NOBUGS 1997 workshop -- advance notice

[Tim Mooney]

                        NOBUGS 1997
                       Advance Notice

The Advanced Photon Source and the Intense Pulsed Neutron Source
propose jointly to host the second international NOBUGS (New
Opportunities for Better User Group Software) workshop at Argonne
National Laboratory.  Topics to be addressed include software,
hardware, standards, and techniques involved in instrument control,
data acquisition, management, and analysis at synchrotron beamlines,
neutron-scattering facilities, and perhaps other similar kinds of
facilities such as telescopes.

NOBUGS originated as a workshop sponsored jointly by ESRF and ILL.
For more background information, see the following URL's
http://193.49.43.2/computing/nobugs/nobugs_top.html (ESRF/ILL)
http://www.dl.ac.uk/SRS/FCIS/nobugs.html (Daresbury)

We plan to hold the workshop on Dec. 10-12, 1997, at Argonne's
conference facilities on the Advanced Photon Source site.  Local
accommodations include the Argonne Guest House
(http://www.aps.anl.gov/travel/anlghhome.html), located about a block
away from the auditorium, and several off-site hotels within a few
miles of Argonne.

We propose the formation of an international advisory committee for
this NOBUGS workshop.  This committee should be representative of the
communities involved, and it should undertake to discover the best work
in the field and bring it to the attention of the local organizers.
The advisory committee should also advocate for the workshop, and
disseminate information about it.  If you know of someone who should be
on this committee, please send us a message.

A tentative (straw-person) agenda follows.  (The real agenda will be
determined by the abstracts submitted, and from your comments.)

	Day 1: The state of the field
	-----
	Facility reports
	    I hope we can focus on the big ideas that distinguish various
	development efforts from each other, and save the details for the
	poster sessions.  It might be good for speakers in this session
	informally to comment on each other's abstracts (or merely notes)
	before the workshop, so that comparisons can be made.  Also, I think
	it would be particularly useful to have input from telescope developers;
	we probably have much more common ground with them than existing
	collaborations are taking advantage of.

	One or two talks describing the novel features of existing, proven
	control or data-acquisition systems.

	One hour poster session.

	Possible evening session of vendor presentations.

	Day 2: Technical details
	-----
	Half-hour talks on subjects small enough to permit in-depth
	discussion.  Talks should describe existing systems or systems under
	active development, but not systems merely in the planning stages.

	One hour poster session (same posters?).

	Possible evening session of tutorials.

	Day 3: The future
	-----
	Half-hour talks on unproven systems under active development, ideas
	for new developments, new directions, etc.  We should try to attract
	one or two talks on genuinely hare-brained ideas with credible
	potential to influence future developments.  We should also try to set
	aside time for discussion, and it may be best to hold parallel sessions
	simply to get small enough audiences that discussion will actually
	take place.

Well, there's a first approximation.  Comments are welcome.

The deadline for abstracts to be considered for oral presentation is
Oct. 1, 1997.  For poster presentations, the abstract deadline is Nov.
1, 1997.  It would be helpful if people who are just thinking about
presenting would send a title right away, so we can get some
statistical information on topics to direct our planning.

Workshop registration fees will be determined later.

Please send any comments to
	Tim Mooney (mooney at aps.anl.gov) or
	Ray Osborn (ROsborn at anl.gov)

If you plan to attend, please send a message to
	Julie Wulf (jmwulf at aps.anl.gov)

We plan to set up a Web page for this workshop.  It will be reachable via
http://www.aps.anl.gov/conferences.html

There is an email listserver for NOBUGS, maintained by Bill Pulford
(ESRF).  To subscribe, send a message to listproc at esrf.fr with the
message body of the form
	SUBSCRIBE NOBUGS <your email address>
To post a message to everyone on the mailing list, send email to
	nobugs at esrf.fr

Please feel free to forward this announcement appropriately.  If you
know of other email lists to which this announcement should be sent,
please let us know too.

-------------------------------------------------------
Dr. Tim Mooney (mooney at aps.anl.gov)
Beamline Controls & Data Acquisition
Experimental Facilities Division
Advanced Photon Source, Argonne National Laboratory

Dr Ray Osborn                  Tel: +1 (630) 252-9011
Materials Science Division     Fax: +1 (630) 252-7777
Argonne National Laboratory    E-mail: ROsborn at anl.gov