Sunday, September 30, 2007

Campus Technology Call for Presenters: Deadline Extended

Campus Technology magazine is extending its call for presenters for the Campus Technology Winter '07 conference, to be held in San Francisco Dec. 10 through 12. The deadline for submissions has been extended to Oct. 8 in eight technology categories.

Campus Technology is looking for poster presenters covering Business Intelligence, Collaboration, Assessment, Globalized Education, IT Leadership, Security, eLearning, and Teaching and Learning Technology. These topics will be covered in poster sessions at the conference, which is CT's first-annual winter workshop event. Poster presenters may also have their work published online in CT's event proceedings.

Higher education professionals and consultants and researchers working in higher education will be considered. Those wishing more information can contact Kay Heitzman at kheitzman@1105media.com. Proposals can be submitted online at the link below.

http://www.campustechnology.com/mcv/events/conference/Winter07/

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Beyond Search – Semantic Computing and Internet Economics: Request for Proposals 2007

Has it become any easier to find a needle in a haystack or just buy a new needle in the information age?

The surface Web consists of tens of billions of pages in over 80 languages and is growing rapidly. Beneath this surface Web, lies a deep Web of much greater size. Tens of thousands of merchants offer millions of products. Complexity, size, and rate of expansion combine to make finding information and products on the Web a significant challenge. The ‘user,’ now participates as an ‘innovator’ and ‘contributor,’ adding to the size and content, but not necessarily the structure, of the Web.

Today, we are still in the early stages of the digital information age, with few opportunities to greatly improve the ways in which the information seeker finds information.

Continuing to enhance our ability to find or to supply information on the Internet requires breakthroughs in fundamental research. Some of the key technologies needed to find, discover, extract, publish, share, or supply information, while making sure that the online world does not turn into a primary place for information leaks, include:

Semantic Computing (making the web meaningful)
Internet Economics (understanding the commercial needs of the users)
To help make advances in those areas, Microsoft is making real-world search and ad data available to academia, addressing the academic need for more large-scale data and encouraging innovation in academic research. Microsoft believes that by increasing the availability of relevant, large, and current data sets from Windows Live, new analysis of data and new algorithm developments in Semantic Computing and Internet Economics will be supported.

Awards
The total amount available under this request for proposals (RFP) is $1,000,000. Microsoft Research anticipates making approximately 20 awards averaging $50,000, with a maximum of $100,000 for any single award. All awards will be made in $US. Awards are generally made as unrestricted gifts to the institution. Outside the United States other local restrictions may apply to the terms of the award. For current policy regarding non-U.S. countries, please refer to http://research.microsoft.com/ur/us/fundingopps/faq.aspx

For all awards, payment of indirect costs (“overhead”) is not permitted.

Microsoft Research will take into account the reasonableness of the amount requested in any proposal in light of stated deliverables, local costs, etc., and reserves the right to fund proposals at an amount lower than requested if appropriate.

Awards are made for the purpose of seed-funding larger initiatives, proofs of concept, or demonstrations of feasibility. It is important to understand that funding will continue after the first year only in exceptional circumstances, and that the principal investigators should therefore make every effort to leverage Microsoft Research funds as one component of a diverse funding base in a larger or longer-running project.

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

EDUCAUSE Midwest - March 17-19 Chicago

Presentations from institutions of higher learning may be proposed on topics including, but not limited to, the issues suggested in the track descriptions.

Track presentations will take place March 17-19, at the InterContinental Chicago Hotel in Chicago, Illinois. They are 45 minutes long. Presenters will be responsible for registering in advance for the conference, paying the full conference registration fee, and securing and paying for travel and lodging.

Poster sessions are one hour long and will take place immediately after lunch on March 18. Presenters will be responsible for registering in advance for the conference, paying the full conference registration fee, and securing and paying for travel and lodging.

Proposals will be reviewed by the conference program committee, and selected to provide a program that offers a comprehensive and diverse treatment of issues of importance to today's IT professional. Proposal respondents will be notified of decisions in December.