Candidate statement by Lars R. Knudsen, August 2006
Increase acceptance rates
I think it is time to update the Crypto, Eurocrypt, and Asiacrypt
conferences. These conferences are our flagships and are where
cryptographers should meet and exchange ideas. However we have reached a
point where only 1 in 8 submissions are presented. I think we are
NOT promoting research in cryptology very well by rejecting 7 of 8 submissions
to our conferences. With more than 200 submissions to Crypto,
Eurocrypt and Asiacrypt, it is our responsibility to make some changes.
Note that most young researchers are unable to attend the conferences
unless they can present their results.
My proposal is to increase the number of slots in the programs, by means
of (in that preferred order)
having talks also on the "free" Tuesday afternoon,
having talks also on Thursday afternoon,
having talks also on the Friday (e.g. until noon).
Tradition?
I don't see any point in the "free" Tuesday afternoon and I don't see why
the conferences should end Thursday noon. It seems these are just
traditions from the days with many fewer submissions.
And while we are at it, I suggest to move the rump session to the rump,
i.e., Thursday evening. A perfect ending for a conference.
As the "IACR contact to PC-chairs" (which I am no longer) I did suggest to
some pc-chairs to accept more papers and fill Tuesday afternoon with talks.
But people are too afraid to break the tradition, which is understandable,
and I think that a statement from the IACR board is needed.
Not enough good papers? Some members have expressed the view that we should
not accept more papers at the conferences because there aren't usually that
many good ones.
This may have been
true in the past but to say that only one in eight papers submitted to the big
conferences are worthy of publication is, to put it as mildly as I can, very arrogant.
Proceedings? To avoid too many pages in the printed version, we could
allow only "Extended abstracts", e.g., 10 pages in the proceedings, full
papers elsewhere (web, eprint, Journal of Cryptology!). But the page
limit issue is void if/when we switch to electronic only proceedings.
Parallel sessions? I'm definitely not against it, but it does make it
more difficult for the hosts to find suitable venues for Eurocrypt and
Asiacrypt, because of the need for more lecture rooms. On the other
hand, many universities have such facilities. Also, conferences in other
fields do this already, so we should be able to do it as well.
IACR board of directors
I propose to limit the number of times a member can serve as director of the
IACR board to ensure that new, younger people participate in the decision process of the
organisation. This limitation should not include the other positions (Officers) on the board.
As an example, I think it should be allowed for a member to serve for nine years as
a director and then serve as the president or vice-president etc.
I have served twice and am happy to serve a (last,) third time.
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