From: Jyrki Kontio [jyrki.kontio@hut.fi]
Sent: 9. kesäkuuta 2004 12:04
Subject: ISERN'04 topics


Dear ISERN member, 

our recent survey and subsequent steering committee discussion resulted in a set of potential topics to be discussed. We would now like to send them to you so that you can
a) indicate your preferences for them by voting and
b) provide any additional feedback on them and even propose additional topics. 

Based on your feedback, we will select the topics and launch the preparations for the sessions. 

Please, respond by 
=> June 18 <=
to this email and indicate your preferences and any additional feedback. You can give your topic preference simply by listing the topics you would like to be included, either by copying them to your message or by referring to the numbers used below. 

Potential topics for ISERN'04

1) Ownership of data, testbeds and artifacts
What should be the principles regarding the ownership of empirical data and empirical study designs and corresponding artifacts? For instance, if you replicate a study, using someone else's design and experiment artifacts, should ask for a permission and should the original axperimenter be a coauthor?

2) Empirical theory
What should theories in empirical software engineering be like and how do we
develop and validate them? See http://www.dagstuhl.de/04051/ for background discussion. 

3) Guidelines for empirical research 
Do we need guidelines (or even standards) for designing empirical studies and presenting the results of such studies. What should these standards/guidelines contain, how should they be created and deployed?

4) Links to other communities
What are the relevant communities we can learn from and what communities we should be influencing, e.g., SW metrics, dependability, HCI communities. 

6) Value of empirical research results
How to assess the value of empirical research results, how to communicate this to industry and to the scientific community?

7) Speed of change
Empirical research takes time. How to deal with the speed of change in the SW technology and in SW companies -- how to obtain results faster and how to ensure that results do not become obsolete when underlying technologies change. 


Finally, note that the ISERN'04 meeting website is now open and will gradually contain more details about the meeting: http://www.soberit.hut.fi/ISERN04/

Regs...JKo

Jyrki Kontio, Mobile: +358 (40) 8232 800
E-mail: jyrki.kontio@hut.fi
http://www.soberit.hut.fi/jkontio/