owned, and thus they have no right of privacy: authorized personnel may monitor all communications for the purposes of network maintenance and security.

Teams may request to give a poster and/or demo when submitting their notebook paper. Alternatively, you may send a request to tac-manager@nist.gov (please include the team name in all correspondences).

Full Presentations

While all teams are allowed to give a poster/demo at the TAC 2009 workshop, there is time for only a limited number of teams to give a full oral presentation (approximately 20 minutes long). Each team may submit up to three presentation proposals -- one for each track in which it participated.

A presentation proposal should consist of a short abstract about the team's experiments in that track. The abstract should not just give a general description of the system, but should emphasize what experiments were done and why they are interesting or unusual. Each abstract should be no more than 500 words. Do not send entire papers or presentation slides. Abstracts should be simple ASCII text and should be emailed as separate attachments to tac-manager@nist.gov. Please include the team ID in the email message and rank the proposals by the team's desire to present each proposed talk.

The Advisory Committee selects the final set of proposals to accept for presentation, factoring in the intrinsic value of each proposal, the needs of the program, and the desirability ranking provided by the team.

The deadline for submitting full presentation proposals is September 25. Teams are notified by October 7 whether a proposal has been accepted for presentation.

Schedule

TAC 2009 Schedule
September 25	Deadline for workshop presentation proposals
October 7	Notification of acceptance of presentation proposals
October 22	Deadline for participants' notebook papers, copyright release forms
November 16-17	TAC 2009 workshop in Gaithersburg, Maryland, USA
February 25, 2010	Extended Deadline for participants' final proceedings papers

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