Commercial Users of Logic Programming workshop (CULP 2010): Call for Companies
Tom Schrijvers
CULP 2010
http://www.cs.kuleuven.be/~toms/CULP2010/
Edinburgh, UK -- July 21
Co-located with ICLP 2010 and FLOC 2010
CALL FOR COMPANIES
Academic research in Logic Programming goes back at least as far as
the early
1970s -- that is already more than 35 years. During most of that time,
ICLP has
been the premier venue for presenting academic research, and many more
related
workshops and symposia exist. At the same time, Logic Programming is
being used
widely in industry. However, it has enjoyed at lot less visibility
there, and
until now it has lacked a designated forum that brings together
industrial
practitioners and researchers.
The goal of the Commercial Users of Logic Programming (CULP) workshop
is to put
the commercial and practical use (and users) of Logic Programming in
the
spotlight. It aims at providing professionals with an opportunity to
share
their experience, and to enable contacts with other commercial users
and
academics.
The first and quite successful CULP workshop was organized in Pasadena
(USA) at
the occasion of ICLP 2009. The CULP Google group hosts commercial user
discussions the whole year round, as well as the slides of the past
CULP
workshops.
If you use Logic Programming in a commercial, industrial or
governmental
setting, we warmheartedly invite you to consider giving a talk at the
workshop.
Alternatively, if you know someone who would give a talk, please
forward this
message to them.
FORMAT
------
CULP is organized as a workshop co-located with the 26th International
Conference on Logic Programming and the Federated Logic Conference (8
conferences on logic in computer science). The workshop takes place on
July
21, 2010, in Edinburgh, UK.
Presentations will have 25 minute slots, of which at least 5 are
reserved for
discussion. They inform participants about the use of logic
programming in an
industrial setting.
Insights and reflections on many aspects are sought. For example, but
not
exclusively:
- Programming in the different stages and styles of commercial
development,
- Engineering, scalability and usability issues,
- Success stories and (non-)viability of Logic Programming in
particular
application areas,
- Aspects not directly related to application development, such as
marketing,
recruitment, management,...,
- ...
Novel research results are not expected. Of course, novel fields of
application
and novel approaches will be very welcome.
SUBMISSIONS
-----------
If you are interested in presenting at CULP 2010, send an e-mail to
tom -dot- schrijvers -at- cs -dot -kuleuven -dot -be
with your name, affiliation and a short description (at most 500
words)
of the proposed talk.
Full paper submissions are not required.
IMPORTANT DATES
---------------
Submission before: April 10, 2010
Notification: April 15, 2010
CULP workshop: July 21, 2010
A.L.
In the current economic situation, most companies in the USA restrict
travel to "critical cases", i.e. sales and customer support only.
Therefore, "scientific tourism" to "discuss with other practitioners"
seems to be unlikely.
This would be also unlikely in better economic situation. I would
rather never get monies for "25 minutes discussion" in London or
elsewhere, not even considering the fact that what I do and how I do
is company confidential.
Although the idea of association of practitioners is a good one, its
implementation is typically academic. There is old joke explaining how
academia and industry reacts to troubles: Industry: You will get one
more manager. Academia: Let us make a conference.
A.L.
Tom Schrijvers
I'm sorry to hear that your company is in a tight spot, and that your
position does not allow you to discuss your work.
For those interested in CULP, let me clarify that there is plenty of
opportunity
for informal discussion, in addition to the more formal 25 minute
presentations.
Cheers,
Tom
A.L.
<tomena...@gmail.com> wrote:
>A.L.,
>
>I'm sorry to hear that your company is in a tight spot, and that your
>position does not allow you to discuss your work.
>
As I said, when it regards travel restrictions, this is not only MY
company. Actually, MY company has less restrictions than other I know.
Regarding disclosing technology, this is not MY company that has
restrictions. This is common across the industry.
As I said, I believe that "industrial practitioners" need other format
than developed by academics. Academia and industry seems to be a bit
different worlds.
At least, we don't have grants to cover travel, and $5,000 for
meaningless trip is something what I would be afraid to ask my boss.
And this is too much to spend for my own pocket.
And again - this is not only MY problem, or problem of my company. All
companies are squeezing dollars and restricting unnecessary spending.
Confront the reality. Not everybody is sitting in ivory tower
A.L.
Parker
> As I said, I believe that "industrial practitioners" need other format
> than developed by academics. Academia and industry seems to be a bit
> different worlds.
>
> At least, we don't have grants to cover travel, and $5,000 for
> meaningless trip is something what I would be afraid to ask my boss.
> And this is too much to spend for my own pocket.
I agree with A.L. on these points. Just getting together and talking
about what we do is not very time- or cost-effective. As commercial
users we have different needs.
Here are some ideas:
1. A *good* centralised repository of Prolog resources, editable by
everybody (a wiki). It should contain links to
- coding guidelines
- tools (code beautifiers, determinacy checkers, documentation
tools, type checkers, refactoring tools)
- libraries, an easy-to-search index of existing libraries.
- research results for Prolog related to programming-in-the-large:
best-practice for large-scale applications, guaranteeing reliability,
etc
- The FAQ is out-of-date and having one maintainer receiving
emailed contributions is 30+ year-old technology. (but it's a good
starting point for a wiki)
- Students should be encouraged to contribute.
2. Support for easier outsourcing/consulting. We sometimes wish to
have code implemented by someone else rather than do it inhouse. It
should be easier to do whatever the scale of the job (an algorithm, a
library, or a complete application). From the Prolog resource
repository (1) link to freelance sites that have a prolog section. cf
Elance, GetAFreelancer, Guru, oDesk and RentACoder.
3. Support for placements. It should be easier to recruit students
for unpaid/low paid work as part of their course. They get real-
world experience, we get low-cost development: win-win (when the
student is good). Make the process easy and we'll try out your
students. By doing placements in our companies, students have a much
better chance of getting a position when we're hiring. When they have
positions in our companies, it will strengthen contact between
companies and professors.
4. Prizes: companies could contribute a small sum annually that goes
towards a Prolog Industry Prize which is awarded to any contribution
that improves commercial Prolog software development. As commercial
users we contribute say $10-50 per year (instead of ~$5000 for a
conference) and vote on what helped us most that year.
or :
5. Prolog Xprize: By issuing a software bounty (or inducement prize)
a user, or a group of users, can attract coders to solve a programming
problem. Commercial users specify the new feature and then announce
that they will give any coder who successfully completes the job a
certain amount of money. By pooling their money, users can create a
bounty to attract programmers with spare time. http://www.fossfactory.org/browse.php
http://www.bigcarrot.com/
That's off the top of my head. Anyone else agree with the above or
have better ideas?
Cheers,
Parker
Tom Schrijvers
>
> That's off the top of my head. Anyone else agree with the above or
> have better ideas?
>
> Cheers,
> Parker
Hi Parker,
Great that you have so many constructive ideas. I propose that you
also
raise them in the CULP Google group forum:
http://groups.google.com/group/cu-lp
I have already made pages there, after this year's CULP workshop,
to make some information available that you also propose to collect.
I'm only lacking the data. So if you are interested in offering
internship / summer job positions for students, please say so.
Then I'll help you spread the word to the academic world.
Same for freelance job opportunities and offers.
Cheers,
Tom