First Annual Big Systems (BS) Conference

Symposium Overview

Welcome to BS '07! BS '07 brings together experts in the field of computer systems to talk about computer systems and even talk to computer systems. They usually don't talk back, though.

The 2007 BS conference seeks papers about computer systems that likely have been the source of a great deal of pain and suffering for you over the past few weeks. Topics of interest include:

File systems
Storage systems
File and storage systems
Other

Reviewing of full papers will be done by the BS program committee, which consists of me (Remzi). Papers must use a typeface no smaller than 10 point, and be no longer than ten (10) 8.5" by 11" pages including everything EXCEPT references (text and figures must fit onto 10 pages, but references can go on additional pages). All papers must be submitted as PDF.

Program Committee

Remzi H. Arpaci-Dusseau, University of Wisconsin, Madison, (Program Chair, Program Commitee Member, Advertising Guru)

Important Dates and Locations

Paper submissions are due by 11:59pm, Thursday, December 20th, 2007.
Date of workshop: The conference has already taken place! You missed it. Lots of great talks, back on Friday 12/14. Where were you?

Submitting a Paper

As described above, submitted papers must be no longer than 10 single-spaced 8.5" x 11" pages, including figures, tables (but not references, which can go onto additional pages), using 10 point or larger fonts. Papers longer than 10 pages will be burned by the program chair and automatically receive a very bad grade, like a C or more likely a very strong D. Papers so short as to be considered "much too short" (e.g., 7 pages or less) will not receive full consideration and thus also a bad grade, like a C or if you're lucky, a BC. Papers should be in two-column format. Papers must be submitted in the PDF file 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 workshops, all papers will be accepted and distributed via the online electronic proceedings. Thus, submit and be guaranteed a place at BS '07.

    Paper Organization

    A good paper will likely have the following components:
    Title and Author List: should be self-evident.
    Abstract: Describe in short what you do, how you do it, and the results.
    Introduction: Spend a little more time. Motivate the problem. Start with generalities, and narrow in on your problem. Describe your approach. What is good about it? Potential weaknesses? Summarize results. Give an outline of the rest of the paper.
    Related Work: Write about other similiar work. What is different than what you did? What is similar? Try to draw general conclusions about what others have missed.
    Description of what you did/built: Use pictures and words to show what you did. Be detailed. Think about how to organize what you are doing.
    Results: Graphs and tables, all clear and understandable. Full description of each experiment and the results. What is the point of each graph? What conclusions can you draw from it?
    Conclusions: Appropriately drawn from the work described, as general as possible, with a hint of "lessons learned"; what did you get out of the study? Summary is what you did; conclusions are what you learned.
    One good way to structure a paper is to find a paper you liked in class and copy its structure (loosely).

    If you plan on using latex (which is great for this sort of thing), click here for an example Latex template (in tar format). If you plan on using MS Word (though why would you?), please make sure you know how to generate PDF.

    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 11:59pm on Thursday, December 20th, 2007. Submission of all papers must be made in electronic form, in PDF 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. 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.

    Best Paper Award

    An award will be given for the best paper at the symposium. The award will be printed on a certificate, which will be placed ceremoniously in your mailbox, if at all.

    Sister Conferences

    BS is the latest in a series of systems conferences based around CS 736. Its sister conferences are BAD, USEDNIX, SOS-Please, OS-DIE, and SLOW. Please feel free to peruse the on-line proceedings of these conferences for examples of previously accepted submissions.