2009 IEEE Symposium on
Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing
(VL/HCC'09)

Corvallis, Oregon, 20-24 September 2009

http://eecs.oregonstate.edu/vlhcc09/

From the beginning of the computer age, researchers and computing
practitioners have sought ways to make interactions with computers more
human-oriented. For example, visual languages have long been used to
provide effective communication between humans and computers. Visual
languages have been successfully employed for end-user programming,
modeling, and rapid prototyping; they have supported design activities
by people of many disciplines and backgrounds including architects,
artists, children, engineers, and scientists. In the last few years, a
number of languages and technologies have incorporated visual-based
counterparts to facilitate human-human communication through Web
technology and electronic mobile devices.

The IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing
(VL/HCC) is the premier international forum for researchers and
industrial practitioners to discuss the theory, applications and
evaluation of technologies, visual and otherwise, that enhance the role
of humans in the computing process.

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the Symposium (originally
Workshop). Established in 1984, the mission of the IEEE Symposium on
Visual Languages and Human-Centric Computing (previously called Visual
Languages from 1984 to 2000 and Human-Centric Computing from 2001 to
2003) is to support the design, formalization, implementation, and
evaluation of computing languages and environments that are easier to
learn, easier to use, and easier to understand by a broader group of
people.

This includes all research aimed at the above mission, regardless of
whether it uses entirely visual technology, text, or instead uses sound,
virtual reality, the web, or any other technologies. Examples of
research addressing this problem include, but are not limited to,
language/environmental design aspects, theory that supports the many
media used toward this goal, implementation aspects, empirical work,
software comprehension aspects (including software visualization), and
software modeling and/or software engineering aspects.

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SCOPE AND TOPICS
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We solicit original, unpublished research papers that focus on one or
more aspects of human-centric computing technology, for instance visual
programming or interaction, text, sound, virtual reality, the Web, or
other multimedia technologies.

Research papers may address cognitive and design aspects, underlying
theories, formal methods, taxonomies, implementation efforts, tool
support, and empirical studies. We also solicit short papers that
present work in progress or demonstrations of tools. Areas of interest
include, but are not limited to, the following:

- Visual languages for programming, modeling, and communication
- Visual domain-specific languages
- End-user software development
- Computer-mediated human-human communication
- Empirical studies of human-centric software technologies
- Languages and tools for domain-specific software development
- Multimodal interaction
- Sketch and Gestural Computing
- Software visualization and algorithm animation
- Visual or multidimensional model-driven development
- Visual and Spatial/Temporal Reasoning
- Visual Query Languages and Databases
- Visual Techniques for Business Processes and Workflow

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PAPER SUBMISSION
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We invite two different types of paper submissions:

(a) full-length papers, up to eight pages, reporting on research or
experience, and
(b) short papers, up to four pages, describing work in progress or
tool demonstrations.

All papers must be formatted in IEEE double-column conference format and
must be submitted electronically. All submissions will be reviewed by
members of the international Program Committee.

Accepted papers will appear in the Proceedings of VL/HCC'09, published
by the IEEE Computer Society. The paper submission deadline is March 8,
2009; to aid in reviewer assignments, we also request that prospective
authors submit abstracts and titles by February 22, 2009. Authors of the
best papers accepted for the conference will be invited to submit
revised versions for a special issue of the Journal of Visual Languages
and Computing.

The conference also invites submissions for workshops and tutorials to
be held in conjunction with the symposium; more information can be found
on the VL/HCC'09 web site.

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IMPORTANT DATES
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Workshop/Tutorial proposals: 22 February 2009
Workshop/Tutorial decision: 9 March 2009

Paper abstracts: 22 February 2009
Paper submission: 8 March 2009
Notification of decision: 18 May 2009
Camera-ready copy: 14 June 2009

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SYMPOSIUM ORGANIZERS
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GENERAL CHAIR
Martin Erwig, Oregon State University, USA

PROGRAM CO-CHAIRS
Rob DeLine, Microsoft Research, USA
Mark Minas, Universitaet der Bundeswehr Muenchen, Germany

PUBLICITY CHAIR
Robin Abraham, Microsoft Corp., USA

WORKSHOP/TUTORIAL CHAIR
Judith Good, University of Sussex, UK

STEERING COMMITTEE
Margaret Burnett, Oregon State University, USA
Maria Francesca Costabile, University of Bari, Italy
Gregor Engels, University of Paderborn, Germany
Martin Erwig, Oregon State University, USA
John Grundy, University of Auckland, New Zealand
Mark Minas, Universitaet der Bundeswehr Muenchen, Germany
Mary Beth Rosson, Pennsylvania State University, USA
Andy Schuerr, University of Darmstadt, Germany
Steve Tanimoto, University of Washington, USA

PROGRAM COMMITTEE
Robin Abraham, Microsoft Corp., USA
Paolo Bottoni, "Sapienza" - University of Rome, Italy
Margaret Burnett, Oregon State University, USA
Gennaro Costagliola, University of Salerno, Italy
Phil Cox, Dalhousie University, Canada
Juan de Lara, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, Spain
Gregor Engels, Universitaet Paderborn, Germany
Andrew Fish, University of Brighton, UK
Jeff Gray, University of Alabama at Birmingham, USA
John Grundy, University of Auckland, New Zealand
Reiko Heckel, University of Leicester, UK
John Hosking, University of Auckland, New Zealand
John Howse, University of Brighton, UK
Andrew J. Ko, University of Washington, USA
Alessio Malizia, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Spain
Kim Marriott, Monash University Melbourne, Australia
Nikolay Mirenkov, University of Aizu, Japan
Paul Mulholland, The Open University, UK
Brad A. Myers, Carnegie Mellon University, USA
Marian Petre, The Open University, UK
Emmanuel Pietriga, INRIA, France
Beryl Plimmer, University of Auckland, New Zealand
David Redmiles, University of California, Irvine, USA
Alexander Repenning, University of Colorado, USA
Martin Robillard, McGill University, Canada
Pablo Romero, University of Sussex, UK
Mary Beth Rosson, Pennsylvania State University, USA
Andy Schuerr, University of Darmstadt, Germany
Margaret-Anne Storey, University of Victoria, Canada
Shin Takahashi, University of Tsukuba, Japan
Juha-Pekka Tolvanen, MetaCase, Finland
Kang Zhang, The University of Texas at Dallas, USA