Call for Papers

HoWCoM aims to bring together developers of collaborative MDE tools, and the extended modeling community, in order to enable the evaluation of these tools by hands-on experimentation. The results of the evaluations will be used to assess the features, maturity, and challenges of the domain.

Topics of interest

The topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

  • Real-time synchronous means of collaboration
  • Asynchronous means of collaboration
  • (In)consistency management
  • Advanced conflict visualization and resolution techniques
  • Architectures for collaborative modeling, including cloud, desktop, and mixed models
  • Data-level collaborative techniques
  • Domain-specific collaborative solutions
  • Informal means of collaboration
  • Semantic techniques (versioning, visualization, etc.)
  • Human factors in collaboration

Submissions

We invite the following three types of submissions.

Regular workshop papers (up to 10 pages) reporting on fundational results in collaborative model-driven software engineering.

Vision papers (5 pages) presenting innovative ideas.

Case papers (up to 10 pages) elaborating on a collaborative case, and demonstrating its solution via a tool of choice with the intent to conduct a hands-on session and report the results. Case papers will be reviewed and published as a regular paper in the proceedings. The description of the case should follow the instructions outlined in the Case paper – Detailed instructions section below. After the workshop, experimenting teams are encouraged to report their results and data to facilitate a joint publication of results. See the Joint publication section below.

Protocols (up to 10 pages) defining protocols for empirical evaluation of a tool with no intent to conduct a hands-on session. Protocols will be reviewed and published in the proceedings as the RR1 part of a registered report.

Presentations

Authors of each accepted paper will be invited to give a regular talk.
Protocol authors will be invited to give a talk about their initial results if applicable, and to demonstrate the protocol during their talk.

Case paper – Detailed instructions

Should include a general challenge, and an example scenario of that challenge. Authors of accepted case papers will be invited to give a talk during the morning session, and their tools will be used during the afternoon session. Case papers elaborate on a collaborative case, and demonstrate its solution via a tool of choice. A valid submission consists of two parts: (i) the paper itself, and (ii) the specifics of the hands-on session.

The paper [10 pages + 1 page of references]

  1. Introduction
    • Bird’s eye view of the paper as a whole.
    • Roughly 1-2 paragraphs on the case, tool, and solution, respectively.
  2. Case
    • Description of the problem/application.
      • What is the context and purpose of the case?
      • What is modeled?
    • Focus on the collaborative needs: teams, views, etc.
      • Why is collaboration needed for this case?
    • What variations of the case affect collaboration?
  3. Methodology/tool
    • General description of tool.
      • Name
      • Reference, link to the tool
    • Summary of typical use(s)
      • Real-time, offline collaboration
      • Granularity of collaboration unit
    • Any features specifically interesting for this case?
  4. Solution
    • How is the domain reflected in the tool?
    • How does the tool support the required type of collaboration?
    • Optional: Link to demonstration video
      • Screencast / short video demonstrating how collaboration is facilitated with the tool to perform modeling activities on the case.
      • Maximum length of 5 minutes.
      • Note that if you do not provide a video, reviewers will only evaluate the paper, which should provide enough detail demonstrating the use of the tool for the case.
  5. Hands-on session
    • What insights do you aim to gain from these hands-on experiences?
    • Why are these insights relevant? (Market research, validation of approach, publicity, feedback from user base, etc.)
    • Are there any specific research questions you would like to answer through the participation of the community? What is the novel aspect of the problem that has not been published earlier?
  6. Conclusion
    • Summary of the case and solution
    • Future plans for the tool support

Reasonable deviations from the format are accepted. Please contact the Organizers in case the above format does not fit your needs.

Proceedings

All submitted papers must adhere to the IEEE Conference format, and submitted electronically through the HoWCoM EasyChair web page. An Overleaf template is also available. All submissions will be reviewed by at least 3 members of the program committee. Authors of case papers should expect a particularly detailed feedback to allow them to leverage the opportunity the workshop provides to the fullest extent. All accepted papers will be published in the MODELS Companion proceedings and the workshop website.

To be published in the proceedings, at least one author of accepted papers must present their work at the workshop. Authors of accepted case papers commit to conduct a hands-on session for their tool during the afternoon session.

Joint publication

To report the results of the workshop in a coherent way, the Organizers will facilitate the synthesis of a joint publication. Experimenting teams are encouraged to report their results in a format to be agreed during the workshop, and will be invited to contribute to shaping the publication if they wish.

If applicable, authors of case papers must ensure they meet the rules of their local ethics committee and they mus share a consent form with the Organizing Committe. The Organizing Committee will take care of distributing the consent forms to participants during the event.