SCOPE AND OBJECTIVES
Research on and applications involving collaboration in virtual environments are constantly growing in many areas of human activity, including cooperative analysis, design, development, testing, operation, production, evaluation, education, training, simulation, research, social networking, and entertainment.  Characteristic to such applications is a shared computer-generated medium (virtual world) that allows for involvement and interaction of participants that may be distributed over large geographical distances.  With the ongoing rapid advances in computer technology, we anticipate that collaboration in virtual environments and related research will play an increasingly more substantial role in the landscape of computer-supported cooperative work, education, and entertainment.   

The CoVE-2012 workshop on Collaboration in Virtual Environments –  to be held as part of the 2012 International Conference on Collaboration Technologies and Systems (CTS-2012) – will focus on the human-computer interaction and software engineering research and design aspects of collaboration in various types of virtual worlds, for example in 2D and 3D simulations and games, or CAVE and other VR systems.  Relevant new applications, case studies, and experiments are also actively sought after by the workshop.  We invite original contributions on these topics from researchers in academia, research laboratories, the computer industry, and the users’ community.  Our goal is to provide a dedicated refereed collaborative virtual environments (CVE) workshop and forum for exchanging ideas that fosters closer interaction among researchers from numerous relevant disciplines, including human-computer interaction, software engineering, artificial intelligence, computer graphics, computer architecture, communication networks, distributed processing, visual arts, music, multimedia creation, industrial design, education, business administration and management, information technology, cognitive science, psychology, sociology,  and anthropology. 

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Human-Computer Interaction Techniques and Tools for CVEs
• User Interface Designs for CVEs
• Universal Accessibility in CVEs
• Usability Testing and Evaluation of CVEs
• Ethnography and Field Studies on CVEs
• Software Specification, Design, and Implementation of CVEs
• Software Engineering Processes and Tools for CVEs Development
• CVE Architectures
• Network Communications for Distributed CVEs
• Database Design for CVEs
• Agent-based CVEs
• Adaptive and Learning CVEs
• Graphics and Visualizations in CVEs
• Project Management and Workflows in CVEs
• Metrics and Measurements for CVEs
• Hardware Devices and Hardware Integration in CVEs
• CVEs Applications, Case Studies, and Experiments in: Industry, Business, Education, Learning, Training, Modeling and Simulation, Scientific Research, Medicine, Emergency and Crisis Management, Teleconferencing, Teledemocracy, Online Communities, Home Supervision, Games, Sports, Entertainment, and other areas.

PAPER SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS
You are invited to submit original and unpublished research works on the above and other topics related to collaboration in virtual environments.  Submitted papers must not have been published nor simultaneously submitted elsewhere.  Each submission should include a cover page with the authors' names, affiliations, mail addresses, fax and phone numbers, and email addresses.  Please indicate the corresponding author and include up to 6 keywords and an abstract of no more than 350 words.  The full manuscript should be at most 8 pages (for full papers) or 4 pages (for short papers) using the two-column IEEE format posted on the CTS-2012 website.  Additional pages will be charged an additional fee.  Please include page numbers on the preliminary submissions to make it easier for reviewers to provide comments.  Submit a PDF copy of your full manuscript via email to CoVE-2012 organizers at dascalus@cse.unr.edu and/or fred.harris@cse.unr.edu. 

Please note that only PDF files will be accepted, sent by email to the above addresses.  Each paper will receive a minimum of three reviews.  Papers will be selected based on their originality, relevance, scientific contribution, and quality of presentation.  Submission implies the willingness of at least one of the authors to register and present the paper, if accepted.  Authors of accepted papers must ensure that their papers will be registered and presented at the workshop. 

Accepted papers will be published in the CTS-2012 Conference Proceedings.  Instructions for final manuscript format and requirements will be posted on the CTS-2012 conference website.  The intent is to have the proceedings formally published in hard and soft copies and be available at the time of the conference.  The proceedings are projected to be included in the IEEE Digital Library and indexed accordingly. 

IMPORTANT DATES

WORKSHOP ORGANIZERS


TECHNICAL PROGRAM COMMITTEE
All submitted papers will be reviewed by at least three CoVE-2012 Workshop Technical Program Committee members following criteria similar to those used by CTS-2012. 

• Amit Banerjee, Penn State University, PA, USA
  
• Mohammed Belkhatir, University of Lyon, France
• Noureddine Belkhatir, University of Grenoble, France
• Karl Benedict, University of New Mexico, NM, USA
• Sermsak Buntha, Center of Information Technology, Royal Thai Navy, Thailand
• Marc Colangelo, McMaster University, Canada
• Rafael Corchuelo, University of Sevilla, Spain
• Stuart Cunningham, Glyndwr University, Wales, U.K.
• Dragos Datcu, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands
• Philippe Dugerdil, University of Applied Sciences, Geneva, Switzerland
• Sabine Emad, University of Applied Sciences, Geneva, Switzerland
• Eelke Folmer, University of Nevada, NV, USA
• Jeff Gray, University of Alabama, AL, USA
• Vic Grout, Glyndwr University, Wales, U.K.
• Marcel Karam, American University of Beirut, Lebanon
• Samee U. Khan, North Dakota State University, ND, USA
• Muhanna Muhanna, Princess Sumaya University of Technology, Jordan
• Claudia Raibulet, University of Milano, Italy
• Sharad Sharma, Bowie State University, MD, USA
• Randy K. Smith, University of Alabama, AL, USA
• Pierre Tiako, Langston University, OK, USA
• Stefan Trausan-Matu, University Politehnica of Bucharest, Romania
• George Tsihrintzis, University of Piraeus, Greece
• Maria Virvou, University of Piraeus, Greece
• 
  

For information or questions about Conference's paper submission, tutorials, posters, workshops, special sessions, exhibits, demos, panels and forums organization, doctoral colloquium, and any other information about the conference location, registration, paper formatting, etc., please consult the Conference’s web site at URL: http://cts2012.cisedu.info/  or contact one of the Conference's organizers or Co-Chairs: Geoffrey C. Fox at gcf@indiana.edu  and Waleed W. Smari at Smari@arys.org.