[Jan 11 2006] Hotline number for APWeb Registration Desk A hotline is set up at the APWeb Registration Desk in the conference Hotel (Gloria Plaza Hotel). The number is 86770013 (Country code: 86; Harbin area code: 451).

[Jan 4 2006] Bank transfer receipt for hotel booking For those who paid for your hotel booking by bank transfer, the hotels advise that you need to bring the bank transfer receipts with you at the time of check-in.

[Jan 4 2006] Travel to Conference Hotel in Harbin Please download and print this JPEG file that contains information about how to take a bus and taxi from airport and train station to the hotel. It also also contains text in Chinese for your taxi driver, a mobile number for APWeb local organizers and a warning message about the extremely cold weather in Harbin. This is a large file - pls download and save to your disk to view and print.

[Jan 2 2006] Final Conference Program The current conference program on the website is the final version that are being printed in the offical conference program brochure.

[Dec 31 2005] Revision of Conference Program The conference program has been slightly revised. The official version of the final program will be out on 2 Jan (when it goes to the printery). 

[Dec 30 2005] The water problem in Harbin The local organizers wish to advise APWeb delegates who are concerned with the water pollution problems happened in Harbin in late November that "the polluted water came to Harbin in Nov. 24. After four days water cut-off, the water was eligible to drink again on Nov. 28. At the present, it is completely safe to drink the water. So, please do not worry about the water situation in Harbin".

[Dec 23 2005] Proceedings online now The main conference proceedings (LNCS 3841) is online now. You can find information about it at http://www.springeronline.com/3-540-31142-4 or access the online version
at http://www.springerlink.com/openurl.asp?genre=issue&issn=0302-9743&volume=3841&issue=preprint.

[Dec 23 2005] A plagiarism case Recently the APWeb Steering Committee has investigated and confirmed a case that a paper published at APWeb 2004, "Collaborative Filtering Algorithm Based on Mutual Information" by Ziqiang Wang and Boqin Feng, extensively copied ideas, results and even paragraphs from a paper previously published by other people elsewhere. Apparently this is not an isolated case. This case has been referred to Xi'an Jiao Tong University, and the people involved have been punished according to their University rules and policies, including revoking the PhD degree awarded to one author.

[Dec 22 2005] Hotel booking The local organizers wish to advise that all hotels reserved by the conference are valid until Dec 20 (hotels do not let us to holed for it longer as it is the peak season and our negotiated price is very low). This deadline has passed, so if you haven't made your booking and still wish to reserve a hotel room, you need to contact hotels in Harbin directly or your travel agent for your own arrangement. If you  have already made a booking but yet to pay, pls make your payment as soon as possible. If you have made a booking but yet to receive a confirmation from the local organiser, pls contact Ms Wenjie Zhang asap.

[Dec 22 2005] Return travel arrangement The local organizers wish to advise that all delegates need to make their own arrangement for both arriving and leaving Harbin. As January will be the peak tourism season, it is advisable that you confirm your return booking with your travel agent before you arrive in Harbin.

[Dec 22 2005] The Snow and Ice Tour To avoid extreme cold weather in the night, the tour will be 2-6pm on 18 January. The fee for the tour is 200 Chinese Yuan, including the admission cost of 190 Chinese Yuan for both parks. If you want to join the tour, you can pay at the registration desk on your arrival. No dinner is included in the tour package.

[Dec 8 2005] Conference program The conference schedule has been finalized and is online now. Only minor revisions, if any, are expected from here.

[Dec 5 2005] APWeb keynote speeches Check out APWeb 2006 keynote speeches by five leading experts:  David Abramson (Monash University, Australia), Jack Dongarra (University of Tennessee and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, USA), Ding-Zhu Du (University of Minnesota, USA), Ling Liu (Georgia Institute of Technology, USA) and Justin Zobel (RMIT, Australia).

[Dec 1 2005] APWeb tutorials and advanced seminars An one-and-half-hour advanced seminar on Intrinsic Limitations in Context Modelling will be presented by Maria Orlowska at APWeb. This is free for all APWeb delegates to attend. Check here for more information.

[Nov 27 2005] APWeb panel A panel with international leading experts on the topic of "Web and Enterprise Computing" moderated by Calton Pu will be one of the highlights of APWeb. Click here to read further information.

[Nov 27 2005] Poster presentations  A number of authors choose to present their papers in a poster session. All demo papers can also use a poster in addition to their demos. Please prepare your poster using one A1-szie paper (or using smaller papers adding to a size no larger than A1-size).

[Nov 24 2005] Reserving your hotel now!  The local organisers in Harbin want to post this urgent message: January in Harbin is a hot season for travelling; therefore the hotel hopes to get the number of attendees in advance. So please first fax ((+86-451)86415827) or email (apweb06@yahoo.com.cn and/or eclipsjane@gmail.com ) the Reservation Form to us before Dec. 5. The payment may be processed before Dec. 20, when the receipt of the payment should also be faxed to us.

[Nov 24 2005] Payment for extra pages  Several authors have exceeded their page limit for their papers (i.e., 12 pages per regular paper, 6 pages per short - except those papers with special arrangement with the conference organizers). There is an extra charge of US$ 100 per extra page. Note that some papers become longer after the publisher, Springer, has re-formatted these papers. Extra page charges are applicable to these papers too. You can use the forms here to pay for the extra pages: form for payment in HK$ and form for payment in RMB.

[Nov 21 2005] Snow and Ice Festival Tour  Harbin is proud of its world-famous snow and ice sculptures. You will be amazed by the scale and beauty of these art works using only the simplest and purest material. The best time to see the snow sculptures is before the sunset, and the best time to experience ice sculptures is at night. Some buildings made from ice are up to 40 meters high, and are so big that you can even get lost inside. From the afternoon of 18 January (after the panel session), APWeb will organise an afternoon tour to the Taiyang (Sun) Island to see snow sculptures, and a night tour to the Ice Festival Park, and a dinner in between to keep you warm. The normal cost is about 220-250 Chinese Yuan per person, the conference is now negotiating with several tour operators to get a better deal and is also prepared to subsidise budget permitting. This is a tour no one should miss! All APWeb delegates are invited. Watch this space...

[Nov 12 2005] Cheaper accommodation (for Chinese students attendees only)  APWeb local organisers have secured 30 cheaper accommodation available for Chinese students only (no twin-share - one person one room). The booking form is available here.

[Nov 12 2005] Email address for hotel booking  We were informed a few days ago that the e-mail for APWeb 2006 (apweb2006_harbin@yahoo.com.cn) is not always usable. Some people called Ms Zhang to complain about this. Now you can use this new email address apweb06@yahoo.com.cn. It has been tested for several days now and it works well.

[Nov 11 2005] Draft Program  is online now. This is a draft to assist you for travel arrangement and hotel booking. Advanced program with paper information will be available later.

[Nov 4 2005] Hotel booking  The local organisers wish to inform you that they prefer to use more the following email address and phone numbers (which are more reliable):

     contact Person: Ms Wenjie Zhang

     email: apweb2006_harbin@mail.yahoo.com.cn

     phone: +86-451-86415183-826