Questions


Call for Papers
in PDF Format

4th USENIX Windows Systems Symposium

August 3-4, 2000
Madison Renaissance Hotel
Seattle, Washington, USA

Symposium Organizers

Symposium Co-Chairs
J. Bradley Chen, Appliant Inc.
Richard Draves, Microsoft Research

Symposium Steering Committee
Andrew Hume, AT&T Labs Research
Michael B. Jones, Microsoft Research
Werner Vogels, Cornell University

Program Committee
Ed Felten, Princeton University
Jim Gray, Microsoft Research
Brad Myers, Carnegie Mellon University
Karin Petersen, Xerox Palo Alto Research Center
Mendel Rosenblum, Stanford University
Dave Steere, Oregon Graduate Institute
Werner Vogels, Cornell University
Bill Weihl, Akamai Technologies, Inc.
Rumi Zahir, Intel Corporation

Overview
Following the tradition established by three very successful symposia, the Fourth USENIX Windows Systems Symposium will provide a forum for the discussion of research and advanced engineering use of the Windows platform. The symposium brings together professionals from academic and industrial backgrounds who are actively using Windows platforms (whether NT, 9x, or CE) and want to discuss ideas and share information, experiences, and results. The symposium will include technical presentations of refereed papers, invited talks, a Work-in-Progress session, informal Demo/Poster sessions, and Birds-of-a-Feather sessions. The primary purpose of the symposium is to facilitate two days of useful interaction among the participants.

On August 1-2, 2000, the Third Large Installation System Administration of Windows NT/2000 Conference (LISA-NT 2000) will be held in the same location. Two days of tutorials will precede both conferences.

Topics
Papers that present research results, analyze problem areas, draw important conclusions from practical experience, or facilitate discussion are especially welcome. We particularly encourage submissions that address key issues for mission-critical, real world system deployments, including:

• Availability: Experience with and research into deploying mission critical applications on Windows-based infrastructure.
• Scalability: Pushing the Windows platform to the limit. What is the limit? How can it be extended?
• Manageability: The use of various models, strategies and tools to address large-scale Windows or mixed networks, and large clusters of Windows machines.
• Ubiquity: Serving the needs of a broad range of devices, including mobile and embedded systems.

Papers that provide analysis or share experience on the following topics are also encouraged:

• Applications: Development and deployment of large applications environments.
• User Interfaces: Ideas and techniques for enhancing usability and improving the user experience.
• Programming Environments: Programming environments to exploit the wealth of Windows functionality.
• Tools and Utilities: How to make Windows a highly productive system.
• Security: Extending the Windows security model, and using Windows in highly secure environments.
• Integration: Architectural challenges such as heterogeneity and scale encountered in real world deployments.

What to Submit
We are soliciting technical papers on concepts, research, and experiences relevant to researchers using Windows. We particularly encourage researchers who have achieved major results using Windows to present them at the symposium. Even if the result itself has been reported elsewhere, a paper that explicitly addresses the benefits, challenges, and interesting systems results specific to Windows platforms is an appropriate submission for this symposium. (Of course, verbatim resubmission of previously published manuscripts is not acceptable.)

Authors of an accepted technical paper must provide a final camera-ready paper for publication in the symposium proceedings. Symposium proceedings containing all full technical papers will be distributed to attendees and, following the symposium, will be available online to USENIX members and for purchase.

Note that USENIX conferences, like most conferences and journals, require that papers not be submitted simultaneously to more than one conference or publication and that submitted papers not be previously or subsequently published elsewhere. Papers accompanied by non-disclosure agreement forms are not acceptable and will be returned to the author(s) unread. All submissions are held in the highest confidentiality prior to publication in the Proceedings, both as a matter of policy and in accord with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976.

How and Where to Submit
Authors are requested to submit full papers by Monday, February 14, 2000, 5pm PST (extended from the original deadline of Friday, February 11, 2000). Submitted papers should be no longer than 6,000 words (approximately 10 single spaced 8.5" x 11" pages), including figures, tables, and references. Excessively long papers will not be accepted.

Submissions will be accepted in electronic form only, in Word, PDF, or HTML format. Please use this Web form to submit papers.

All submissions will be acknowledged by email within one week. If an acknowledgment is not received please send email to usenix-win2000questions@usenix.org.

Best Paper Awards
Awards will be given for the best paper and best student paper at the symposium.

Tutorials
On July 30 and 31, there will be tutorials in all areas and levels of expertise for Windows NT/2000 system engineers. Previous tutorial sessions have covered topics such as "Windows NT Security," "Windows NT Internals," "Configuring Samba, Avoiding Common Pitfalls," and "Administering Windows NT DHCP and DNS servers."

If you are interested in presenting a tutorial, please contact the USENIX tutorial coordinator: Daniel V. Klein, Email : dvk@usenix.org

Demo and Poster Session
The symposium will include a session where, in an informal setting, participants can present and demonstrate their work. Information on submitting Demo & Poster session proposals will be made available in February on the symposium Web site.

Usage Abstracts
All symposium participants without an accepted paper will be requested to submit a one-page abstract or summary via the symposium web site at the time they register describing what they are doing or considering doing with Windows. These abstracts will be made available on the symposium web site before the symposium and will also be distributed in paper form to attendees. The abstracts are intended to facilitate communication among attendees, helping people find others with similar interests or problems.

Registration Materials
Materials containing all details of the symposium program, registration fees and forms, and hotel information will be available by May 2000. If you wish to receive the registration materials in print, please contact:

USENIX Conference Office
22672 Lambert Street, Suite 613
Lake Forest, CA 92630, USA
Phone: +1.949.588.8649
Fax: +1.949.588.9706
Email: conference@usenix.org

Questions
If you have questions about the symposium that are not addressed by the symposium web site, send mail to usenix-win2000questions@usenix.org.