Informer: Spring 2023 Issue Out Now

Informer: Spring 2023 Issue Out Now

http://irsg.bcs.org/informer/

In the April issue
By Martin White

To start with IRSG affairs, our Chairman Udo Kruschwitz comments on some aspects of the very successful ECIR 2023 conference  and our Secretary, Steven Zimmerman has an update on Committee Membership following the 2022 AGM held in November following the Search Solutions 2022 event. The ECIR 2023 conference was a great success, and there are excellent reviews of the Conference itself and the Industry Day which is a popular feature of ECIR...

https://irsg.bcs.org/informer/2023/04/in-the-april-issue/

The Editor’s in-tray
By Martin White

A small miscellany of search-related items that have arrived in my in-tray recently that you might be interested in

Microsoft Search Hero Mastermind Group

This is a new and very enterprising training course for Microsoft search managers that has a mix of tuition and mentoring spread out over a three month period. The course has been developed by Agnes Molnar, Search Explained. The course is spread out over a three month period....

https://irsg.bcs.org/informer/2023/04/the-editors-in-tray/


CIKM 2023 Birmingham 21-25 October 2023
By Martin White

The 31st ACM International Conference on Information and Knowledge Management (CIKM) will be held in Birmingham on 21-25 October. The last time this conference was held in Europe was 2018!  It is not a BCS event but many members of IRSG are involved in the event.

https://irsg.bcs.org/informer/2023/04/cikm-2023-birmingham-21-25-october-2023/


Search Solutions 2023 London, 21/22 November
By Martin White

A mark-your-diary item for the annual Search Solutions 2023 conference. It will be held at the BCS London office in Moorgate and will be on-site only. Tuesday 21 will be Tutorials Day and Wednesday 22 will be Conference Day. There will be call for papers and tutorials in early May and this will be posted on the BCS IRSG web site . In association with the Conference there will also be the Search Industry Awards.

https://irsg.bcs.org/informer/2023/04/search-solutions-2023-london-21-22-november/


Karen Spärck Jones (KSJ) Award – 2023 timeline for nominations
By Haiming Liu

Professor Jochen Leidner, the current chair of Karen Spärck Jones (KSJ) Award, presented the trophy to the 2022 KSJ award winner, Professor William Wang, who delivered his keynote presentation at ECIR 2023.

Since Jochen has chaired three years of the KSJ Award, and 2022 is the last year of his term I am now the Chair of the Awards Committee for the 2023-2025 period.  You can contact me at [email protected]

The call for nominations of KSJ Award 2023 will be out soon. Detailed information about the award and the nomination can also be found on the BCS IRSG KSJ Award page: https://www.bcs.org/membership-and-registrations/member-communities/information-retrieval-specialist-group/awards/karen-spaerck-jones-award/

https://irsg.bcs.org/informer/2023/04/karen-sparck-jones-ksj-award-2023-timeline-for-nominations/


IRSG 2022-2023 AGM and Committee Elections
By Steven Zimmerman

The IRSG Annual General Meeting (AGM) took place immediately after Search Solutions 2022, where the committee election results were announced.  The draft 2021 minutes can be found here, with 2021 AGM confirmed minutes found here.  The full list of current committee members is now available on the IRSG governance page.  All committee positions were filled unopposed...

https://irsg.bcs.org/informer/2023/04/irsg-2022-2023-agm-and-committee-elections/


Academia and the Enterprise – Steve Zimmerman
By Steven Zimmerman

Academia and the Enterprise

It is an honour to be asked by a highly respected contributor to the enterprise search community to share my journey from academia into the enterprise.   Admittedly, it has been an unusual journey, so perhaps it’s best to say a bit about where things are at the exact moment before diving into the details...

https://irsg.bcs.org/informer/2023/04/academia-and-the-enterprise-steve-zimmerman/


Alan Turing Institute Conference on LLMs February 2023 – a historical perspective?
By Martin White on 19th April 2023

This symposium, organized by the Alan Turing Institute,  was held at the IET, Savoy Place on 23 February and attracted around 350 delegates, including what seemed to be the entire UK machine learning research community. There were seven presentations and a panel session that I was not able to stay for.

https://irsg.bcs.org/informer/2023/04/alan-turing-institute-conference-on-llms-february-2023-a-historical-perspective/


ECIR 2023 Industry Day
By Michael Upshall

The European Conference on Information Retrieval (ECIR) seems to have emerged from the pandemic stronger than ever. This year, in Dublin, saw the highest number of attendees ever, I’m told, at over 380 in-person and virtual attendees. I’m not a computing academic, so I don’t sit through the academic presentations, but the last day of the conference is termed the Industry Day, and is designed to straddle the divide between the academy and the real world...

https://irsg.bcs.org/informer/2023/04/ecir-2023-industry-day/


Call for proposals for IRSG one-day events in 2023
By Tony Russell-Rose on 19th April 2023

The Information Retrieval Specialist Group (IRSG) of the BCS invites proposals for the organisation of one day events supported by BCS. Proposals will be evaluated based on the organisational and financial plans and benefits to the Information Retrieval community...

Important dates
* Submission deadline for this round: 19-May-2023
* Notification: 02-Jun-2023

https://irsg.bcs.org/informer/2023/04/call-for-proposals-for-irsg-one-day-events-in-2023/


Relevance under uncertainty – the commercial realities of IR development
By Christoffer Stjernlof

Relevance Under Uncertainty – How Loop54 does software engineering to advance relevance

Loop54 (on the market under the name FactFinder Infinity) is a technology that integrates with e-commerce stores and determines based on visitor interactions, in real time, which the most relevant products are for each individual user at every moment. It attempts to perform the function a really good salesperson would if you step into a brick-and-mortar store: figure out as quickly as possible exactly what you are interested in and guide you directly to that...

https://irsg.bcs.org/informer/2023/04/relevance-under-uncertainty-the-commercial-realities-of-ir-development/


Tony Kent Strix Award 2022 lectures
By Graham McDonald

The 2022 annual memorial lecture for the International Tony Kent Strix Award  hosted by the UK electronic information Group (UKeiG) in partnership with the International Society for Knowledge Organisation UK (ISKO UK) , the Royal Society of Chemical Information and Computer Applications Group (RSC CICAG)  and the British Computer Society Information Retrieval Specialist Group (BCS IRSG), was held on Thursday February 23rd 2023, hosted by Dion Lindsay

https://irsg.bcs.org/informer/2023/04/tony-kent-strix-award-2022-lectures/


Understanding Search Engines – Dirk Lewandowski
By Martin White

It is remarkable that this book is unique in its coverage of the development of the technology, business and impact of web search. The web search engines play such an important role in our lives and our business activities that we take them for granted. It’s not just a lack of books but a lack of research papers as well, other than those that look at elements of the search process. Last year I published a history of enterprise search and trying to confirm dates and vendors and technical developments was a far from easy exercise...

https://irsg.bcs.org/informer/2023/04/understanding-search-engines-dirk-lewandowski/


Events Spring 2023
By Andy Macfarlane

One Day Events 

Search Solutions 2023: The groups annual industry focused event, includes a tutorial day. 21-22 November 2023. 

https://irsg.bcs.org/informer/2023/04/events-spring-2023/


ECIR 2023 Dublin – conference report
By Gregor Donabauer

Last week I attended the 45th edition of the European Conference on Information Retrieval (ECIR) which was hosted in Dublin, Ireland. Given that this was only my second in-person conference I have ever attended it was great to bump into several familiar faces throughout the week. One reason for that could be that this year’s ECIR was the biggest ECIR of all time with a record-breaking number of more than 400 registered attendees. The high level of interest was evident on-site, as more than 300 people attended the keynote talks and receptions.

https://irsg.bcs.org/informer/2023/04/ecir-2023-dublin-conference-report/


Karen Spärck Jones Award 2023 – Timeline for nominations
By Martin White

Professor Jochen Leidner  has been the Chair of the KSJ Awards panel since 2019. As his term of office has now come to a conclusion Dr. Haiming Liu (University of Southampton) is taking on the role for the next three years. The Award now alternates between ECIR and the Annual Conference of the European Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics promote integration between the IR and NLP communities. Karen Spärck Jones was an active member of both communities.

The call for nominations of KSJ Award 2023 will be out soon. Detailed information about the award and the nomination can also be found on the BCS IRSG KSJ Award page. The 2023  Award lecture will take place at EACL 2024, the location of which has not yet been confirmed

Timeline for the 2023 Award:
1 September 2023 — closing date for nominations;
8 September 2023 — deadline for support letters;
8 December 2023 — notification of the prize recipient;
April 2024 — recipient presents keynote at EACL 2024.
IRSG would like to thank Microsoft Research Cambridge, the generous sponsors of the Award.
For further information please contact Dr Haiming Liu (KSJ Award Chair 2023-2025), [email protected]

https://irsg.bcs.org/informer/2023/04/karen-sparck-jones-award-2023-timeline-for-nominations/


An interview with William Wang – KSJ Award Winner 2022
By Martin White

William Wnag - Winner of the Karen Spärck Jones Award 2022
A very worthy winner: William Wang answering questions following his Karen Spärck Jones Award keynote talk

I asked William Wang, who at ECIR 2023 was presented with the Karen Spark Jones Award for 2022, if he could respond to a series of questions about his background and career. I am most grateful to William for the care he put into his replies.

https://irsg.bcs.org/informer/2023/04/an-interview-with-william-wang-ksj-award-winner-2022/


From Udo Kruschwitz – BCS IRSG Chair
By Udo Kruschwitz

ECIR 2023: bigger (and heavier) than ever

Welcome to our Spring 2023 edition of Informer! Have we seen you in Dublin? Not inconceivable given it was the biggest ECIR ever in many respects including number of attendees (more than 400 registrations!). It felt as if everbody was there … Well, in case you missed the conference there is plenty of reading material in this newsletter including a conference report by Gregor Donabauer as well as a review of Industry Day by Michael Upshall, not to forget the interview with William Wang, the winner of the Karen Spärck Jones Award 2022 and a keynote speaker at this year’s ECIR.

https://irsg.bcs.org/informer/2023/04/from-udo-kruschwitz-bcs-irsg-chair/


Search Solutions 2022 Conference report
By Martin White

Search Solutions is managed by the Information Retrieval Specialist Group of the British Computer Society and is the only broad-spectrum search event outside of the USA. The conference was held at the BCS London office on 23 November, preceded by a day of Tutorials.

The conference was held at the BCS London office on 23 November, the first on-site Search Solutions event since 2019! This is a brief summary of the presentations, with a link to the author and also links to research papers and web sites mentioned by the authors in the course of their presentation. Heavy note taking!

https://irsg.bcs.org/informer/2023/04/search-solutions-2022-conference-report/


ChatGPT take on Academia and Enterprise
By ChatGPT

The following is the version authored by ChatGPT of Steven Zimmerman’s article titled ‘Academia and the Enterprise‘.   This version is notably shorter than the original article, and the facts  that remain are all correct.  However, ChatGPT has removed many anecdotes, including the mention of SkyNet (should we be concerned).   Which version do you prefer?

https://irsg.bcs.org/informer/2023/04/chatgpt-take-on-academia-and-enterprise/


And finally – from the Editor
By Martin White

I’ve included a conference report in this issue of Informer on the Alan Turing Institute conference on LLMs (held in London on 23 February) to give an indication of the speed of development of LLMs and related applications (ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot and oh so many more!) over the last few months.

The opportunities for research into the performance and possibilities of LLMs (I’m using this in a very generic way) are both colossal and essential if we are to get the best from this technology and avoid the worst it has to offer. It has struck me that the publication of this research is not keeping up with the speed of development. Even in journals that pride themselves on early publication the papers have a historical perspective which is interesting but of questionable long term value. There is also the challenge of finding peer reviewers that have an appropriate level of expertise in the topics.

https://irsg.bcs.org/informer/2023/04/and-finally-from-the-editor-7/

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Opportunities for Authors
If you are an expert in information retrieval or any aspect of search who has strong writing skills, we invite you to contribute to Informer. Please send an article proposal to us at: irsg-odSCf/[email protected]
For more information about the BCS IRSG, please go to: http://irsg.bcs.org/about.php

About Informer
Informer is the quarterly newsletter of the BCS Information Retrieval Specialist Group (IRSG). Its aim is to provide insights and inspiration to researchers and professionals working in all aspects of search and information retrieval. Our articles provide accessible and timely coverage of important topics, ranging from focused, practical advice, to concise overviews of broader topics, and to deeper, research-oriented articles and opinion pieces.

The IRSG is a Specialist Group of BCS. Its mission is to provide a focus for the European IR community, facilitate communication between researchers and practitioners and promote the adoption of IR research within industry. We host a major European conference (ECIR) and provide an associated programme of workshops, seminars and events. The IRSG is free to join via the BCS website, which provides access to further IR articles, events and resources.

BCS is the industry body for IT professionals. With members in over 100 countries around the world, BCS is the leading professional and learned society in the field of computers and information systems.

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Visit Informer at http://irsg.bcs.org/informer/

If you have comments, questions, or suggestions for Informer, please contact us at irsg-odSCf/[email protected]

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