DSN Workshop on Hot Topics in System Dependability (HotDep'07)

Authors are invited to submit position papers to the Third Workshop on
Hot Topics in System Dependability (HotDep'07). The workshop will be
part of the 2007 International Conference on Dependable Systems and
Networks (DSN 2007, 25-28 June 2007), in Edinburgh, UK.

Important dates

Submission deadline:  February 15, 2007
Author notification:  March 31, 2007
Camera ready copy:    May 4, 2007
Workshop date:        June 26, 2007 (with DSN, in Edinburgh, UK)
Workshop web site:    http://www.hotdep.org/2007


Goals

The goals of HotDep'07 are to bring forth cutting-edge research ideas
spanning the domains of fault tolerance/reliability and systems, and
to build linkages between the two communities (e.g., between people
who attend traditional "dependability" conferences such as DSN and
ISSRE, and those who attend "systems" conferences such as OSDI, SOSP,
and EuroSys). Previous HotDep workshop programs are available at
http://hotdep.org.

HotDep'07 will center on critical components of the infrastructures
touching our everyday lives: operating systems, networking, security,
wide-area and enterprise-scale distributed systems, mobile computing,
compilers, and language design. We seek participation and
contributions from both academic researchers and industry
practitioners to achieve a mix of long-range research vision and
technology ideas anchored in immediate reality.


Workshop Organizers

Program Co-Chairs
Miguel Castro, Microsoft Research, Cambridge
John Wilkes, Hewlett-Packard Labs

Program Committee
Marcos K. Aguilera, Hewlett-Packard Labs
Lorenzo Alvisi, University of Texas at Austin
Paul Barham, Microsoft Research, Cambridge
Garth Gibson, Carnegie Mellon University
Anne-Marie Kermarrec, INRIA, Rennes
Petros Maniatis, Intel Research
Armando Fox, University of California, Berkeley
Ashvin Goel, University of Toronto
Rick Schlichting, AT&T Labs
Paulo Verissimo, University of Lisboa, Portugal
Yuanyuan Zhou, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Willy Zwaenepoel, EPFL, Lausanne

Steering Committee Chair
George Candea, EPFL, Lausanne


Position papers

Position papers (maximum length of 5 pages) should preferably do one
of the following:

     1. describe a novel approach to an old problem
     2. debunk an old, entrenched perspective on dependability
     3. articulate a brand-new perspective on existing problems in
        dependability
     4. describe an emerging problem (and, possibly, a solution) that
        must be addressed by the dependable-systems research community

The program committee will favor papers that are likely to generate
healthy debate at the workshop, and ones that might open up new,
interesting directions. We recognize that many ideas will not be 100%
fleshed out and/or entirely backed up by quantitative measurements,
but papers that lack credible motivation and some evidence of
plausibility are likely to be rejected.

Topics

Possible topics include but are not limited to the following:

   * automated failure management, enabling systems to adapt on the fly
     to changes or exceptional conditions

   * techniques for better detection, diagnosis, or recovery from
     failures

   * forensic tools for use by administrators and programmers after a
     failure or attack

   * techniques and metrics for quantifying aspects of dependability in
     specific domains (e.g., measuring the security, scalability,
     responsiveness, or other properties of a software service)

   * tools/concepts/techniques for optimizing tradeoffs among
     availability, performance, correctness, and security

   * novel uses of technologies not originally intended for
     dependability (e.g., using virtual machines to enhance
     dependability)

   * advances in the automation of management technologies, such as
     better ways to specify management policy, advances on mechanisms
     for carrying out policies, or insights into how policies can be
     combined or validated

Participation, Submission and Selection Process

Authors are invited to submit position papers that are no longer than
5 single-spaced 8.5" x 11" pages, including figures, tables, and
references; two-column format, using 10-point type on 12-point
(single-spaced) leading; and a text block 6.5" wide x 9" deep. Author
names and affiliations should appear on the title page.

Papers must be in PDF format and must be submitted via the web
submission form (see http://www.hotdep.org/2007). Except as noted
below, submissions will be treated with strict confidentiality during
the reviewing process.

Authors should not submit work that is substantially similar to work
that is currently under review in other venues. The program committee
may share information about submitted papers with other conference
chairs and journal editors to ensure conformance to this. Any authors
who are uncertain whether their submission meets these guidelines are
welcome to contact the program chairs, at chairs@hotdep.org.

Authors of accepted papers will be asked to produce a final PDF and
the equivalent HTML. Both will be published online at the workshop web
site one month prior to the workshop. Accepted papers will also be
printed in a supplemental volume to the DSN proceedings.

Accepted papers will be put into one of two categories: hot papers and
hot talks. The former will be granted more pages in the proceedings,
and more time to present their work. Both kinds of papers will be
published on the web site and the proceedings. In addition, authors of
both kinds of accepted papers will be asked to prepare a poster for
the workshop.