Programming language researchers have the principles, tools, algorithms and abstractions to solve all kinds of problems, in all areas of computer science. However, identifying and evaluating new problems, particularly those that lie outside the typical core PL problems we all know and love, can be a significant challenge. Hence, the goal of this workshop is to identify and discuss problems that do not often show up in our top conferences, but where programming language researchers can make a substantial impact. The hope is that by holding such a forum and associating it directly with a top conference like POPL, we can slowly start to increase the diversity of problems that are studied by PL researchers and that by doing so we will increase the impact that our community has on the world.

While many workshops associated with POPL have become more like mini-conferences themselves, this is not the goal for Off the Beaten Track. The workshop will be informal and structured to encourage discussion. It will also be centered around problems and problem areas as opposed to fully-formed solutions.

A good submission is one that outlines a new problem or an interesting, underrepresented problem domain. Good submissions may also remind the PL community of problems that were once in vogue but have not recently been seen in top PL conferences. Good submissions do not need to propose complete or even partial solutions, though there should be some reason to believe that programming languages researchers have the tools necessary to search for solutions in the area at hand. Submissions that seem likely to stimulate discussion about the direction of programming language research are encouraged. Possible topics include any of the following.

• Biology, chemistry, or other natural sciences
• Art, music, graphics and animation
• Networking, cloud computing, systems programming
• Linguistics
• Economics, law, politics or other social sciences
• Web programming, social computing
• Algorithms and complexity
• Mathematics, statistics
• Machine learning or artificial intelligence
• Education
• Unusual compilers; underrepresented programming languages
• Surprise us

We certainly hope to see submissions on topics not mentioned above. The goal of the workshop is to be inclusive, not exclusive. Submissions are evaluated on the basis of creativity, novelty, clarity, possible impact and potential for stimulating discussion.

Workshop Structure

The one-day workshop will be structured to include the following activities:

• Short submitted talks, ~5 minutes long, interleaved with 5-15 minutes of discussion
• Longer submitted talks, ~15-30 minutes long, interleaved with discussion
• Longer Invited talks
  • Sep Kamvar, Languages for Social Computation.  Abstract
• A panel, organized as a coherent collection of short presentations by panelists interleaved with discussion

 The exact structure and length of talks will be decided by the program chair in consultation with the program committee.

UPDATE:  See the preliminary program.