Updated 5/1/2003 version 2. Online publishing of the papers (by the conference volunteers) before they get added to the ACM Digital Library (by Sheridan & ACM). ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- (The Proceedings Service is in charge of sending the papers to the ACM Digital Library). ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The issue of online publishing of the papers on the conference web pages can be straightforward: a) the authors send the required electronic form to the Proceedings Service by DATE1 - this has become the normal mode of paper submission. b) The Proceedings Service will have to check them (if necessary convert them to the right format) and insert the copyright, and then can give the electronic versions to the conference webmaster by DATE2 for posting online c) Somehow, the Webmaster needs to acquire the abstracts of the papers separately, however, the Proceedings service views this as an extra and so they don't do it. In 2001 Ramesh created an abstract page; in 2002 the authors sent an abstract page. When done: send the SIGCOMM Information Services Director the abstracts (.html files) and the papers (the .pdf files). Consider checking with the Info. Serv. Dir. to make sure what format the abstract page should be in. Take a look at the previous couple of years web pages just to see if there has been any variety in the format of an abstract. Our goal is to get the papers online by DATE3 (as close to the end of June as possible). ----------------------------------------------------------------- d) History of what happened in 2001 - this is our model RE getting the papers online early so that the community can read them before the conference: Ramesh, the publications chair from SIGCOMM 2001 (and the web master and the proceedings coordinator) tells me that the following happened: Lisa (Sheridan Printing) got all of the papers, converted them to pdf, and then sent them to Ramesh. He then created an abstract page for each paper that had the paper title, authors, affiliations, abstract, and a link to the pdf. Ramesh reports the following timing from last year: Our goal has typically been to get the papers up by the end of June. >I believe we had the papers up in early July (even though the >papers were due June 15, there were 2-3 stragglers that didn't >come in until the 3rd week in June). --------------------------------------------------------------- e) History of what happened in 2002 - which we need to avoid. 80% of the papers were online by July 12th. The issue that we had in 2002: So, with the paper submission date being late June (21st?), and with the conference starting a week earlier, it's getting a bit tight. I think that our dropdead date should be July 10th.... and of course the earlier the better. If that takes too long, then you could ask Hari/Vern to send out a letter to authors telling them to send a pdf file to X by when... but obviously, using Lisa's pdfs is preferable. In 2002 the PC chairs requested that the authors send the abstract and the paper to the webmaster (actually a proxy) Dear Author: As you may know, besides publishing paper proceedings, ACM SIGCOMM also makes SIGCOMM papers available on the web site. In order to get the papers for SIGCOMM 2002 online in a timely fashion, we need you to send the following information to the online proceedings chair, Andreas Terzis, at terzis@caymas.com: 1) A PDF or postscript file with your paper. This is the same file you also provide for the paper proceedings 2) Ascii text with the title, author list, and abstract of your paper. Please e-mail this information as soon as possible so we can put the papers and abstract on the web site in late June, well before the conference, Thank you, The PC Chairs --------------------------------------------------------------- f) Couple of older discussions about putting info online. > The issue of on-line publication BEFORE the conference might actually be > a bit tricky unless closely coupled to the conference due to the > usual copyright and patent issues. Perhaps worth discussion with ACM > folk. If we are to take this seriously, perhaps making slides > available on-line for viewing w/talks might be very valuable.... On a related topic. The ACM electronic publishing of journals (in addition to paper) is underway. See http://www.acm.org/pubs/toc/ for a preview. All journals now have online tables of contents. Each paper has title, abstract, computing category terms, and, if available, a review from Computing Reviews, and/or a PDF version of the full text. ..... 1998: So I would like to ask that you make the collection of electronic versions of the paper, to be put on the ACM web server (and not just links to author's home webs), part of the formal final paper submission and part of the release that the author signs giving copyright to ACM. If you could even go so far as to use a paper copy for the proceedings that was printed from the electronic version, that would be great (but also fraught with peril if what you print differs from what the author printed since the author gets no galley to review or correct). Thanks, Greg Wetzel ------------------------------------------- 1997: Greg, I think that electronic publishing is a good idea, and I also think that last year experiment was rather conclusive. Publishing before the conference enables people to prepare their questions before the conference, the debates are more lively, and in fact people are more tempted to join them. .... -- Christian Huitema