Commercial Users of Functional Programing Workshop (Victoria, BC) Call for Presentations

[Jim Grundy]

Sorry for posting a non-pdx event, but this once a year event is
pretty close by this time (Victoria, BC). I've been to a couple of
these in the past, they are a venue for people who apply functional
programming to get together and discuss both the technical aspects of
what they do, but also to network with others do the same and discuss
commercial and managerial issues associated with working with
functional languages. The CUFP workshop
is co-located with ICFP, historically the premier academic/research
workshop on functional
programming, but this year ICFP is starting down the road of
introducing a
parallel industrial tack to the event. I encourage you all to
consider attending or, better yet,
offering a presentation.

If you have any questions about the CUFP workshop, I'd be happy to try
to answer them
for you.

Kind regards

Jim Grundy (CUFP 2008 co-chair)


Commercial Users of Functional Programming Workshop (CUFP) 2008

Functional Programming As a Means, Not an End

Call for Presentations

Sponsored by SIGPLAN
Co-located with ICFP 2008
_________________________________________________________________

Presentation proposals due 2 June 2008

http://cufp.functionalprogramming.com
_________________________________________________________________

Functional languages have been under academic development for over
25
years, and remain fertile ground for programming language research.
Recently, however, developers in industrial, governmental, and open
source projects have begun to use functional programming
successfully
in practical applications. In these settings, functional
programming
has often provided dramatic leverage, including whole new ways of
thinking about the original problem.

The goal of the CUFP workshop is to act as a voice for these users
of
functional programming. The workshop supports the increasing
viability
of functional programming in the commercial, governmental, and
open-source space by providing a forum for professionals to share
their experiences and ideas, whether those ideas are related to
business, management, or engineering. The workshop is also designed
to
enable the formation and reinforcement of relationships that
further
the commercial use of functional programming. Providing user
feedback
to language designers and implementors is not a primary goal of the
workshop, though it will be welcome if it occurs.

Speaking at CUFP

If you use functional programming as a means, rather than as an
end,
we invite you to offer to give a talk at the workshop.
Alternatively,
if you know someone who would give a good talk, please nominate
them!

Talks are typically 30-45 minutes long, but can be shorter. They
aim
to inform participants about how functional programming played out
in
real-world applications, focusing especially on the re-usable
lessons
learned, or insights gained. Your talk does not need to be highly
technical; for this audience, reflections on the commercial,
management, or software engineering aspects are, if anything, more
important. You do not need to submit a paper!

If you are interested in offering a talk, or nominating someone to
do
so, send an e-mail to jim (dot) d (dot) grundy (at) intel (dot) com
or
simonpj (at) microsoft (dot) com by 2 June 2008 with a short
description of what you'd like to talk about or what you think your
nominee should give a talk about. Such descriptions should be about
one page long.

Program Plans

CUFP 2008 will last a full day and feature an invited presentation
from Michael Hopcroft, the product unit manager for the forthcoming
release of Microsoft Visual Studio F#. Additionally, the program
will include a mix of presentations and discussion sessions. Topics
will range over a wide area, including:
* Case studies of successful and unsuccessful uses of functional
programming;
* Business opportunities and risks from using functional
languages;
* Enablers for functional language use in a commercial setting;
* Barriers to the adoption of functional languages, and
* Mitigation strategies for overcoming limitations of functional
programming.

There will be no published proceedings, as the meeting is intended
to
be more a discussion forum than a technical interchange.

Program Committee

* Lennart Augustsson <lennart (dot) augustsson (at) gmail (dot)
com>
* Matthias Blume <blume (at) tti-c (dot) org>
* Adam Granicz <granicz (dot) adam (at) intellifactory (dot) com>
* Jim Grundy (co-chair) <jim (dot) d (dot) grundy (at) intel
(dot) com>
* John Lalonde <lalonde (at) abstrax (dot) com>
* Andy Martin <akmartin (at) us (dot) ibm (dot) com>
* Yaron Minsky <yminsky (at) janestcapital (dot) com>
* Simon Peyton Jones (co-chair) <simonpj (at) microsoft (dot)
com>
* Ulf Wiger <ulf (dot) wiger (at) ericsson (dot) com>

This will be the fifth CUFP, for more information - including
reports
from attendees of previous events - see the workshop web site:
http://cufp.functionalprogramming.com