SoCPaR 2009 is seeking original high quality Special Session on focused discussion addressing innovative research highlighting significant topics and emerging issues which are related to the conference theme and with the desired expertise. Interdisciplinary session themes are strongly sought after. Each special session resembles a mini-conference within the main SoCPaR meeting will run throughout the conference in parallel to other tracks (except the keynote presentations).

Session organizer(s) will be responsible for advertising, promoting, managing paper selection and chairing the parallel special session during the conference. Papers will be reviewed by the panel reviewers from the Session Program Committee and approved by the General Conference Program Committee. Each Special Session is expected to have at least 5 papers and at least one author of each paper must register for the paper present during the session. Special Session paper submission will be done through SoCPaR 2009 submission system and been evaluated with the same standard as the regular conference paper. All accepted papers will be included in the SoCPaR 2009 conference proceedings.

Financial Constraints

Special Sessions are an integral part of the SoCPaR 2009 meeting. Special Session chair and speakers will have to pay their expenses including registration to the meeting. Therefore, we highly encourage session organizers to seek independent funding, and to include any commitment that they may have secured in the proposal. SoCPaR 2009 will help in the administrative aspects of assigning the rooms, announcements and adding the detailed schedule to the conference program. Note that the SoCPaR 2009 cannot financially support the speakers or the Special Session organizer(s).

Submission Evaluation

All proposal submissions will be reviewed by the SoCPaR 2009 special session chair and the general conference committee. The following criteria will be considered:

• Relevance, interest, and value of the topic to SoCPaR 2009 attendees.
• Complementarily to the SoCPaR 2009 program provided by the other tracks.
• Completeness, clarity, and quality of the session proposal.
• Qualification of the submitter(s) to organize the workshop.
• Likely success of the proposed session.
• Overlap with other proposal or pre-selected activity.

Submission Guidelines

Please send the Special Session proposals to the special session chair at sarfraz@cfw.kuniv.edu and a copy to socpar2009@gmail.com with the following information:

• Title of the Special Sessions
• Rationale of the need and objective of the session
• Session outline
• Specific topics of interest
• Contact information for the proposed session chair(s)
• Short biography of the proposed session chair(s)
• List of potential reviewers panel, including, affiliations and contact information

Important Dates

Special session proposals: May 15, 2009 May 31, 2009
Acceptance of special sessions: May 15, 2009 June 5, 2009

List of Approved Special Sessions

Special Session Chair

Prof. Dr. Muhammad Sarfraz
Department of Information Science
Kuwait University, Kuwait
Email: sarfraz@cfw.kuniv.edu

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