acm sigcomm

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Contents

• Au Revoir from the current EC
• SIGCOMM'21: Save the date!
• SIGCOMM lifetime award winner for 2021

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Au Revoir from the current EC
It’s hard to imagine, but it has now been 4 years since this EC started its term.  I can vividly recall my trepidations before the opening session of SIGCOMM 2017 in LA that marked my first participation as SIGCOMM chair, and I must say that if I had had a crystal ball, those trepidations might have morphed into sheer panic. Obviously, none of us could have foretold COVID-19 and how much havoc it would wreck, and my thoughts go to all those who have been affected and those who continue to be.  On the SIG front, the main impact was the need to switch to virtual events.  SIGCOMM 2020 had to pivot late in its planning process from being held at Columbia in NYC to being the first to experiment with a fully virtual format. I’m forever grateful to Henning, Vishal, and their team for stepping-up to a task they had not really signed-up for.  However, looking back as well as ahead, the SIG has weathered the transition relatively well.  We have not taken anywhere near the kind of financial hit we might have expected, with most of our conferences remaining in the black.  More importantly, we have also learned useful lessons on how to leverage our experience with virtual events.  Even if the departing EC pledged an in-person reunion at SIGCOMM 2022, it also acknowledged the positive aspects of virtual participation.  There is no denying that virtual conferences have made it possible for many more to attend who, no matter how many travel grants we can provide, would otherwise have been unable to attend our events.  As a result, going forward, we have pledged to continue to offer the possibility of remote participation even after we are back to having in-person conferences.
 
The impact of COVID-19 has, however, also been felt indirectly in the many things we ended-up either not doing or not doing as much as planned.  One of my goals when starting as chair had been to increase the diversity of our SIG, and while we have made some progress, there is no denying that much, much more remains to be done.  Nevertheless, a few positive steps were taken, including standing-up a CARES committee, which even if its mandate is still evolving, has provided a renewed focus as well as resources that SIG members can tap into.  We also relaunched our efforts to increase participation from South America with a student-focused workshop that successfully started in 2019.  It was to be reprieved in 2020, but had to be put on hold because of COVID-19, and 2021 remains uncertain. I very much hope that we can restart it soon and tap into the enthusiasm that permeated the first edition.
 
Let me end this already too long “closing statement” by thanking all past and present members of the EC with whom I have had the pleasure to serve.  One of the things that serving as SIGCOMM chair has made me acutely aware of is the amount of time and energy that all our volunteers are willing to invest in the SIG and its events, and EC members are very much on the frontline with often very little visibility and recognition for their efforts from the rest of our community.  I am truly grateful for their dedication and for sticking through the ups and downs of the past four years.  Last but not least, I also want to welcome the incoming EC.  The SIG is in great hands and I wish them the best of luck in taking the SIG forward into a (hopefully) post-COVID world.
 
Roch Guerin, departing SIG chair
 

SIGCOMM'21: Save the Date!
SIGCOMM 2021 will be held virtually (online) during August 23–27, 2021. Five exciting days of workshops, tutorials, hackathons, technical sessions, social events, and more! More details, including about how to register, will be posted in the upcoming weeks. For more information, please visit: https://conferences.sigcomm.org/sigcomm/2021/
 

SIGCOMM Lifetime Award Winner for 2021
Prof. Balakrishnan is recognized for "contributions to mobile and wireless systems, resilient networks, and congestion control."
 
The committee: Marinho Barcellos (University of Waikato, NZ), Phillipa Gill (Google, USA), Anja Feldmann (Max-Planck Institute, Germany), and Craig Partridge (Colorado State University, USA).
 

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Contents

• Advertising local “Pods” for SIG conferences in 2021
• SIGCOMM Elections
• Statement regarding the Turing Award
• SIGCOMM 2021 AEC nominations
• SIGCOMM 2021 Posters/Demo/SRC CFP Posted
• SIGCOMM 2021 Workshop CFP Posted
• The Networking Channel

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Advertising local “Pods” for SIG conferences in 2021
As previously announced, SIGCOMM conferences to be held in 2021 will all be virtual because of the uncertainty associated with the pandemic and the reluctance of many people to travel.  However, with increased access to vaccination, the situation is changing rapidly, and while a return to “normal” is unlikely in the immediate future, relaxation of local travel and gathering restrictions are possible in certain regions.
 
This, together with the fact that, in spite of much progress, in-person interactions remain richer than virtual ones, has led to a number of initiatives aimed at organizing local “Pods” to allow small groups to get together to listen to and discuss talks as they are presented (virtually) at a conference. The organizers of some of those initiatives have reached out to the SIG to ask for help in advertising them.
The SIG’s position is that, while our conferences remain fully virtual in 2021, approaches that foster greater interactions benefit members of the SIGCOMM community.  As a result, the SIG is happy to help promote  such initiatives by having their organizers reach out to organizers of  the conference they are targeting.  The conference organizers will review the request, and if it complies with the requirements listed below, will coordinate with the SIG’s conference coordinator to determine how to best advertise it to conference attendees.  Specifically,  a proposed local gathering will be advertised to conference attendees if it meets the following requirements:

• It is free to all attendees;
• It complies with all current guidelines applicable to such gatherings, e.g., in the US, this would include compliance with relevant CDC, state, and county guidelines for gatherings as well as any travel restrictions that may be in effect;
• All participants are registered for the conference as regular attendees.

In general, we expect pod organizers to provide a venue and video facilities to project the conference, as well a way to interact with the conference (on social media and/or live).
 

SIGCOMM Elections
On 15 April, all eligible voting SIGCOMM members (in good standing as of 1 April 2021) were sent voting information via an email message from Election Services Corporation (ESC), a third party that is conducting the election on behalf of SIGCOMM, SIGITE, SIGMOBILE, SIGMOD, SIGMM, SIGSAC and SIGSAM.  The message included voting instructions as well as a 10-digit unique PIN that is needed to vote.   If you did not receive the voting information email (from ESC), and have an email address on file with ACM, please contact [email protected] or call toll-free 1-866-720-4357.
 
You can view the candidate slate at https://www.acm.org/elections/sigs/2021-candidate-slate and the ACM SIG Election voting information site is at https://www.acm.org/elections/sigs/vote 
 
Ballots are due by 1 June at 16:00 UTC.
 

Statement regarding the Turing Award
 
Dear SIGCOMM members,
 
As an organization, we are committed to creating an environment that welcomes new ideas and perspectives, and where hostility or other harmful behaviors are not tolerated. As an organization, we stand with and honor those who promote diversity and inclusivity.  In addition to being the right thing to do, we believe this is important for the advancement of science.  
 
We appreciate ACM’s reconfirmation of these commitments in response to the recent controversy surrounding Turing Award winner Jeffrey Ullman, contained in the below statement on the ACM website:
 
https://www.acm.org/response-to-letter
 
We confirm our intention to adopt the ACM policies in our SIG award selection process to the extent that they are not already present.  In addition, to emphasize our commitment to diversity and inclusivity in all our activities, we will ask nominators and endorsers for personal achievement awards to comment on how the nominee(s) exemplifies these core values.  
 
Finally, we would like to reiterate our support for Iranian and Native American students and scholars, as well as all other ethnicities and nationalities.  You are welcomed and valued members of our global community.
 
Thank you,
--
SIGCOMM executive committee (Sujata Banerjee, Marinho Barcellos, Matthew Caesar, Christophe Diot, Lars Eggert, Roch Guerin, Srinivasan Keshav, Konstantina (Dina) Papagiannaki, Steve Uhlig, Anduo Wang)
 
Co-signed by the executive committees of SIGACCESS, SIGACT, SIGAI, SIGARCH, SIGBED, SIGBio, SIGCHI, SIGCOMM, SIGecom, SIGENERGY, SIGGRAPH, SIGIR, SIGMETRICS, SIGMICRO, SIGMOBILE, SIGUCCS.

SIGCOMM 2021 AEC nominations
 
SIGCOMM 2021 is conducting an optional artifact evaluation process for accepted papers. We are looking for senior PhD students, postdocs, and early-career researchers to participate in the program committee.  To nominate yourself, please complete the application (https://forms.gle/bNsr3tPtrjcnp74c7) by Sunday, May 2. If you have any questions, email [email protected].

SIGCOMM 2021 Posters/Demo/SRC CFP Posted
SIGCOMM 2021 is accepting submissions of Posters and Demos to be presented at the conference. Eligible submissions will also be considered for the ACM SIGCOMM Student Research Competition. For more information, check out the Sigcomm main web site, under the "Posters, Demos, and SRC" tab (direct link: https://conferences.sigcomm.org/sigcomm/2021/cf-posters.html).
 

SIGCOMM 2021 Workshop CFP Posted
CFPs for several Sigcomm Workshops have been posted on the Sigcomm main web site, under the "Workshops" tab (direct link: https://conferences.sigcomm.org/sigcomm/2021/).
 

The Networking Channel
 
The Networking Channel is a community channel with a regular talk taking place every other Wednesday. The next event (on May 5) will be a panel on How to Succeed in Graduate School, with Jennifer Rexford (Princeton), Edmundo de Souza e Silva (UFRJ), Anja Feldmann (MPI), and David Patterson (UC Berkeley). To register for the free event, go here: https://networkingchannel.eu/advice-on-how-to-succeed-in-grad-school/ . Please watch
 https://networkingchannel.eu/networking-events/ for more upcoming talks, to be posted soon.