[GHPN-WG] Final Call: 15th Mardi Gras Conference, associated workshops and tutorials

[Daniel S. Katz]

This is the one week deadline for submissions.  We're expecting an
exciting conference with keynotes from Satoshi Matsuoko and two
other world-renowned speakers, three workshops (distributed
programming abstractions, economic models for distributed systems,
and grid enabling applications), three tutorials, and of course,
a trip to New Orleans for an afternoon/evening of Mardi Gras
parades.


Mardi Gras Conference 2008 - http://www.mardigrasconference.org/

The Center for Computation & Technology at LSU, in cooperation with ACM
SIGAPP, is hosting the 15th Mardi Gras Conference, 31 January -
2 February 2008, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The Mardi Gras conferences
take place annually, concentrating each year on a different
computational theme of current relevance.

This Year's Theme: From lightweight mash-ups to lambda grids:
Understanding the spectrum of distributed computing requirements,
applications, tools, infrastructures, interoperability, and the
incremental adoption of key capabilities.

Description: The field of distributed computing has been recognized for
decades but only in the last few years has there been a vast expansion
of distributed computing approaches and tools that are gaining serious,
wide-spread use. This wide-spread use goes far beyond computational
science and engineering, to include business, government, art, and
popular culture. While the fundamental requirements of distributed
computing are generally understood, the ubiquitous availability of
networks and servers has enabled the development of many different tools
to suit the needs of different communities. Besides what have become
traditional grids, there is growing use of lambda grids, enterprise
service buses, service-oriented architectures, and Web 2.0. All of these
approaches enable the sharing of resources in "virtual organizations"
but with widely differing support for discoverability, reliability,
security, management, quality-of-service, etc. In all cases,
interoperability at the infrastructure level and at the application
domain level is a critical issue.
While network connectivity has become ubiquitous, and has enabled the
creation of virtual organizations, it is still an open issue how tightly
coupled these organizations can be. Bandwidth and latency determine how
interactive and collaborative distributed participants can work
together. Hence, advanced networks such as lambda networks (dedicated
optical networks) have the potential for enhancing interactiveness on a
large-scale, and actually being an enabling technology for application
domains that require tight coupling.

The goal of Mardi Gras 2008 is to improve our understanding of the
drivers for all of these technologies, how they relate to one another,
and how user communities can transition from simpler approaches, like
Web 2.0 mash-ups, to more full-service grids, when better discovery,
reliability, security, etc., are needed -- while achieving sufficient
interoperability -- and how tightly coupled virtual organizations can be.

To this end, we are seeking the best, most insightful papers on all of
these technologies, and the application domains that are driving their
requirements and development.

Topics include, but are not limited to:

Application case studies in all areas, e.g., geospatial, disaster
response/management, science, engineering, commerce, finance, art, etc.
Innovative and advanced scenarios, e.g., dynamic data-driven,
interactive, collaborative, tele-immersive, adaptive, etc.
Tools for developing and deploying applications, e.g., middleware,
toolkits, portals, problem solving environments, production
environments, virtual organizations, etc.
Application APIs and programming models
High speed and optical networks
Distributed algorithms
Workflow management
Resource management and scheduling
Education

Paper Submission:

We invite authors to submit original and unpublished work (also not
submitted elsewhere for review) reporting solid and innovative results
and positions on any of the conference topics. Papers should not exceed
8 single-spaced pages of text using 10-point size type on 8.5 x 11 inch
paper (see ACM author instructions, a LaTeX style sheet and Word format
is available, too.) All bibliographical references, tables, and figures
must be included in these 8 pages. Submissions that exceed the 8-page
limit will not be reviewed. Authors should submit a PDF file that will
print on a PostScript printer. Electronic submission is required. The
site for submissions will be announced on the main conference website at
least 4 weeks before the submission date. Submission implies the
willingness of at least one of the authors to register and present the
paper if it is accepted.
Proceedings:

All submissions will be peer-reviewed, and accepted papers will appear
in the conference proceedings. The proceedings will be distributed on CD
at the conference. The copyrights for the proceedings papers will be
held by ACM, and the proceedings will be hosted in the ACM Digital Library.

General Chair: Daniel S. Katz, LSU, USA

Deputy General Chair: Shantenu Jha, LSU, USA

Program Chair: Craig Lee, Aerospace Corporation, USA

Program Vice-Chairs:
Emerging Technologies: Geoffrey Fox, Indiana University, USA
Data-Intensive Applications: Liping Di, George Mason University, USA
Network-Intensive Applications: Bill St. Arnaud, CANARIE, Canada
Middleware and Distributed Infrastructures: Franck Cappello, INRIA, France

Publicity Chair: Matei Ripeanu, University of British Columbia, Canada

Proceedings Chair: Omer Rana, Cardiff University, UK

Poster Chair: Tevfik Kosar, LSU, USA

Tutorials Chair: Douglas Thain, University of Notre Dame, USA

Program Committee:
Cosimo Anglano, Universita' del Piemonte Orientale "A. Avogadro", Italy
Malcolm Atkinson, National e-Science Centre, UK
Rosa Badia, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Spain
Alessandro Bassi, Hitachi, France
Pete Beckman, Argonne National Laboratory, USA
Bruce Boghosian, Tufts University, USA
Natalya Bulashova, UT-ORNL Joint Institute for Computational Sciences, USA
Massimo Cafaro, University of Salento, Italy
Yves Caniou, ENS-Lyon, France
Kenneth Chiu, SUNY Binghamton, USA
Cees de Laat, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Jack Dongarra, University of Tennessee, USA
Sergi Figuerola, i2cat, Spain
Jean-Patrick Gelas, ENS-Lyon, France
Wolfgang Gentzsch, D-Grid/RENCI, Germany/USA
Paola Grosso, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Olivier Jerphagnon, Calient Networks, USA
Admela Jukan, Technische Universität Braunschweig, Germany
Thilo Kielmann, Vrije Universiteit, The Netherlands
Dieter Kranzlmüller, Joh. Kepler University, Austria
Jason Leigh, University of Illinois at Chicago, USA
Joe Mambretti, Northwestern University, USA
Madhav Marathe, Virginia Tech, USA
Satoshi Matsuoka, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan
Andre Merzky, Louisiana State University, USA
Hidemoto Nakada, AIST, Japan
Savas Parastatidis, Microsoft, USA
Serge Petiton, Ecole Universitaire des Ingenieurs de Lille, France
Marlon Pierce, Indiana University, USA
Olivier Richard, UJF/INRIA, France
Paul Roe, Queensland University of Techology, Australia
Alain Roy, University of Wisconsin, USA
Mitsuhisa Sato, University of Tsukuba, Japan
Martin Swany, University of Delaware, USA
Domenico Talia, University of Calabria, Italy
Rich Wolski, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA
Ian Taylor, Cardiff University, UK
Hai Zhuge, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China

Local Arrangements Chair: Karen Jones, LSU


Main Conference Paper Due Dates:

Submission: Oct 31, 2007 (changed due to change in proceedings
publication method, no further extensions)
Notification: Nov 28, 2007
Final Papers: Dec 14, 2007


Conference Schedule

Workshops may start on Wednesday, 30 January, in advance of the main
conference. Conference sessions will be held on Thursday, 31 January and
Friday, 1 February, and for the morning of Saturday, 2 February. On
Saturday afternoon an optional excursion will take participants to join
in the celebrations for Mardi Gras in New Orleans, returning to Baton
Rouge on Sunday morning at approximately 2 a.m.


Associated Workshops

Distributed Programming Abstractions Workshop:
http://www.mardigrasconference.org/DPA_workshop.php

Workshop on Economic Models for Distributed Systems:
http://www.iw.uni-karlsruhe.de/emds2008/

Workshop on Grid-Enabling Applications:
http://www.mardigrasconference.org/GEA_workshop.php



Call for Tutorials
Mardi Gras Conference - http://mardigrasconference.org/
31 January 2008

We invite proposals for tutorial presentations that will teach attendees
how to use software and infrastructure for distributed systems.
Tutorials will be half-day events that involve a combination of expert
presentations with guided, hands-on opportunities for the participants.
Tutorials should address the conference theme:

"From lightweight mash-ups to lambda grids: Understanding the spectrum
of distributed computing requirements, applications, tools,
infrastructures, interoperability, and the incremental adoption of key
capabilities."

Proposals for tutorials should be submitted by email to the tutorial
chair, Douglas Thain (dthain at nd.edu). A tutorial proposal should consist
of a cover page indicating the title, presenter, abstract, and a
statement of the relevance to the conference; a two-page outline of the
tutorial contents; and a one-page resume for each presenter.

Tutorials will take place in a standard meeting room with digital
projector. Proposals may assume that attendees will bring laptop
computers and have wireless network access. However, presenters should
have a backup plan in the event of a network outage. Proposals requiring
any other special resources should be discussed with the tutorial chair
in advance, and clearly indicated in the proposal.

One presenter from each accepted tutorial will receive free conference
registration and Saturday afternoon/evening excursion ticket to
MardiGras in New Orleans.

Important Dates:
5 November 2007 - Tutorial Proposals Due
26 November 2007 - Tutorial Acceptance Notification
Tutorials Presented in advance of main conference