[Apologies if you receive dozens of copies]

		BCS IRSG Workshop on Relevance Feedback in IR

                                                 6 September, 1999
                                            Hosted by the Glasgow IR Group
                               Department of Computing Science University
of Glasgow.
			http://www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/rf

Relevance feedback (RF) provides techniques to improve a search by
utilising relevance information given by a user. This information can be
used in a number of ways, e.g. reweighting query terms, adding or deleting
query terms, or altering a user profile. As a rule, RF is a successful,
practical solution to the uncertainty inherent in information seeking,
however the performance of individual techniques can vary over queries,
collections and users. RF has also been criticised for not being accessible
to users: the basic operation is simple (marking documents relevant) but
how users' should make relevance decisions to get the best performance from
a RF system is not always obvious. In the current environment of large,
diverse collections of multimedia articles, it is important to develop
precise, adaptable RF techniques and a more complete understanding of the
characteristics of RF.

In this workshop we are keen to investigate the diversity of work on RF:
from novel algorithms for RF, through theoretical aspects of RF to users'
understanding of the techniques.

In order to facilitate a discussion-oriented meeting, we are asking for
submissions of extended abstracts only. These will be published as a
technical report of the meeting.

Attendance will be limited, so please register with the organisers. It is
not necessary to submit an abstract in order to attend the event.

Topics of interest:

Papers are solicited dealing with, but not limited to, the following areas:
Practical applications of RF
Theoretical investigations of RF
RF and multimedia
Machine learning and RF
Semantic RF
RF and the user
Negative RF
RF and user profiling
Interactive RF techniques


Submission of papers:

Deadlines: Authors should submit extended abstracts (approximately 5 sides
of A4/US letter) to Ian Ruthven, see below, to arrive no later than July
7th, 1999. Authors will be notified of the programme committee's decision
by the 8th August 1999.

Program committee:
Nathalie Denos, CLIPS-IMAG
Mark Dunlop, University of Glasgow/Risoe (workshop co-chair)
Ayse Goker-Arslan, The Robert Gordon University
Kerry Rodden, University of Cambridge
Ian Ruthven, University of Glasgow  (worshop co-chair)

Workshop fees
The workshop will be held on Glasgow University's main campus - a short
underground journey from the City centre. The flat fee for the workshop is
£50. This includes registration and printed extended abstracts. To
guarantee registration please e-mail Ian Ruthven in advance of the
workshop.

Correspondence:
Direct correspondence, inquiries and submissions relating to this workshop
should be addressed to:

Ian Ruthven, Department of Computing Science, University of Glasgow,
Glasgow, G12 8QQ, Scotland.
Email: [log in to unmask]

Ian Ruthven and Mark Dunlop

--------------
Ian Ruthven				Tel: +44 (0)141 330 6292
Research Assistant			Fax: +44 (0)141 330 4913
Department of Computing Science
University of Glasgow
http://www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/~igr

"To be good, according to the vulgar standard of goodness, is obviously
quite easy. It merely requires a certain amount of sordid terror, a certain
lack of imaginative thought and a certain low passion for middle-class
respectability"
				Oscar Wilde (who else)




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