# Apologies for cross-postings
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COLING/ACL 2006 NEWSLETTER NO. 4
May 8, 2006
This is the official newsletter of COLING/ACL 2006
The 21st International Conference on Computational Linguistics
and
The 44th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics
Sydney, Australia
July 17-21, 2006
For complete details, visit the conference web site at:
www.acl2006.org
www.coling2006.org
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:: Important Dates
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REGISTRATION DATES:
Deadline for early bird registration: May 31, 2006 (Wed)
Deadline for late registration: June 30, 2006 (Fri)
(Those who miss the late registration deadline will be able to register
on-site)
CONFERENCE DATES:
Pre-conference workshops/conferences: July 15-16, 2006 (Sat-Sun)
Tutorials: July 16, 2006 (Sun)
Main conference: July 17-21, 2006 (Mon-Fri)
Post-conference workshops/conferences: July 22-23, 2006 (Sat-Sun)
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:: Table of Contents
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1. Registration Details
2. Visas
3. Air Ticket Prices
4. Travel and Accommodation Bookings
5. ACL/HCSNet Advanced Program in Natural Language Processing
6. Student Volunteers
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:: 1. Registration Details
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Early bird registration is now available via the conference website:
http://www.acl2006.org/registration
The deadline for early bird registration is May 31, 2006, and the deadline
for late registration is June 30, 2006.
Note that registration and accommodation bookings are two separate steps to
take.
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:: 2. Visas
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Most conference delegates will need to apply for a Business Activities Visa,
and any partners/accompanying children not participating in the conference may
apply for a Visitors Visa. Both types of visa are generally valid for a stay
of up to 3 months. For delegates from the 34 ETA (Electronic Travel
Authority) approved countries listed below, you will NOT need a letter of
invitation from the Secretariat. For more details, read on.
The simplest way to apply for your visa to Australia, for the Coling/ACL
Conference in Sydney, Australia is online at:
www.eta.immi.gov.au
For a fee of AUD$20 you can apply for a Business Activities Visa or a Visitors
Visa if you come from an ETA Country (see list below). Applications for ETAs
can also be submitted through your travel agent or airline.
In most cases, electronic approval for your ETA is granted in less than 30
seconds. You can also check your ETA status if you applied through this site,
by clicking on the "Check your ETA" button on the website.
ETA Eligibility: ETAs are available to passport holders of the following 34
countries. You can only apply for an ETA while you are outside of Australia.
+------------------------+------------------------------------------+
| Andorra | Malaysia |
| Austria | Malta |
| Belgium | Monaco |
| Brunei | The Netherlands |
| Canada | Norway |
| Denmark | Portugal |
| Finland | San Marino, Republic of |
| France | Singapore |
| Germany | South Korea |
| Greece | Spain |
| Hong Kong (SAR) | Sweden |
| Iceland | Switzerland |
| Ireland | Taiwan * |
| Italy | UK - British Citizen or |
| Japan | UK - British National (Overseas) ** |
| Liechtenstein | USA |
| Luxembourg | Vatican City |
+------------------------+------------------------------------------+
* Holders of Taiwan passports can only be processed for an ETA if resident in
and applying in Taiwan.
** Holders of UK British National (Overseas) (GBN) passports are not eligible
to apply for ETAs through this site. Holders of UK passports which indicate
their nationality to be British National (Overseas) can only be processed
for an ETA if resident in and applying in Hong Kong.
New Zealand citizens who hold a valid New Zealand passport do not need to
obtain a visa before travelling to Australia, unless there are health or
character concerns. On arrival in Australia, New Zealand citizens who present
a valid New Zealand passport will automatically be granted a Special Category
Visa (SCV) which is recorded electronically. The SCV is denoted in the New
Zealand passport with an arrival date stamp.
When an application for an ETA is submitted through this site, all you need to
do is enter the details from your passport and your credit card
information. The application is processed immediately. Approved applications
are electronically recorded on Australian Government systems.
The ETA is issued electronically by a computer system operated for the
Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs (DIMA) of Australia. When
you arrive at an airport for check-in on a flight to Australia, the airline
check-in staff can electronically confirm that you have authority to board the
flight to Australia
Short Validity Business ETA
If you are travelling for business purposes, you should apply for the Short
Validity Business ETA. It is valid for 12 months with stays of up to 3 months
on each visit, and can be used for single or multiple entry travel.
Employment is prohibited.
If you are travelling for tourism or to visit friends or relatives, you should
apply for the Visitor/Tourist ETA. It is valid for 12 months with stays of up
to 3 months on each visit, and can be used for single or multiple entry
travel. Employment is prohibited.
Payment is by credit card only. The cards accepted by this site are American
Express, Diners Club, JCB, Mastercard and Visa.
Visit:
www.eta.immi.gov.au
for more information.
NON-ETA
If you are not from an ETA Country (i.e. not from one of the countries listed
above) please obtain a Coling/ACL Conference Invitation, and present it to
either the Office of Australian Visa Services or the Australian High
Commission in your Country, and apply for a 456 Business or Visitor Short Stay
Visa for Australia. Please allow sufficient time for the processing of such
visas (actual processing times will vary considerably from country to
country).
If you do need to obtain an invitation, please email the Conference
Secretariat (acl@welldone.com.au) with your full contact details, and an
invitation will be despatched immediately.
DO NOT DELAY - allow ample time for the visa application to be processed.
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:: 3. Air Ticket Prices
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Be warned that with recent increases in the global price of crude oil, a
number of airlines are in the process of increasing airfares or introducing
additional fuel levies of various descriptions. Given the long distances many
of you will need to travel to Australia, the size of the increase is
anticipated to be non-trivial, and you are therefore encouraged to finalise
air bookings as soon as possible.
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:: 4. Travel and Accommodation Bookings
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We are providing a comprehensive service through which you can now book ALL
your travel and accommodation, and if you need to, rent roaming SIM cards for
your mobiles or organise Wireless Broadband access (see web site for details)
for use while in Australia. And you're not limited to the conference week
itself - LIDO will book you flights and accommodation anywhere, any time, so
plan to stay a while!
At the Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre, for Monday-Tuesday and
Thursday-Friday (the main conference days on site) there will be free wireless
access, sponsored by Microsoft Research, for all delegates. There will also
be PCs available (at a charge) via the normal SCEC facilities, for those who
don't have a wireless-enabled laptop.
There will also be free internet access for all delegates attending the pre-
and post-conference workshops and tutorials, but it will not be wireless. There
will be plenty of terminals available for you to use via a userid and password
which will be supplied on registration.
Accommodation bookings have been available for some time, and we've already
taken many rooms - so book early, to ensure the hotel of your choice. For
further details, pricing and links to the LIDO booking service, see:
http://www.acl2006.org/accommodation
If you have queries on any of the above facilities, please contact the
Secretariat:
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:: 5. ACL/HCSNet Advanced Program in Natural Language Processing
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ACL/HCSNet Advanced Program in Natural Language Processing
University of Melbourne, 10-14 July 2006
The ACL/HCSNet Advanced Program in Natural Language Processing will be
held at the University of Melbourne in the week prior to the COLING/ACL.
Anyone can register to attend the event, though places are limited.
PROGRAM: There will be four themes, with 12 hours of tutorials for each:
NLP/IR:
Sophia Ananiadou (Manchester), Francis Bond (NTT Japan),
Inderjeet Mani (MITRE and Brandeis), Alistair Moffat (Melbourne)
Discourse & Dialogue:
Ivana Kruijff-Korbayova (Saarland), Diane Litman (Pitt),
Michael Strube (EML Research), David Traum (USC)
Lexical Semantics:
Collin Baker (Berkeley), Timothy Baldwin (Melbourne),
Paul Buitelaar (DFKI), James Curran (Sydney), Graeme Hirst (Toronto)
Probabilistic Parsing:
Stephen Clark (Oxford), James Curran (Sydney), others TBA
STUDENTSHIPS: 30 ACL Studentships are available on a competitive
basis, covering the cost of registration and accommodation. Please
see the website for more details. Extended Deadline: Monday 15 May.
IMPORTANT DATES:
15 May: studentship applications due (extended deadline)
26 May: studentship notifications posted
1 June: early registration, discount student accommodation
Organisation and Sponsorship:
Steven Bird, Nicola Stokes, James Curran (co-chairs)
Timothy Baldwin, Lawrence Cavedon, James Curran, Nicola Stokes (theme convenors)
This event is funded by the Association for Computational Linguistics, and
HCSNet, the ARC Network in Human Communication Science. It is also supported
by the Australasian Language Technology Association.
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:: 6. Student Volunteers
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Coling/ACL 2006 Student Volunteer Programme
Sponsored by Appen
Coling/ACL 2006 is looking for student volunteers to work at the conference
(the main conference, the tutorials and workshops and co-located events) in
exchange for free registration. The Student Volunteer Program is open to
full-time students only. This would involve a commitment to work three
half-days over the course of the whole event, plus orientation and some time
to prepare the conference bags. Volunteers are needed from July 15th through
July 23rd.
If you are interested, please contact Priscilla Rasmussen at acl@aclweb.org
with a subject line of "Coling-ACL 2006 student volunteer", by May 12th, 2006.
In your email application (there is no form), please include the dates you
expect to be in Sydney, whether you are presenting a paper or poster at the
conference or one of the related events, what school you are in, what year of
your program you are in, and whether you have applied and have been granted
through ACL other funds (for example, travel funds from the Student Research
Workshop, funds to attend the ACL/HCSNet Winter School in Melbourne prior to
Coling/ACL 2006, funds from the Walker travel fund, etc.) or have any other
support (for example, from your home institution or elsewhere). We expect to
let you know whether you have been selected as a Student Volunteer by May
26th, 2006.
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Contact details for the various COLING/ACL organisers can be found at:
http://www.acl2006.org/contact
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