WWW2002 Workshop On
Mobile Search Workshop
Honolulu, Hawaii
May 7, 2002

Call for Papers and Participation 
http://www.haifa.il.ibm.com/Workshops/www2002-MobileSearch/

 
 
Workshop notes , Workshop summary
Program

Organizing Committee
IBM Research in Haifa:
Yoelle Maarek 
yoelle@il.ibm.com
Aya Soffer
ayas@il.ibm.com

Google Inc.
Bay-Wei Chang
mailto:yoelle@il.ibm.com

Background:

The dramatic increase in the use and availability of mobile devices such as cellular phones and Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) in the last few years has resulted in the ability to access information anytime and anywhere. IDC, a leading provider of technology intelligence, forecasts that by the end of 2002 there will be more wireless subscribers capable of Internet access than wired Internet users. Yet, we are still far from the dream of having Web information as conveniently accessible from a handheld device as it is from our desktop. Existing information discovery mechanisms for searching and browsing the Web are not well-suited to mobile devices which are limited in terms of processing power and memory, screen real estate, input capabilities, networks and bandwidth. 



Goals:

In this workshop, we will explore several issues involved in making mobile search both practical and effective and investigate the various challenges imposed in attempting to bring search to the mobile world. Topics may include: 

  • Text entry assistance for mobile devices 
  • Navigation paradigms suited for small mobile devices 
  • Viewing results – transcoding and beyond 
  • Location awareness and its relation to relevance 
  • Performance issues in mobile search process 
  • Content sources – all the Web vs. dedicated Wireless Web repositories 
  • Vertical sites, topic-specific search, focused search 
  • Supporting multiple devices, protocols, platforms, and form factors 
The goal of the workshop is to bring together researchers and practitioners interested in Mobile Search to discuss and define the most relevant issues in information discovery tasks such as search and browse on mobile devices, present recent results, propose future directions for research, and possibly standardization. Possible outcomes of the workshop might be standard formats (possibly XML based) for search services that attempt to reach the mobile market. 

Planned activities:

  • Presentation session 
  • Invited talks 
  • Demo session on Mobile search tools 
  • Panel Discussion 

Submission Information:

Send by email to Aya Soffer-  email: ayas@il.ibm.com
For presentation: 
A position paper of no more than 2000 words (not including references) in PDF or postscript format. The position paper should also indicate to which category among the following it belongs. 

  1. Short tutorial 
  2. Research in progress 
  3. Standards proposal 
  4. System presentation/demo 
For participation only: 
A statement of interest, not to exceed 500 words (HTML, Postscript, or PDF format). 

Working notes of the workshop which contain all research and position papers will be distributed to participants at the workshop and, with the permission of the authors, made available on the Web. If there is interest among the attendees, we may publish an edited volume after the workshop. 


Important Dates

Submission: February 22, 2002
Notification: March 22, 2002
Final version: April 8, 2002
WWW2002 conference: May 7-11, 2002
WWW2002 workshops: May 7, 2002


Further information

Additional information is available at the Mobile Search Workshop Web page and questions can be sent directly to any of the organizers above. Information about the workshop venue and local arrangements (hotel reservation etc.) as well as the sponsoring conference can be found at  WWW2002 Conference main Web page.