[Corpora-List] CFP: FSMNLP 2009

Fri Dec 19 18:48:25 UTC 2008

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 Finite-State Methods and Natural Language Processing FSMNLP 2009

              Eight International Workshop
           University of Pretoria, South Africa
               http://fsmnlp2009.fastar.org

                    21-24 July 2009

 As in 2008, FSMNLP is merged with the FASTAR (Finite Automata
 Systems Theoretical and Applied Research) workshop.
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                         SCOPE
                         =====
AIM

The International Workshop Series of Finite State Methods and Natural
Language Processing (FSMNLP), is a forum for researchers and
practitioners working on
 - NLP applications or language (technology) research resources,
 - theoretical and implementation aspects, or
 - their combinations
having *obvious relevance or an explicitly discussed relation* to
Finite-State Methods in NLP.

In the past, seven FSMNLP workshops have been organised (Budapest
1996, Ankara 1998, Helsinki 2001, Budapest 2003, Helsinki 2005,
Potsdam 2007, Ispra 2008).

We invite submissions related to all obvious or traditional FSMNLP
topics, see e.g. FSMNLP 2008. The updated list of topics includes
 - all the obvious or traditional topics
 - plus some new topics such as:
    * common interfaces, portability, and shared methods for testing/
      benchmarking/evaluation of finite-state tools
    * coping with large alphabets during finite-state compilation and
      in real-word applications
    * fixed parameter tractability and narrowness in streamed NLP
    * conventional/parallel algorithms using/manipulating
      conventional/stochastic finite-state automata/paths
    * applications of rational kernels to active/statistical machine
      learning of finite-state models.

SPECIAL THEME

In recognition of its location on the African continent, this year's
FSMNLP has Finite-State Methods for Under-Resourced Languages as a
special theme. The theme is relevant to finite-state methods

 - applied to practical tasks such as language survey, elicitation,
   data collection, computer-aided annotation, morphological
   description, modelling and normalization,
 - considering demanding conditions such as linguistic complexity
   and diversity, scarce resources, research infrastructures, real-
   time grammar updates,
 - in language processing fields such as comparative linguistics,
   field linguistics, applied linguistics, language teaching, and
   computer-aided translation.

The special theme does not restrict the scope but attempts to draw the
attention of contributors to the challenges of computational
linguistics in Africa. We hope that the theme teases out promising and
useful applications of Finite-State Methods in this context.

                         SPECIAL SESSIONS
                         ================

RELATED EVENTS

Our plan is to catalyze discussion and subworkshopping under some
intense topics by providing tutorials, competitions (shared tasks),
and sessions/submissions suited for e.g. researcher training. Our
special effort to catalyze discussion and joint subworkshopping
includes the following topic areas that have been selected considering
the opportunities provided by the location of this year's event:

1. "Finite-State Methods for African and Other Under-Resourced/
  Low-Density Languages"
    including knowledge and data-driven methods and their combinations

2. "Practical Aspects and Experience of FS Methods and Systems"
    including exchange formats, performance, tool demos, compression

3. "Tree Automata and Transducers"
    including all applications of formal tree language theory in NLP.

Each such program is organized by international experts related to the
topics. The organizers are also represented in the main event Program
Committee.

TUTORIALS AND INVITED TALKS

We expect to have tutorials on the following tentative topics:

 - "Developing Computational Morphology for Low/Middle-Density Languages"
     by Kemal Oflazer
 - "Machine Learning with Automata"
     by Colin de la Higuera

The INVITED SPEAKERS will be announced later.

COMPETITIONS

We hope to be able to include small competitions / shared tasks:
 - machine learning of morphology
 - compression of dictionaries

BUSINESS MEETING

We wish to provide a slot for a business meeting of a special interest
group on finite-state methods and models provided that the necessary
initial actions for getting such a SIG in Association for
Computational Linguistics (ACL) have been carried out successfully
before the FSMNLP 2009.

                         SUBMISSION
                         ==========

PAPER CATEGORIES AND FORMATS

We initially invite submissions of full papers i.e. scientific
contributions presenting new theoretical or experimental
results. Papers should present original, unpublished research results
and should not be submitted elsewhere simultaneously.

At a later stage, submission of extended abstracts on on-going
research, systems, interactive software demos, and joint projects will
likely be invited for each of the subworkshopping areas. (Note that
the early acceptance notification date for full papers may help to
keep travel costs for international participants reasonably low.) If
you come from far away and have only an extended abstract, the
abstract can be submitted earlier as if it were a full paper.

The information about the author(s) should be omitted in the submitted
papers since the review process wil be double blind (submissions by
ordinary PC members are such as well). Submissions are electronic and
in PDF format via a web-based submission server.

Authors are encouraged to use Springer LNCS style (Proceedings and
Other Multiauthor Volumes) for LaTeX in producing the PDF
document. For graph visualization, Vaucanson-G LaTeX style,
Graphviz/dot and XFig are recommended. If you use a non-roman script
or Microsoft Word, it is advisable to warn the organizers as early as
possible. The page limit is 12 pages for full papers.

PROCEEDINGS AND SPECIAL JOURNAL ISSUE

The on-site proceedings will be on CD.

The actual proceedings with revised regular papers will be published
after the conference in a volume of Lecture Notes in Artificial
Intelligence as a part of the LNCS Series by Springer-Verlag.  LNCS
banner

In addition, a special journal issue on Finite-State Methods and
Models in NLP is being planned. Extended versions of the papers and
abstracts may be submitted to this special issue (the publication
involves a second review/selection cycle).

                         IMPORTANT DATES
                         ===============

First call for papers: December 2008
Full paper submissions due: 22 March 2009
Notification of acceptance for full papers: 22 April 2009
Camera-ready versions of full papers due: 10 May 2009

                         CHAIRS AND COMMITTEES
                         =====================

CONFERENCE CHAIR

Bruce Watson (University of Pretoria)

PROGRAM COMMITTEE

Andras Kornai (Budapest Institute of Technology and MetaCarta) (chair)
Jacques Sakarovitch (Ecole nationale supérieure des Télécomm.) (chair)
Anssi Yli-Jyrä (University of Helsinki) (chair)

Sonja Bosch  (University of South Africa)
Francisco Casacuberta  (Instituto Tecnologico De Informática)
Jean-Marc Champarnaud  (Université de Rouen)
Maxime Crochemore  (King's College)
Jan Daciuk  (Gdańsk University of Technology)
Dafydd Gibbon  (University of Bielefeld)
Karin Haenelt  (Fraunhofer Gesellschaft and University of Heidelberg)
Thomas Hanneforth  (University of Potsdam)
Colin de la Higuera  (Jean Monnet University)
Arvi Hurskainen  (University of Helsinki)
Lauri Karttunen  (Palo Alto Research Center and Stanford University)
André Kempe  (Yahoo Search Technologies)
Kevin Knight  (University of Southern California)
Derrick Kourie  (University of Pretoria)
Marcus Kracht  (Univeristy of California)
Hans-Ulrich Krieger  (DFKI GmbH)
Eric Laporte  (Université de Marne-la-Vallée)
Stoyan Mihov  (Bulgarian Academy of Sciences)
Kemal Oflazer  (Sabanci University)
Jakub Piskorski (Joint Research Center of the European Commission)
Michael Riley  (Google Research)
Strahil Ristov (Ruder Boskovic Institute)
James Rogers  (Earlham College)
Max Silberztein  (Université de Franche-Comté)
Bruce Watson  (University of Pretoria)
Sheng Yu  (University of Western Ontario)
Menno van Zaanen  (Tilburg University)
Lynette van Zijl (Stellenbosch University)
(a few more to be added)

ORGANIZING COMMITTEE

Loek Cleophas  (University of Pretoria) (OC chair)
Derrick Kourie  (University of Pretoria)
Jakub Piskorski  (Joint Research Center of the European Commission)
Bruce Watson  (University of Pretoria)
Anssi Yli-Jyrä (University of Helsinki)

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