SIGIR 2007 News Letter for June: MySIGIR special issue

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                   SIGIR 2007 News letter for June 2007 
                        special issue on MySIGIR

            The 30th Annual International ACM SIGIR Conference
                       23-27 July 2007, Amsterdam
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In this edition:

  1. SIGIR 2007 to break all time registration record
  2. Q-go supports SIGIR Amsterdam at the gold level!
  3. MySIGIR Forums: discuss *anything* about SIGIR Amsterdam
  4. MySIGIR Interviews: Keith Van Rijsbergen likes it with 'uitjes'?
  5. MySIGIR Blogs: Preprints of conference papers on-line
  6. MySIGIR Tips for Visiting Amsterdam
  7. MySIGIR Users by points
  8. SIGIR 30th Anniversary Search Demo
  9. Important Dates and More Info

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1. SIGIR 2007 to break all time registration record

With the early registration closed on 15 June, we have 422 people
registered for SIGIR Amsterdam. That is more early registrations than 
the record year in 2006 in Seattle. If people keep on registering for 
SIGIR Amsterdam in the same pace, wel will break last year's record, 
which is a surprise considering that the non-US SIGIR conferences 
tend to be a bit smaller than the conferences in the US.

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2. Q-go supports SIGIR Amsterdam at the gold level!

We happily announce that Q-go has decided to support ACM SIGIR as a 
gold sponsor! Q-go is a fast-growing international software company 
based in the Netherlands. Q-go's unique Natural Language Search 
technology supports all major European languages and allows people 
to formulate questions in their own words through interactive channels.
As a result, Q-go.s Customer Interaction Management software offers 
organisations optimum insight in their clients. or employees. real 
information needs and patterns. Q-go runs branch offices in Amsterdam,
Bonn, Munich, Zürich, Madrid and Barcelona and supports a variety of 
major organisations, including ING Postbank, PGGM, Deutsche Telekom, 
UWV, Deutsche Postbank, Unigarant, Fortis, La Caixa, BBVA and 
Telefonica.

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3. MySIGIR Forums: discuss *anything* about SIGIR Amsterdam

Luis Sarmento in the MySIGIR Forum about Restaurants: "If you are 
planning to stay in Amsterdam for a while and cook for yourself it 
will be important to know where to buy the appropriate ingredients 
for your recipes.  Because of its multi-cultural population, you can 
find in Amsterdam just about anything you need for cooking all types 
of foods." Read more on: http://my.sigir2007.org 
(access restricted to registered participants)

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4. MySIGIR Interviews: Keith Van Rijsbergen likes it with 'uitjes'?

Jaap Kamps at U. Amsterdam has interviewed IR researchers who are in 
some way connected to Amsterdam.  Read about the first thing that 
comes Keith van Rijsbergen to mind when he thinks about Amsterdam:
Salted herring. "On arrival I usually first find a stall to buy a 
salted herring 'met uitjes'" (i.e, "with onions"). Or a valuable tip 
from Christof Monz: "Rent a bike (or buy one second hand) while you're 
in Amsterdam. It's the best way to experience the city. (watch the 
traffic though...)"
Read more on: http://my.sigir2007.org/ir_interviews
(access restricted to registered participants)

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5. MySIGIR Blogs: Preprints of conference papers on-line

Some IR researchers already attempt to start discussions on their work
via their MySIGIR blog. Fernando Diaz, for instance, posted links to 
preprints of UMass SIGIR papers: "Feel free to add links to your papers 
in the comments section on that page."
Read more on: http://my.sigir2007.org/blog
(access restricted to registered participants)

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6. MySIGIR Tips for Visiting Amsterdam

Ahhhh, Amsterdam, the capital of The Netherlands... It's a small city 
by European standards (population 800.000) but one of the most charming 
and delightful towns of Europe. It possesses the largest historical 
inner city of Europe, with beautiful monumental buildings and an 
extensive web of canals. The city can easily be explored on foot (...)

MySIGIR contains many tips for visting Amsterdam, provided by IR
researchers that registered for the conference. There are pages 
describing museums, theatres, shopping streets, monuments, open air 
markets and several other features of interest:  generally within 
walking distance of the conference location.
Read more on: http://my.sigir2007.org/
(access restricted to registered participants)

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7. MySIGIR users by points

Registered SIGIR participants that contribute to MySIGIR earn points
for every post they make. The SIGIR participant that earned by far
most points is Edgar Meij: 241 points; which is 200 more than our 
participant "test", which obviously is the organisations test 
account... Contribute to MySIGIR to get your points:
See: http://my.sigir2007.org/userpoints
(access restricted to registered participants)

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8. SIGIR 30th Anniversary Search Demo

In many surveys about internet search, users admit they sometimes 
search "just for fun": no information need, no page to go to, no 
transaction to make, only fun... As you might know, SIGIR will have 
its 30th conference this year. To celebrate this Claudia Hauff and 
Djoerd Hiemstra have created some -just for fun- search applications 
at U. Twente: Enter your favorite IR topic to search in the abstracts 
of 30 years of SIGIR and find experts, periods and geographical 
locations associated with your search. Did you know that experts on 
"BM25" came from the UK, Australia and China in the last 5 years? 
You do not even know what "BM25" stands for? In that case,  
Have fun at: http://www.sigir2007.org/search

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9. Important Dates and More Info

July 15 2007:      Dead line for registration with normal fee.
July 23-27, 2007:  Conference in Amsterdam

Web site:    http://www.sigir2007.org
MySIGIR:     http://my.sigir2007.org
Syndication: http://www.sigir2007.org/news/feed.rss
NewsLetter:  Send SUBSCRIBE <FIRSTNAME> <LASTNAME> to sigir07@cs.utwente.nl
             (leave the list at any time sending "SIGNOFF SIGIR2007")
Contact:     info@sigir2007.org

Received on Thursday, 21 June 2007 14:39:39 UTC