Call for Papers: CONVERSATIONS 2020 – 4th International Workshop on Chatbot Research – Amsterdam, the Netherlands

Chatbot researchers and practitioners are invited to CONVERSATIONS 2020, a two-day workshop on chatbot research and design. This is the fourth event in the CONVERSATIONS workshop series, where chatbot researchers meet to collaborate and share their work. No registration fee is required for the workshop, and it is a stimulating venue to explore actively this rapidly advancing field.

• Date: November 23-24
• Location: University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
• Paper submission deadline: September 1
• In the case of travel or meeting restrictions: If travel or meeting restrictions are in place at the time of the workshop due to the corona pandemic, we will accommodate for online attendance to the workshop or – if need be – host the workshop as an online event.
• Workshop webpage: https://conversations2020.wordpress.com

Participants are encouraged to submit papers or demos presenting new empirical or theoretical work, as well as research on chatbot design, concepts, and evaluation. Relevant topics include, but are not limited to, the key challenges identified below.

All papers will be peer reviewed (three reviewers, anonymous review – double blind). Demos will be reviewed by the workshop organizers. Accepted full papers will be published in the workshop proceedings, to be published in the Springer LNCS series.

We encourage the following submission categories:

• Full papers: Empirical studies, theoretical contributions, or presentations of design research (6-14 pages, Springer LNCS format) that advance the state-of-the-art. To be presented at the workshop and published in the workshop proceedings.
• Position papers: Preliminary results, work in progress or author positions on open issues (3-6 pages, Springer LNCS format). To be presented at the workshop and published at the workshop webpage.
• Demos: Demonstrations or presentations of frameworks, platforms, practices, prototypes or solutions of relevance to chatbot research and design. For submission, a brief description of the demo or presentation is to be provided (1-3 pages Springer LNCS format). Accepted demos are presented at the workshop and the demo description is published at the workshop webpage.

IMPORTANT DATES

• September 1: Submission deadline
• October 2: Author notification
• October 25: Submission of revised papers
• November 23-24: Workshop

KEY CHALLENGES

Building on the results from previous CONVERSATIONS workshops we outline the following clusters of challenges to be addressed:

1. User and communication studies. How do users perceive and communicate with chatbots? To what extent do chatbot features, dialogue style and content influence these perceptions? What is the impact of personal, social and cultural factors on chatbot uptake and use?
2. Chatbot user experience and design. How to understand, investigate and strengthen chatbot user experience? How to improve chatbot interface and interaction design? How to design for novel and improved chatbot user experiences? How to conduct user-centred evaluations?
3. Chatbot frameworks, platforms and applications. Research-based knowledge on current and future frameworks and platforms for chatbot development and delivery. Challenges pertaining to data access, NLP, and context awareness. Chatbot training. Chatbots that learn through use. Generative chatbots. Multimodal chatbot interaction.
4. Chatbots for collaboration. How to understand and design chatbots in networks of humans and intelligent agents? For example, for social networks, teamwork, or service provision.
5. Democratizing chatbots – chatbots for all. How to use chatbots to improve availability, accessibility, effectiveness, and efficiency to information and services? How can chatbots bridge digital divides. How to design inclusive chatbots?
6. Ethics and privacy in chatbots. Ethical and privacy implications of chatbots. Design for ethics and privacy in chatbots. Trust in chatbots. Trustworthy chatbot design. Addressing unethical chatbot use. Malicious bot detection.

APPLICATION AREAS

The set of relevant application areas for chatbots is increasing. We hope at the workshop to include work in areas such as the following:

• Chatbots for customer service. Chatbots used by service providers to engage with users – for support and information purposes.
• Chatbots for education. To support teaching or training, to assist with administrative tasks, or to bring students together.
• Chatbots in government and public service. Providing information and services to citizens or supporting government service provision.
• Chatbots for health and therapy. Chatbots for health advice, medical counselling, therapeutic programs, or physical training programs.
• Chatbots in media and journalism. Chatbots supporting news consumption. Chatbots used to mediate news and feature content.
• Chatbots at the workplace. The use of chatbots in decision support tools and chatbots as interface for business intelligence applications, and chatbots to support general office work.
• Chatbots in the home. The use of chatbots as interfaces to information, services, and home applications. Applications for home assistants.
• Chatbots for ecommerce and marketing. Chatbots supporting marketing for brands, or brokering and sales of goods and services.

WORKSHOP ORGANIZERS

The workshop organising committee are:

• Asbjørn Følstad, SINTEF, Norway
• Theo Araujo, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands
• Symeon Papadopoulos, Centre for Research and Technology Hellas, Greece
• Effie L.-C. Law, University of Leicester, UK
• Ewa Luger, University of Edinburgh, UK
• Morten Goodwin, CAIR – Center for AI Research, University of Agder
• Petter Bae Brandtzæg, University of Oslo and SINTEF, Norway

Workshop webpage: https://conversations2020.wordpress.com