First Annual

Symposium on Operating Systems, Please

(SOS-Please 1)

Symposium Overview

Authors are invited to submit papers to the First Annual Symposium on Operating Systems, Please Conference (SOS-Please) describing original research related to the design, implementation, and analysis of operating systems. We encourage papers about systems issues on a wide range of platforms, including embedded and portable computers, workstations, high performance machines, and production environments. Preference will be given to papers of unusual novelty or unusual practicality, papers whose authors ensure replicable results (e.g., by making available source code and experimental data), and papers critiquing prior work or continuing a significant research dialogue. We seek a broad conference of high relevance, high quality, with work submitted by students who are not high (at least, at the moment of submission).

The field of operating systems is closely tied to other (lesser) areas of computer science such as computer architecture, data communications, programming systems, and applications. Thus, SOS-Please attracts attendees with diverse backgrounds, and we explicitly solicit papers not only in the "traditional core" of the field, but also in the interface to these other areas. Topics of interest include, but are not restricted to:

Multiprocessor systems
Languages and Programming
Transactional approaches
High-Performance systems
The architecture / OS interface
Communications
Ubiquitous computing
Support for multimedia
I/O and file systems
Heterogeneous systems
Distributed systems
Reliability
Performance tools and techniques
Real-time systems
Low Power OS
Mobile Computing
System structure and organization
Security

Reviewing of full papers will be done by the program committee, which consists of all of one person. Papers must use a typeface no smaller than 10 point, and be no longer than twelve (12) 8.5" by 11" pages including everything except references (thus, a paper can have 12 pages of text and figures, and as many pages of references as needed); the Program Chair will shred papers exceeding these limits. Substantially identical papers must not have been published elsewhere or be under consideration for publication elsewhere, except perhaps in a real conference.

The symposium will unfortunately never take place (as everyone wants to go home for the holidays), and thus consists of zero days of single-track technical sessions with presentations of refereed papers and a keynote address. A session of Work-in-Progress presentations is not planned, and informal Birds-of-a-Feather sessions may not be organized by attendees. Refereed papers will be published in the Electronic Proceedings, provided free to technical session attendees and the rest of the free world, and not made available for purchase.

Program Committee

Remzi H. Arpaci-Dusseau, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Program Chair, Publicity Chair, Steering Committee, Chief of Staff, and Commander in Chief.

Important Dates and Locations

Paper submissions due by Midnight, Monday, December 18, 2000.
Date of conference: Conference will unfortunately never take place.
Where it will not take place: Brisbane, Australia

Submitting a Paper

As described above, submitted papers must be no longer than 12 single-spaced 8.5" x 11" pages, including figures, tables, but not including references, using 10 point or larger fonts. Papers longer than 12 pages will be ripped to bits by the program chair and automatically receive a very bad grade. Papers so short as to be considered "extended abstracts" will not receive full consideration and thus a bad grade. Papers are allowed to be in two-column format. A good paper will demonstrate that the authors:
  • are attacking a significant problem
  • have devised an interesting, compelling solution
  • have demonstrated the practicality and benefits of the solution
  • have drawn appropriate conclusions
  • have clearly described what they have done
  • have clearly articulated the relation to previous work
    • Submissions will be judged on originality, significance, interest, clarity, relevance, and correctness. Unlike most other conferences, all papers will be accepted and distributed via the online electronic proceedings.

    Authors of all papers will be expected to provide an HTML page containing the abstract of and links to their paper, and to the software and experimental data described in their paper. Papers, software, and data will all be collected for inclusion in an electronic version of the symposium.

    Deadline and Submission Instructions

    Submitted papers must be received by Midnight, December 18, 2000. Submission of all papers must be made in electronic form, in either PDF or Postscript format. As stated above, an HTML page, containing the abstract and author information, and including a link to the paper, should be submitted. A template of the abstract page is available here. All submissions should be sent to remzi@cs.wisc.edu, and the email should consist of a link to the HTML page and related documents and software.

    Note that December 18 is a hard deadline -- no extensions will be given.

    Best Paper Award

    An award will be given for the best paper at the symposium, likely in the form of a handshake and friendly smile from the instructor.

    Sister Conference to SOS-Please: OS-DIE

    SOS-Please is the sister conference of OS-DIE, whose on-line proceedings can be found here. Please feel free to peruse the OS-DIE proceedings for examples of previously accepted submissions.