[TYPES/announce] CFP: Second Workshop on Hot Topics in Software Upgrades (HotSWUp 2009)

[Iulian Neamtiu]

Several research teams are using type-based approaches to ensuring
software update safety, so this CfP should be of interest to list  
members.
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                              CALL FOR PAPERS

HotSWUp 2009: Second ACM Workshop on Hot Topics in Software Upgrades

                        (co-located with OOPSLA 2009)
                               Orlando, Florida
                              October 25, 2009

                           http://www.hotswup.org


OBJECTIVES

The goal of HotSWUp is to identify cutting-edge research ideas for
implementing software upgrades. Software must be upgraded regularly
to incorporate bug fixes and security patches or to keep up with the
evolving requirements. Whether upgrades are applied offline or online,
they significantly impact the software's performance and reliability.
Recent studies and a large body of anecdotal evidence suggest that,
in practice, upgrades are failure-prone, tedious, and expensive.

HotSWUp is an interdisciplinary workshop, based on synergies among
the areas of programming languages (e.g., as reflected at
conferences such as OOPSLA or PLDI), software engineering (e.g., as
reflected at ICSE or FSE) and systems (e.g., as reflected at SOSP or
OSDI).  By seeking contributions from both academic researchers and
industry practitioners, HotSWUp aims to combine novel ideas
with experience from upgrading real systems. The workshop builds on
the success of HotSWUp'08, where the paper presentations and lively
discussions attracted a diverse audience of researchers.

The topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

- Programming language / operating system / database support for
  software upgrades.
- Improving the reliability of upgrades (e.g., support for upgrade
  validation and for rollback after failures).
- Support for system restructuring (e.g., evolving APIs, changes to
  database schemas).
- Identifying dependencies between components and guaranteeing safe
  interactions among mixed versions.
- Coordinating and disseminating upgrades in large-scale distributed
  systems.
- Tools for preparing, testing, and applying software upgrades.
- Human factors in software upgrades (e.g., usability of upgrading
  tools, common operator mistakes).



SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

We solicit position papers that fall into one of the following  
categories:

- Suggest how a successful approach can be applied in a different  
context
  (e.g., static dependency analysis applied to distributed-system  
upgrades).
- Refute an old assumption about software upgrades (e.g., by presenting
  negative results).
- Describe a new problem or propose a novel solution to an old problem.
- Present empirical evidence related to the practical implementation of
  software upgrades.

Papers must not exceed 5 pages, in the ACM SIGPLAN 10 point format,  
and must
be submitted electronically at http://www.hotswup.org The workshop  
proceedings
will be published in the ACM Digital Library.



IMPORTANT DATES

Submission deadline             September 4, 2009
Acceptance notification         October 4, 2009
Camera-ready deadline           October 16, 2009
Workshop date                   October 25 or 26, 2009


ORGANIZERS

Program Co-Chairs
- Tudor Dumitras, Carnegie Mellon University, USA
  (main contact)
- Iulian Neamtiu, University of California, Riverside, USA
- Eli Tilevich, Virginia Tech, USA

Program Committee
- Sameer Ajmani, Google, USA
- Gustavo Alonso, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
- Taweesup Apiwattanapong, National Electronics and Computer
  Technology Center, Thailand
- Umesh Bellur, IIT Bombay, India
- Gavin Bierman, Microsoft Research, UK
- Dilma da Silva, IBM Research, USA
- Danny Dig, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA
- Jason Nieh, Columbia University, USA
- Manuel Oriol, University of York, UK
- Mark E. Segal, Laboratory for Telecommunications Sciences, USA
- Peter Sewell, Cambridge University, UK
- Liuba Shrira, Brandeis University, USA


MORE INFORMATION

Visit the workshop's homepage at:
http://www.hotswup.org