Call: Virtual Conferencing Workshop (VR in VR) at IEEE VR 2020

Call for Papers

Virtual Conferencing Workshop (VR in VR)
At IEEE VR 2020 (http://ieeevr.org/2020/)
March 22, 2020
https://sites.google.com/view/vrinvr2020

Important Dates

• January 31st, 2020: Proposals due (January 15th, 2020)
• February 4th, 2020: Notification of results (January 25th, 2020)
• February 12th, 2020: Camera-ready submission for inclusion in the Conference Proceedings
• March 22nd: Workshop

Note1: We have an option to present remotely and still have your paper in the workshop proceedings.

Note2: All papers will appear in the workshop proceedings that will be hosted on the IEEE Xplore Digital Library

OVERVIEW

In recent years, academic and non-academic communities are taking the climate impact of flying more seriously, from the anti-flying movement known as “flight shame” – or flygskam in Swedish, where the movement began – to the “flying less” movement in academia (https://academicflyingblog.wordpress.com). Travel for academic conferences has an impact on the environment and also prevents access for certain groups. The VR community is well placed to take a lead in developing alternatives to the face to the conference because our community has a long history of implementing and evaluating key pieces of collaborative technology that might facilitate new types of online meeting. It is perhaps time to ‘eat our own dogfood’ and start to plan a substantive future for the IEEE VR Conference that is online. With VR technology we can reduce flying by supporting virtual conferencing, from pure virtual conferences to remote attendance at physical conferences to providing the glue that supports multi-site events. Beyond climate impact, remote and distributed conferences offer the potential for many more people to get the benefits of attending academic conferences they would not otherwise have access to, due to personal, financial or political constraints.

We are calling for short and full papers exploring topics related to hosting, attending, and supporting conferences in virtual worlds as well as the social and cultural issues that revolve around the conference itself and how we want it to evolve in the future. We use the terms virtual worlds so as not to limit this workshop to immersive, head-worn-display-based VR and AR. Desktop and phone-based interfaces to 3D worlds, immersive VR, and AR are all appropriate technologies for discussion, especially when we consider how to support access by less affluent participants. Beyond just the technology, we encourage a diverse range of interdisciplinary approaches and perspectives. Works in progress and position papers are also encouraged.

TOPICS

We invite individuals, teams, and organizations to submit on the following topics:

1. The benefits and challenges of attending conferences in person and/or virtually.
2. Experiences with and evaluations of current social VR platforms.
3. Interaction between presenters and audiences.
4. Interaction between audience members in virtual spaces.
5. Mixed local / remote system design, especially interactions between physical and virtual venues.
6. Proposals of how to support multi-site events.
7. Hybrid formats with participation in both physical locations and VR.
8. Managing massive communities in shared conference spaces.
9. Design of effective social AR and VR spaces and formats.
10. The design, process, and production of compelling presentations and performances in social VR.
11. Developing and designing effective spaces for conferences.
12. Integrating live video and other media into VR conferences and presentations.
13. Solutions to challenges related to timezones, languages, and regional participation.
14. New ways to think about conferences beyond once-per-year events.
15. Radical ideas about the future of academic publishing and the role of the conference and journal papers.

In addition we are interested in proposals for panel discussions. We encourage potential organisers to contact us (vrinvr2020@gmail.com). Suggested panel topics include, but are not limited to:

1. Reflections on existing social VR settings.
2. Strategies to overcome social barriers to using VR technology.
3. Accessibility through VR.
4. The future of the IEEE Virtual Reality conference itself.

REMOTE PARTICIPATION AT THE WORKSHOP

Uniquely for this workshop, we will be facilitating remote participation (and presentations) via an immersive virtual space. In addition to one or more panel discussions hosted by a mixture of local and virtual panelists, participants will have the option to participate remotely in the workshop. Information and links for logging in will be provided closer to the conference date.

We welcome demonstrations of other platforms, both commercial and research. However please contact the organizers about how this might work in practice. For example, we would like any presentation to physical attendees to also be available to remote participants.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Conference submissions must be submitted via email to the Workshop Chairs (vrinvr2020@gmail.com) by the given deadline. Interested contributors are encouraged to contact the chairs with any questions or to discuss potential experiences or demonstrations.

Each deadline is 23:59:59 AoE (Anywhere on Earth) == GMT/UTC-12:00 on the stated day, no matter where the submitter is located.

Your submission should include the following:

• A 4 to 8-page research paper, and pointers to accompanying videos.
• We are also accepting work-in-progress research abstracts (2-3 pages) that address late-breaking or ongoing research.
• Potential attendees are encouraged to submit position papers (1-2 pages) that outline their research or practical interests and plans as they relate to the workshop.
• (Optional) Interactive Presentation: You are welcome to include an interactive experience or demo as part of your presentation. If you will do so, either describe it in your paper or submit an additional one-page outline of your interaction/demo.
• (Optional) Remote Presentation: Please indicate as early as you can whether you will take up the option to present remotely and indicate what platforms you would use. We cannot guarantee to support any specific platform, but we have a wide pool of expertise to draw upon.

The format of the workshop will be contingent on the kind and number of accepted submissions. We expect to have a mixed panel (described above) and some number of research presentations based on the 4-8 page papers. We also anticipate a short poster session and/or lighting talks based on the submitted work-in-progress and position papers.

ORGANISERS

• Blair MacIntyre
• Anthony Steed
• Rob Lindeman