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<TITLE>SIGIR 2004 Workshop on Context in Information Retrieval</TITLE>
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<P ALIGN=LEFT><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">--- Apologies for cross-postings ---</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=LEFT><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">Workshop on Information Retrieval in Context (IRiX) at SIGIR 20004</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=LEFT><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">Call for Participation</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=LEFT><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">There is a growing realisation that relevant information will be </FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=LEFT><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">increasingly accessible across media and genres, across languages and </FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=LEFT><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">across modalities. The retrieval of such information will depend on </FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=LEFT><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">time, place, history of interaction, task in hand, and a range of other </FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=LEFT><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">factors that are not given explicitly but are implicit in the </FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=LEFT><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">interaction, the user's history and situation, and the ambient </FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=LEFT><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">environment, namely the context. IR research is now conducted in </FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=LEFT><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">multi-media, multi-lingual, and multi-modal environments, but largely </FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=LEFT><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">out of context. However, such contextual data could be used effectively </FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=LEFT><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">to constrain retrieval of information thereby reducing the complexity of </FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=LEFT><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">the retrieval process. To achieve this, context models for different </FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=LEFT><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">modalities will need to be developed so that they can be deployed </FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=LEFT><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">effectively to enhance retrieval performance. Thus truly context-aware </FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=LEFT><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">and context-dependent retrieval will become feasible.</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=LEFT><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">This workshop will explore a variety of theoretical frameworks, </FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=LEFT><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">characteristics and research approaches to focus on an agenda of </FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=LEFT><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">activities to be recommended for future interactive IR (IIR) research. </FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=LEFT><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">There is a strong programme of contributed papers and panels for the </FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=LEFT><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">Workshop; we now invite those interested in the issue of context as it </FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=LEFT><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">affects information retrieval to register to participate in the workshop </FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=LEFT><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">as attendees and contributors to the discussion. Registration for such </FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=LEFT><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">participation is open until the day of the workshop, which is 29 July </FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=LEFT><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">2004 in Sheffield, England.</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=LEFT><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">For further information about the Workshop, including the schedule and </FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=LEFT><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">program, please see</FONT> <A HREF="http://ir.dcs.gla.ac.uk/context/"><U><FONT COLOR="#0000FF" SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">http://ir.dcs.gla.ac.uk/context/</FONT></U></A><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">; to register for </FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=LEFT><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">the Workshop, please go to</FONT> <A HREF="http://www.sigir.org/sigir2004/"><U><FONT COLOR="#0000FF" SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">http://www.sigir.org/sigir2004/</FONT></U></A><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">. Please note </FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=LEFT><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">that one can register for the Workshop independently of registering for </FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=LEFT><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">SIGIR 2004.</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=LEFT><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">Organisers:</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=LEFT><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">Peter Ingwersen, Royal School of LIS, Denmark</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=LEFT><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">Keith van Rijsbergen, University of Glasgow, Scotland</FONT></P>
<P ALIGN=LEFT><FONT SIZE=2 FACE="Arial">Nick Belkin, Rutgers University, USA</FONT></P>
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