Final call for oral presentations: Open Mic at INLG 2006 Special Session on Sharing Data and Comparative Evaluation, at Coling-ACL 2006

*** Invited Speaker: Prof Kathy McKeown, Columbia University ***


INLG 2006 Special Session on Sharing Data and Comparative Evaluation
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Final Call for Abstracts for Oral Presentations at Open Mic Session
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WHAT THIS IS ABOUT

Unlike many other areas within natural language processing, Natural
Language Generation (NLG) does not have a tradition of sharing data
resources, and no tradition of comparative evaluation of alternative
techniques.  We believe the introduction of a shared task for NLG
would be of benefit to the community, both internally and in terms of
making the field more visible to those outside the community.

We would like to move discussion on this topic forward by means of a
special session at INLG'06.  The focus of the session will be to move
us closer to an answer to the question: what would a shared task for
NLG look like?


BACKGROUND

Over the past year, in particular at ENLG'05 and UCNLG'05, NLG
researchers have started discussing ways in which the field might move
towards a situation where sharing data and other resources becomes
possible and comparative evaluation results can be produced.  It is
clear that the wide range of tasks and issues of interest to
researchers in NLG makes it difficult to identify a single set of data
that can be used by many, or a single task that could serve as the
basis for comparative evaluation of techniques.  For this reason we
believe it is important to see if we can establish a consensus view
amongst NLG researchers as to the content and focus of a shared task.

The paper submission deadline has passed, but we are still accepting
submissions of the second type:

(2) Abstracts for oral presentations during an Open Mic session on the
    topics of the special session.  We hope to involve a good number
    of NLG researchers, and particularly encourage contributions likely
    to stimulate discussion.


SUBMISSION

Abstracts for the Open Mic part of the special session should not
exceed 300 words in length and preferably be in plain text
format. Please send your abstract to Anja Belz (asb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx)
and Robert Dale (rdale@xxxxxxxxxxxxx) by no later than Friday May
27th.


TIMETABLE

Submission of papers:                            April 28th, 2006
Notification of acceptance for papers:           May, 22nd, 2006
Submission of abstracts for Open-Mic session:    May, 27th, 2006
Submission of camera-ready copy of papers:       June 6th, 2006
Notification of acceptance for Open-Mic session: June, 16th, 2006
INLG 2006:                                       July 15-16th, 2006


Questions regarding the special session, its topics and submission
procedure, should be directed to the organisers, Anja Belz
(asb@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx) and Robert Dale (rdale@xxxxxxxxxxxxx).