HCOMP 2015

Conference on Human Computation & Crowdsourcing, November 8-11 2015,
Kona Kai Resort and Marina, San Diego, USA



Program

Download schedule
Complete List of Accepted Papers and Posters
2015 Conference Proceedings

November 8: Doctoral Consortium
November 9: Workshop/Crowdcamp/HCOMP-15 Opening Reception
November 10-11: HCOMP-15 Technical Program
November 10: HCOMP-15 Banquet

Keynote Speakers


Cinque Terre

Mary L. Gray

November 10th, 9am

Title: Crowdwork’s Invisible Engine: Valuing the Organic Collaboration in Crowdsourcing Labor Markets
This presentation shares key findings from joint research with Siddharth Suri that examines workers’ experiences of what we call crowdwork—paid, short contract tasks, distributed to a large pool of online workers (aka the ‘crowd’) through crowdsourcing platforms, that might otherwise go to a full time employee. Combining 21 months of ethnographic fieldwork and interviewing with computational analysis of backend metadata, we compare the cases of workers in India and the United States, to understand the cultural meaning, political implications, and ethical demands of crowdwork. This talk lays out the evidence we have that, despite the designs of crowdsourcing to maximize efficiencies through atomized, autonomous workflows, the most active crowdworkers are not the independent workers they are assumed to be. Instead, workers collaborate extensively to address both technical and social needs generated by the platforms they work on. Our work suggests that crowdsourcing’s successes are driven as much by the invisible labor of organic collaboration—connections organized by workers—as the matching and routing capacities of an API. While our study includes examples of what we call “engineered collaboration,”—interaction organized by the platform—the persistence of organic collaboration even in these systems suggests that there’s an untapped reservoir of productivity and better work conditions to be found in models of facilitated organic collaboration. We argue that before we can improve the technical capacities of crowdsourcing systems, we need methodologies that help us get a clearer sense of the people doing this work, what it means to them, and how it fits into their daily lives. In short, we should recognize that crowdsourcing systems are not, simply, technologies. In the case of crowdwork, crowdsourcing platforms are sites of employment with complicated social dynamics that, ultimately, hold value beyond a single moment of task completion.

Mary L. Gray is a Senior Researcher at Microsoft Research. She maintains an appointment as Associate Professor in the Media School, with adjunct appointments in American Studies, Anthropology, and Gender Studies, at Indiana University. She studied Anthropology before receiving her Ph.D. in Communication from the University of California, San Diego in 2004. Her research looks at how media access and everyday uses of technologies transform people's lives. Her last book, Out in the Country: Youth, Media, and Queer Visibility in Rural America, looked at how young people in the rural United States use media to negotiate their sexual and gender identities, local belonging, and connections to broader, imagined communities. Mary's current book project, co-authored with computer scientist Siddharth Suri, combines ethnography, interviews, survey data and large scale data analysis of four crowdsourcing platforms operating in the United States and India to examine workers’ experiences of digital labor and the future of employment in platform economies.

Cinque Terre

David Rand

November 11th, 9am

Title: Human Cooperation

David Rand is an assistant professor of psychology, economics, and management at Yale University, and the director of Yale University’s Human Cooperation Laboratory. His research combines a range of theoretical and experimental methods in an effort to explain the high levels of cooperation that typify human societies, and to uncover ways to promote cooperation in situations where it is lacking. He received his B.A. in computational biology from Cornell University in 2004 and his Ph.D. in systems biology from Harvard University in 2009, and was a post-doctoral research in Harvard University’s psychology department from 2009 to 2013.



Registration

November 8-11, 2015, Kona Kai Resort and Spa, an Diego, California

To register, please use the HCOMP-15 online registration form at https://www.regonline.com/hcomp15.

November 8: Doctoral Consortium
November 9: Workshop/CrowdCamp/HCOMP-15 Opening Reception
November 10-11: HCOMP-15 Technical Program
November 10: HCOMP-15 Banquet

PREREGISTRATION IS ENCOURAGED. The HCOMP-15 technical conference registration fee includes admission to all technical paper and poster sessions, invited talks, the opening reception, the banquet, and an electronic copy of the HCOMP-15 Conference Proceedings. Technical registrants also receive a discount on attendance at the workshop program on Sunday, November 8.

HCOMP-15 Registration Fees

Technical Program (November 10-11)
Early (by Sept 11) Late (by Oct 9) Onsite (after Oct 9)
Member 495 595 695
Student Member 300 350 400
Nonmember 650 750 850
Student Nonmember 395 445 495
Platinum Rates (Includes one-year new or renewal membership in AAAI)
Early (by Sept 11) Late (by Oct 9) Onsite (after Oct 9)
Regular 640 740 840
Student 375 425 475
Workshop Registration

The HCOMP-15 Workshop fee includes admittance to the workshop on Monday, November 9, and any accompanying electronic material. T and any accompanying electronic materials. Technical registrants are eligible for a discounted rate.

(For a workshop description, please see complete information at http://www.humancomputation.com/2015/).

Workshop W1: Crowdsourcing Breakthroughs for Language Technology Applications

Workshop with Technical Registration

Regular: 105
Student: 70

Workshop Only Registration

The Workshop Only fee does NOT include admittance to the HCOMP-15 technical sessions, reception, or banquet. Registration is valid only for the day of the workshop.

Regular: 155
Student: 90

Opening Reception

Admittance to the HCOMP-15 Opening Reception (November 9) is included in the HCOMP-15 technical conference registration. Guests are welcome for the following fee:

Opening Reception Guest: $70.00

Banquet Admittance to the HCOMP-15 Banquet (November 10) is included in the HCOMP-15 technical conference registration. Guests are welcome for the following fee:

Banquet Guest: $60.00

2015 HCOMP Proceedings

Preregistrants may order a hard copy of the HCOMP-15 proceedings, which will be mailed after the conference. The preconference discounted price will be determined in fall 2015. Shipping and handling will be added. Individuals who select this option will be contacted regarding the final cost after the conference.

Registration / Proof of Student Status

To register online, please complete the form at (https://www.regonline.com/hcomp15). If you qualify for student rates, please submit your proof of student status to AAAI by email attachment to hcomp15@aaai.org or by fax to +1-650-321-4457.

Refund Requests

The deadline for refund requests is October 16, 2015. All refund requests must be made in writing to AAAI at hcomp15@aaai.org. A $100.00 processing fee will be assessed for all refunds.

Visa Information

Letters of invitation can be requested by accepted HCOMP-15 authors or registrants with a completed registration with payment. If you are attending HCOMP-15 and require a letter of invitation, please send the following information to hcomp15@aaai.org:

First/Given Name:
Family/Last Name:
Position:
Organization:
Department:
City:
Zip/Postal Code:
Country:
Email:
Are you an author of a paper?
Paper title:
If not accepted author, Registration Confirmation ID#:

Onsite Registration

Preregistration is strongly encouraged via the online form due to limited facilities onsite. Onsite registration will be held in the foyer of the Point Loma Ballroom at the Kona Kai Resort and Spa, 1551 Shelter Island Drive, San Diego, California, November 8-11. All attendees must pick up their registration packets for admittance to programs.

Registration hours are scheduled for Sunday, November 8, 8:30am - 2:00pm; Monday and Tuesday, November 9-10, 8:30am - 5:00pm; and Wednesday, November 11, 8:30am - 12:00noon. These hours are subject to change depending on the final program.

For directional information, please see http://www.resortkonakai.com/contact.aspx.

For Questions:
HCOMP-15 Registration
AAAI
2275 East Bayshore Road, Suite 160
Palo Alto, CA 94303
+1-650-328-3123
hcomp15@aaai.org


Committee

Conference Chairs

Dr. Panos Ipeirotis
Stern School of Business, New York University.

Dr. Liz Gerber
McCormick School of Engineering & School of Communication, Northwestern University.


Workshop Chair

Kate Starbird, University of Washington


Publicity Chair

Lydia Chilton, University of Washington


Works-in-Progress and Demo Chairs

Steven Dow, Carnegie Mellon University

Walter Lasecki, University of Michigan


Doctoral Consortium Chairs

Brent Hecht, University of Minnesota

Laura Dabbish, Carnegie Mellon University


Crowdcamp Chairs

Yongsung Kim, Northwestern University

Julie Hui, Northwestern University


Program Committee

Marco Brambilla, Politecnico di Milano

Ceren Budak, Microsoft Research

Laura Carletti, University of Nottingham

Ciro Cattuto, Institute for Scientific Interchange (ISI) Foundation

Elisa Celis, Xerox Research Centre India

Lydia Chilton, University of Washington

Steven Dow, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA

Arpita Ghosh, Cornell University

Yotam Gingold, George Mason University

Bjoern Hartmann, University of California, Berkeley

Catherine Hicks, UC San Diego

Jane Hsu, National Taiwan University

Adam Kalai, Microsoft Research New England

Ece Kamar, Microsoft Research

Markus Krause, Leibniz University Hannover

Anand Kulkarni, LeadGenius

Walter Lasecki, University of Michigan

Edith Law, University of Waterloo

Matt Lease, University of Texas, Austin

Chris Lintott, Oxford

Adam Marcus, Unlimited Labs

Winter Mason, Facebook

Mausam, Indian Institue of Technology, Delhi

Meredith Morris, Microsoft

Jeff Nichols, Google

Anne Marie Piper, Northwestern University

Alex Rogers, University of Southampton

Kate Starbird, University of Washington

Siddharth Suri, Microsoft Research

Beth Trushkowsky, Harvey Mudd College

Jennifer Vaughan, Microsoft Research

Jing Wang, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

Daniel Weld, University of Washington

Anbang Xu, IBM Almaden

Brian Bailey, University of Illinois


Travel

HCOMP 2015 Hotel Information

AAAI has reserved a block of rooms at the conference hotel, the Kona Kai Resort & Marina, San Diego at reduced conference rates. Space is limited.

Kona Kai Resort & Marina (Conference Hotel)
1551 Shelter Island Drive
San Diego, California 92106
http://www.resortkonakai.com/


Group Discount Online Reservation Link

Toll Free Group Reservations: 1-800-566-2524
Refer to group name "HCOMP 2015" when making phone reservations.

Conference Rates available: Saturday, November 7 - Tuesday, November 10, 2015
Group rates will be extended 3 days pre/post of the above dates based on availability at time of individual reservation.
Single/Double Occupancy per night: $149.00
Check-in time: 4:00 pm
Check-out time: 12:00 pm
Cut-off date for conference rate reservations: 5:00 PM local hotel time (PDT), Monday, October 5, 2015

Complimentary WiFi is included in the group sleeping room rate.

A charge of $20.00 per day will be added over and above the double occupancy rate for each additional adult sharing a guest room. Rates do not include current city and state taxes totaling 12.58%. Tax rates are subject to change at any time based on government regulation.

Any reservation requests or changes after the cut-off date will be accepted on a space available basis at the current available rate. Bed type requests are based on availability at time of reservation and are not guaranteed until check-in. Any special requests are not guaranteed.

A deposit equal to one night's room and tax is due with each reservation request on or before October 5, 2015, and will become non-refundable if the guest does not arrive or cancels less than three days (72 hours) prior to the day of arrival. Cash, check, and major credit cards are accepted as deposits. Credit cards will be debited to the individual accounts at the time the reservation is received. A one-night room charge and tax will be assessed for early departures. The hotel will reconfirm departure date upon guest arrival.

Parking Parking is available at the hotel for $17.00 per night or $10.00 per day.

Additional Hotel Information Kona Kai Resort is located at the tip of Shelter Island. Merely minutes from the buzz of Downtown San Diego and San Diego's International Airport. See http://www.resortkonakai.com/san-diego-resorts.aspx

Airports / Transportation / Directions Three miles from the San Diego International Airport http://san.org/Parking-Transportation

Disclaimer

In offering the Kona Kai Resort & Marina hotel and the San Diego International Airport, and all other service providers (hereinafter referred to as "Supplier(s)" for the AAAI Conference on Human Computation and Crowdsourcing, AAAI acts only in the capacity of agent for the Suppliers that are the providers of the service. Because AAAI has no control over the personnel, equipment or operations or providers of accommodations or other services included as part of the HCOMP 2015 program, AAAI assumes no responsibility for and will not be liable for any personal delay, inconveniences or other damage suffered by conference participants which may arise by reason of (1) any wrongful or negligent acts or omissions on the part of any Supplier or its employees, (2) any defect in or failure of any vehicle, equipment or instrumentality owned, operated or otherwise used by any Supplier, or (3) any wrongful or negligent acts or omissions on the part of any other party not under the control, direct or otherwise, of AAAI.


HCOMP 2015 Sponsorship Levels & Benefits

Two sources of income pay for HCOMP conference expenses: registration fees paid by the attendees and sponsorships from corporations, universities, and other institutions. Sponsors’ funds allow HCOMP conferences to limit increasing registration, especially for students and the assistance provided by our sponsors is greatly appreciated.

HCOMP 2015 will provide benefits to sponsors in exchange for their financial support. To build awareness of sponsorship, we will publically acknowledge all sponsors in the opening and closing plenary sessions, on the conference website, in the proceedings, and final program. We will list the sponsors in order of contribution. We will also acknowledge Champion and Benefactors sponsors for their contribution to well attended social events including receptions, the conference banquet/party, coffee breaks, and student dinners.

Sponsors are given the opportunity to provide information (e.g., brochures) directly to HCOMP 2015 attendees. Champion, Benefactor, and Contributor sponsors are invited to present demonstrations of their relevant technology. HCOMP 2015 will also accommodate sponsors interested in recruiting conference attendees. Sponsors may also receive a complimentary HCOMP 2015 registration.

HCOMP 2015 offers four levels of sponsorship: Champion, Benefactor, Contributor, and Friend.

  • Champions ($7,500 or greater contribution)

    microsoft
  • Benefactors ($5,000 or greater contribution)

    Lead Genius
  • Contributors ($2,500 or greater contribution)

    Lead Genius
    CrowdFlower
  • Friends (contribution of less than $2,500)

  • Google