Key dates, 2011–2013
Big Learning's three workshop calendars ran from calls in August to meetings in December. Each included a submission date, an author-notification date and a final-version date before the workshop itself. These milestones belonged to the 2011, 2012 and 2013 editions; all have passed. The 2013 submission deadline was extended from 9 October to 25 October.
The sequence joined the selection of contributed work to the programme that participants encountered at the meeting. Calls defined the research scope, notification identified accepted contributions, and the final-version milestone followed review. The author format explains the short extended abstracts and presentation categories, while the 2013 schedule shows how invited talks, contributed talks, posters and a tutorial fitted into the completed day.
The three edition calendars
| Milestone | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Call announced | 28 August 2011 | 25 August 2012 | 25 August 2013 |
| Submission deadline | 7 October 2011 | 17 October 2012 | 9 October 2013, extended to 25 October 2013 |
| Author notification | 1 November 2011 | 2 November 2012 | 8 November 2013 |
| Final version due | 25 November 2011 | 14 November 2012 | 15 November 2013 |
| Workshop | 16–17 December 2011 | 8 December 2012 | 9 December 2013 |
2011: the calendar for a two-day meeting
The 2011 call was announced on 28 August. Submissions were due on 7 October, author notification followed on 1 November, and final versions were due on 25 November. The workshop met on 16–17 December in Sierra Nevada, Spain. The two-day duration distinguished this edition from the subsequent one-day meetings, even though the same general sequence of selection and preparation appeared across the series.
The NeurIPS description of Big Learning 2011 gives the full title, Big Learning: Algorithms, Systems, and Tools for Learning at Scale, and its broad research aims. The calendar led to a programme of invited talks, contributed talks, spotlights, posters and tutorials. The 2011 edition page describes that programme's shape, while its accepted-papers and invited-talks pages identify the contributions.
2012: a single workshop day
The 2012 call was announced on 25 August, with submissions due on 17 October. Author notification was dated 2 November and final versions were due on 14 November. The meeting took place on 8 December at Lake Tahoe. Its morning and afternoon sessions placed invited and contributed presentations alongside poster discussion, with a break between the main speaking periods.
The NeurIPS description of Big Learning 2012 sets out the four topic areas behind that calendar: data; models and algorithms; applications; and tools, software and systems. The milestones therefore belonged to a meeting with several related kinds of contribution. The 2012 edition page connects the research scope to the workshop day, and the paper list supplies the titles and author names.
2013: an extended submission date
The 2013 call was announced on 25 August. Its first submission date was 9 October; the deadline was then extended to 25 October. Author notification followed on 8 November, and final versions were due on 15 November. The workshop met on 9 December at Lake Tahoe. The extension changed the submission milestone, while the other dates described the later stages leading to the meeting.
The NeurIPS description of Big Learning 2013 highlights the relationship between learning algorithms and database research. The resulting day included four completed invited talks, three contributed talks, poster sessions and the Vowpal Wabbit tutorial. The cancelled closing invited talk belonged to the planned timetable and is labelled accordingly in the programme. The 2013 edition page explains the wider scope.
The author guidelines gave the 2011 and 2013 submission cutoffs as 11:59 PM PST on their respective dates. Those time-of-day details belonged to the past submission process, alongside the calendar dates above. The 2013 guidelines and calendar agreed on the extended 25 October date. A dated cutoff identified one step in that process; the workshop date identified the later gathering at which accepted work entered discussion through its assigned presentation format.
How workshop milestones fit together
A call and a workshop date refer to different stages of a research meeting. The call describes what kinds of work belong in the discussion; the submission date defines when contributions entered the selection process. Notification communicates the outcome of that process. A final-version date then concerns the written contribution after selection, before the scheduled presentation setting.
Wikipedia's account of academic conferences describes meetings that combine research presentations with discussion, sometimes including written proceedings and poster sessions. A workshop calendar helps organise those forms of participation. It connects the written contribution to the event's programme, but it does not describe a paper's methods, its conclusions or the content of an invited talk.
Reading the calendar beside the call and programme gives each date a purpose. The call explains the subject range, the guidelines explain the contribution format, and the programme shows the allocation of presentation time. Those are complementary descriptions of the same meeting. The before-and-after page places the three December workshops among related venues, while the glossary explains the technical and presentation terms used across their pages.