# Call for Talk Proposals: Off the Beaten Track 2017
http://conf.researchr.org/track/POPL-2017/OBT-2017
21st January 2017
(co-located with POPL 2017, Paris, France)
## Background
Programming language researchers have the principles, tools,
algorithms and abstractions to solve all kinds of problems, in all
areas of computer science. However, identifying and evaluating new
problems, particularly those that lie outside the typical core PL
problems we all know and love, can be a significant challenge. This
workshop’s goal is to identify and discuss problems that do not often
show up in our top conferences, but where programming language
research can make a substantial impact. We hope fora like this will
increase the diversity of problems that are studied by PL researchers
and thus increase our community’s impact on the world.
While many workshops associated with POPL have become more like
mini-conferences themselves, this is an anti-goal for OBT. The
workshop will be informal and structured to encourage discussion. We
are at least as interested in problems as in solutions.
## Scope
A good submission is one that outlines a new problem or an
interesting, underrepresented problem domain. Good submissions may
also remind the PL community of problems that were once in vogue but
have not recently been seen in top PL conferences. Good submissions do
not need to propose complete or even partial solutions, though there
should be some reason to believe that programming languages
researchers have the tools necessary to search for solutions in the
area at hand. Submissions that seem likely to stimulate discussion
about the direction of programming language research are encouraged.
Use your imagination. It’s hard to imagine how a paper that discusses
programming languages could be considered out of scope. If in doubt,
ask the program chair.
## Previous OBTs
2017 marks the sixth year of OBT and its co-location with POPL. The
previous five workshops were:
– OBT 2016, St. Petersburg, USA
– OBT 2015, Mumbai, India
– OBT 2014, San Diego, USA
– OBT 2013, Rome, Italy
– OBT 2012, Philadelphia, USA
## Important Dates
* 10th November 2016: Submission deadline
* 8th December 2016: Notification
* (18th December 2016: POPL early registration)
* 21st January 2017: Workshop
## Submission
Please submit your talk proposal via EasyChair:
https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=obt2017
All submissions should be in PDF format, two pages or less, in at
least 10pt font, printable on A4 and on US Letter paper. Authors are
welcome to include links to multimedia content such as YouTube videos
or online demos. Reviewers may or may not view linked documents; it is
up to authors to convince the reviewers to do so.
For each accepted submission, one of the authors will give a talk at
the workshop. The length of the talk will depend on the submissions
received and how the program committee decides to assemble the
program.
Reviewing of submissions will be very light. Authors should not expect
a detailed analysis of their submission by the program
committee. Accepted submissions will be posted as is on this web
site. By submitting a document, you agree that if it is accepted, it
may be posted and you agree that one of the co-authors will attend the
workshop and give a talk there. There will be no revision process and
no formal publication.
## Organisers
General chair:
– Lindsey Kuper, Intel Labs, USA
Programme chair:
– Robert Atkey, University of Strathclyde, UK
Programme committee:
– Ekaterina Komendantskaya, Heriot-Watt University, UK
– Chris Martens, North Carolina State University, USA
– Tomas Petricek, University of Cambridge, UK
– Wren Romano, Google Inc., USA
– Mary Sheeran, Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden
– KC Sivaramakrishnan, University of Cambridge, UK
– Wouter Swierstra, Utrecht University, Netherlands