Author: Alberto Del Bimbo ACM SIGMM Chair
Affiliation: University of Firenze, Florence (Italy)
About our initiatives for the Multimedia community
Dear SIGMM members, colleagues, students,
The world is changing rapidly, and technology is driving these changes at an unprecedented pace. In this scenario, multimedia has become ubiquitous, providing new services to users, advanced modalities for information transmission, processing, and management, as well as innovative solutions for digital content understanding and production. The progress of Artificial Intelligence has fueled new opportunities and vitality in the field. New media formats, such as 3D, event data, and other sensory inputs, have become popular. Cutting-edge applications are constantly being developed and introduced.
We believed that these changes should be reflected in our SIGMM flagship conference, ACM Multimedia and the SIGMM organization and activities overall. This belief led us to organize the SIGMM Retreat in coincidence with ACM MM23 in Ottawa on October 30, 2023. The goal of the meeting was opening a discussion on key strategic issues such as the coverage of ACM Multimedia, its quality and reputation and how we can grow the SIGMM community. We invited the members of the SIGMM Advisory Committee, the members of the Steering Committees of the SIGMM-sponsored conferences, the ACM TOMM Editor in Chief, the past SIGMM Chairs, and senior personalities and emerging researchers of our community. The Retreat was well attended. Twenty people attended in-person. Ten attended on-line. Alberto Del Bimbo, SIGMM Chair, chaired the Retreat with the assistance of Phoebe Chen, SIGMM Vice-chair and Xavier Alameda Pineda.
The discussion was vibrant and valued opinions and suggestions emerged. It was widely agreed that the distinctive feature of multimedia research is the combination and integration of various modalities to build end-to-end systems.
People agreed on the need to introduce significant changes in the format of our flagship conference to bring new attractiveness. High consensus received the ideas of giving more room to Brave New Ideas sections, having TED-like talks, and soliciting workshops on innovative topics and striving for their continuity. There was also consensus on revitalizing the program by including new emerging topics like Foundation Models, 3D, glass free interactivity, new networking platforms. All the attendees recognized the need to balance the traditional research areas of the ACM Multimedia program.
There was general agreement on using Open Access as the reviewing system for ACM Multimedia. It was recognized it improves the quality and transparency of the reviewing process, enhances respectability, empowers the reviewers to conduct serious reviews, and aligns ACM Multimedia to the top ranked conferences.
Other important topics of discussion included how to incentivize in-person attendance and discourage online participation to maximize the value of conferences, the collaboration and synchronization of SIGMM-sponsored conferences, and the need to make the transition between conference editions more seamless.
Recognizing the need for greater industry presence, also to offer internship opportunities for students and improve the attendance of younger generations, was identified as a key issue for improvement. All the attendees recognized the importance to exploit SIGMM Records and Social Media as a means to improve the sense of community and disseminate information.
Following our commitment to align words with actions, we decided to create Strike Teams focusing on the most strategic themes. These teams are composed of a few experienced colleagues who volunteered to define realistic strategies for the key issues, determine concrete actions, and help to implement them in the near future. Starting in January 2024, four strike teams are in operation, with members appointed for two years:
- SIGMM Strike Team on Open Review to provide operational support on the implementation of Open Review, smoothly transferring the best practices and helping to provide new functions.
Team members are: Xavier Alameda Pineda (Univ. Grenoble-Alpes) Coordinator, Marco Bertini (Univ. Firenze).
- SIGMM Strike Team on Harmonization and Spread to integrate SIGMM Records and Social Media in the whole process of the ACM Multimedia organization, improve synchronization and harmonization between ACM Multimedia and other SIGMM Conferences, and strengthen the sense of community.
Team members are: Miriam Redi (Wikimedia Foundation) Coordinator, Silvia Rossi (CWI), Irene Viola (CWI), Mylene Farias (Texas State Univ. and Univ. Brasilia), Ichiro Ide (Nagoya Univ), Pablo Cesar (CWI and TU Delft).
- SIGMM Strike Team on Industry Engagement to improve the presence of industry at ACM Multimedia, launching new in-cooperation initiatives and establishing stable bi-directional links.
Team members are: Touradj Ebrahimi (EPFL) Coordinator, Ali Begen (Ozyegin Univ), Balu Adsumilli (Google), Yong Rui (Lenovo) and ChangSheng Xu (Chinese Academy of Sciences)
- Strike Team on ACMMM Format to innovate the ACM Multimedia program, aligning it with technological advancements and the emergence of new research areas, and igniting fresh and efficient means of disseminating research.
Team members are: Arnold Smeulders (Univ. of Amsterdam) Coordinator, Alan Smeaton (Dublin City University), Tat Seng Chua (National University of Singapore), Changwen Chen (Hong Kong Polytechnic Univ.), Nicu Sebe (Univ. of Trento), Marcel Worring (Univ. of Amsterdam) and the Chairs of the next two ACMMM Conferences, Jianfei Cai (Monash Univ.) and Cathal Gurrin (Dublin City Univ.).
All the teams report to SIGMM Chair and the SIGMM Executive Committee and will work in close connection with the General Chairs and Program Chairs of the next ACM Multimedia editions.
I take this opportunity to thank again all those who participated in the SIGMM Retreat, and especially those who are committed to the Strike Teams. I sincerely hope that their work brings new ideas and vitality to our community and strengthens its visibility and reputation in the international scientific arena in the years to come.
Alberto Del Bimbo
SIGMM Chair