General talk about software patterns

[Juha Parssinen <juha.parssinen AT vtt.fi>]

Sorry for multible postings!

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VikingPLoP 2005

The Fourth Nordic Conference
on Pattern Languages of Programs
September 23-25, 2005
Otaniemi (http://www.otaniemi.fi), Finland

http://www.vikingplop2005.org

Conference chair: Juha Pärssinen, juha dot parssinen at vtt dot fi
Program chair: Sami Lehtonen, sami dot lehtonen at vtt dot fi


IMPORTANT DATES
Papers due (via email to chairs) April 15, 2005
Shepherding starts               April 22, 2005
Notification of acceptance       July 20, 2005
Early registration ends          August 1, 2005
Conference drafts due            August 26, 2005
Final versions of papers due     November 30, 2005


VikingPLoP 2005 - Call for Contributions

Mature design and engineering disciplines often have handbooks
describing common solutions to known problems. Bridge designers do not
design bridges from first principles each time; they adapt solutions
from a proven body of knowledge.

Patterns can be the basis for software engineering handbooks. They
embody core solutions to problems known to arise while building systems.
A complete pattern language can guide developers in producing workable
software by addressing many common design problems.

About the Conference
--------------------

VikingPLoP is a conference in the tradition of the PLoP conferences
(http://www.hillside.net/conferences/), which invite you
to add your expertise to the growing body of patterns literature.
Other conferences in the PLoP(tm) series include PLoP(tm),
EuroPLoP(tm), ChilliPLoP(tm), KoalaPLoP(tm), MensorePLoP(tm) and
SugarLoafPLoP(tm).

These conferences follow a different format from conferences such as
OOPSLA. The focus here is on learning, discussion and reflection, not on
the presentation of finished or traditionally academic work. At a
PLoP(tm) series conference, attendees review each others material and
help one another to refine their work, run workshops and engage in
fruitful discussions.

Against the scenic backdrop of the Nordic countries, VikingPLoP offers a
variety of writers workshops for submitted pattern papers, focus groups and
other activities. The conference provides participants with the
opportunity to share their experience with patterns and software. As
with the PLoP series of conferences, our overall goal is to build a
community of people who want a better way to work.

Writers' Workshops
------------------

Writers' workshops are at the heart of the VikingPLoP programme. In these
workshops we discuss pattern papers accepted for the conference. Pattern
papers may consist of an individual pattern, a collection of related
patterns or a whole pattern language.

Writers' workshops follow a format that has been adopted from the
creative writing community. The style is that of a peer review. Rather
than standing up and presenting papers, authors will receive feedback on
their papers, with the opportunity to offer feedback to other authors.
This approach reinforces the principle that pattern papers form a
literature intended to capture and communicate existing practice. Both
the papers and the workshop format are therefore in contrast to the more
conventional approaches found in academic and commercial conferences.

Each writers' workshop contains around five to eight papers. A session
of around one hour is devoted to each paper. The workshop attendees will
have read the papers allocated to the workshop prior to the conference.
During the session the author of the paper under discussion remains
silent while the other authors discuss it, explaining what additional
insights and views they have, offering constructive criticism
throughout. Authors should stay with the workshop containing their
papers over the entire conference. Non-authors should select a workshop
of interest and, once selected, also remain with that group throughout
the conference. This stability encourages communication, ensures the
consistency of feedback and enables the group to develop a good rapport.

Before pattern papers are accepted for a writers' workshop, they are
shepherded non-anonymously. This means that if you submit a pattern
paper, an experienced pattern author will get in touch with you to
discuss your submission. Shepherding is an integral and iterative part
of the submission process intended to assist you in improving your paper
prior to the conference.

At the end of the shepherding process, the shepherd and the programme
committee decide whether a paper is ready for a writers' workshop.
Experience shows that, after shepherding, most submitted papers qualify.
Because the focus of the writers' workshops is on feedback and
improvement, papers are not considered final even when they have been
workshopped. Authors incorporate the feedback they receive at the
writers' workshop into their papers before the papers go into the final
proceedings the year following the conference.

Topics of Interest
------------------

Historically, the patterns papers at PLoP conferences have focused
on aspects of programs and their production. This includes aspects of
software systems, such as programming, software architecture, analysis
and data modeling, project management and education.

Patterns might be so specific as to name particular objects,
interface elements or implementation structures in a solution; or so
general as to describe high-level architectures. They could describe
configurations of hardware, software or even people. More recently,
PLoP conferences have included papers on topics not related to
programs. These papers are also welcome.

Your patterns need not cover original subject matter, but it is
important that they describe mature knowledge based on experience.
Patterns also work together with other patterns. We encourage the
submission of small collections of patterns that build on each other
and above all, we encourage the submission of patterns that tie into
the existing body of published pattern literature.

We especially welcome submissions from first-time authors. For
examples of patterns from past years, browse the material at the
Patterns Home Page (http://www.hillside.net/patterns/).

Submission Guidelines
---------------------

As at all PLoP conferences, we invite submissions of pattern papers
that describe in pattern form an individual pattern, a collection of
related patterns, or a fragment of a pattern language. The papers you
submit for the conference are considered works-in-progress.

After you submit your paper, you'll be assigned an experienced
pattern author, or shepherd, who will help you improve your pattern
for acceptance for a writers workshop at the conference. During the
writers workshop, you'll get additional feedback on your paper from
other patterns authors. Authors of papers that were not accepted for a
writers' workshop may still attend the conference. As in previous
years, we will have activities to develop pattern writing skills.

Authors should send their papers in English in PDF format to the
conference chairs no later than April 15. There is no limit on the
length of submissions; they should be as long as necessary to fully
describe the patterns (most papers submitted to previous PLoPs have
been 20 pages or less).

To ease the shepherding and workshop process, for submissions longer
than 10 pages (2000 words) please designate a 10 page section to be
reviewed in detail. When preparing your submission, remember that
readers often prefer concise writing. Please contact the conference
chairs if you have any other questions about the paper length, or how
to select sections for detailed review. Also, if you want to submit
several papers to conference, please contact the conference chairs in
advance.

  Submissions must be accompanied with the following information:

    1. The paper's title
    2. Author's name/s
       (if there is more than one author, indicate which author is 
       the primary contact person)
    3. Email addresses for all authors
    4. Postal address for the primary contact
    5. Phone number for the primary contact
    6. An abstract for the submission
       (important: shepherds will decide whether they will shepherd a
       paper or not based on this abstract.)


Proceedings
-----------

All submitted papers will be initially published online on a web
site available to the shepherds and other authors. The conference
drafts will be published on the conference web site about three weeks
in advance. Participants are encouraged to prepare for the conference
by reading the papers.

The final Conference Proceedings will appear about half a year after
the conference. The papers will be published both in the proceedings
and on the conference web site. The paper in the final Conference
Proceedings will be a citable publication. Authors retain full
copyright on their papers.