Special Interest Grous (SIGs)

Special Interest Groups (SIGs)

About SIGs

The services sector is the largest contributor to the economy in the United States, accounting for 77.6% of GDP in 2021. In China, the services sector accounted for 52.8% of GDP in 2022. Hong Kong is one of the most service-oriented economies in the world, with the services sector contributing to over 93.4% of GDP in 2022. The goal of the Services Society (S2) is to foster Building the Modern Services Industry through Services Computing technologies and business innovations.

This scope of Services Computing covers the whole lifecycle of services innovation research that includes business componentization, services modeling, services creation, services realization, services annotation, services deployment, services discovery, services composition, services delivery, service-to-service collaboration, services monitoring, services optimization, as well as services management.

The enabling technology suite includes Web services, service-oriented architecture (SOA), cloud computing, artificial intelligence, cognitive computing, big data, internet of things, edge computing, blockchain, mobile internet, metaverse, business consulting methodology and utilities, business process modeling, transformation and integration.

To rapidly respond to the changing economy, the Technical Activities board at the Services Society (https://ServicesSociety.org/) has created the following Special Interest Groups (SIGs) which are clustered as “ABCDE”.

List of SIGs

  1. Special Interest Group on Artificial Intelligence (SIG-AI)

    SIG-AI covers all AI and cognitive related topics (a.k.a. Technology Cluster “A”).

    Topics: different aspects of Artificial Intelligence from technologies to approaches and algorithms.
    Conference Sponsored: International Conference on AI and Services (AIMS)

    Topics: all aspects of cognition, computation, and business to understand and engineer effective value-creation. The scope of Cognitive Computing covers but not limited to all acts or processes of knowing, perceiving, judging, reasoning, and associating based on computing platforms and algorithms.
    Conference Sponsored: International Conference on Cognitive Computing (ICCC)

  2. Special Interest Group on Metaverse (SIG-Metaverse)

    SIG-Metaverse covers all topics of Blockchain and metaverse related topics (a.k.a. Technology Cluster “B”).

    Topics: Blockchain Technology and Platform, as well as Blockchain Solutions and Business Models.

    Conference Sponsored: International Conference on Blockchain (ICBC)

    Topics: metaverse and all vertical industry services and domain-specific services, as well as the emerging service enabling technologies for metaverse.
    Conference Sponsored: International Conference on Metaverse (METAVERSE)

  3. Special Interest Group on Cloud Computing (SIG-CLOUD)

    SIG-CLOUD covers all Cloud computing and edge computing related topics (a.k.a. Technology Cluster “C”).

    Topics: sharing resources among the cloud service consumers, cloud partners, and cloud vendors in the cloud value chain.
    Conference Sponsored: International Conference on Cloud Computing (CLOUD)

    Topics: Edge devices, Edge communication protocols, Edge storage, Edge integration, and Edge applications.
    Conference Sponsored: International Conference on Edge Computing (EDGE)

  4. Special Interest Group on Big Data (SIG-BD)

    SIG-BD covers all topics of internet of things for data gathering and big Data for insights management (a.k.a. Technology Cluster “D”).

    Topics: IOT Devices, Software, Platform, Applications, and Solutions.
    Conference Sponsored: International Conference on Internet of Things (ICIOT)

    Topics: big data models and algorithms, big data architectures, big data management, big data protection, big data integrity, big data privacy, big data security, big data search and mining, and big data for enterprise, government, and society.
    Conference Sponsored: International Conference on Big Data (BigData)

  5. Special Interest Group on Services Computing (SIG-SC)

    SIG-SC covers all topics of Everything is connected. Everything can be shared as a service and integrated as a service-oriented solution (a.k.a. Technology Cluster “E”).

    Topics: Web-centric services, enabling technologies and applications.

    Conference Sponsored: International Conference on Web Services (ICWS)

    Topics: enterprise modeling, business consulting, solution creation, services delivery, services orchestration, services optimization, services management, services marketing, services delivery and cloud computing, service-oriented architecture (SOA), business process integration and management, as well as enabling technologies and standards.
    Conference Sponsored: International Conference on Services Computing (SCC)

SIG Chair - Responsibility

Responsibilities of a SIG Chair

A SIG Chair is responsible for leading a group of professionals to promote its scope, conduct professional activities, and foster interactions among group members. Specifically, the responsibilities of a SIG Chair include but not limited to the following items:

  1. Each SIG Chair may appoint Co-Chair(s), Vice-Chair(s), Executive Committee, Advisory Committee, Senior-Honorary Chair(s);

  2. Each SIG Chair needs to create a yearly plan for its technical activities. A yearly plan (1/1-12/31) may include statement of works that can contribute to the SIG’s success;

  3. Each SIG Chair is responsible for creating or updating a descriptive introduction for his/her Special Interest Group (SIG).

  4. Each SIG Chair is responsible for creating a members list;

  5. Each SIG Chair or his/her representative needs to attend our annual Special Interest Group (SIG) Board (TB) meetings. The meeting is typically scheduled during our SCF conferences;

  6. Each SIG Chair is responsible for sponsoring and supporting the corresponding conference by encouraging members to be an author, volunteer, or participant;

  7. Each SIG Chair is responsible for supporting the Services Society Young Scientist Forum (SSYSF) activities worldwide;

  8. Each SIG Chair may organize special issues or attract paper submissions for Services Transactions series journals sponsored by the Services Society.

Term of a SIG Chair

The term for a SIG Chair is two years. It is encouraged that the current chair invites the past chairs to be part of the Advisory Committee or Executive Committee. The SIG Chair-Elect is automatically part of the current Executive Committee.

Chair Election

The future Chair election will be conducted in the second year of the current Chair’s term. The election location will be collocated with the current year's SCF conference.

Interested Candidates

Each candidate needs to submit a nomination package in PDF format via the online submission system. In your package, you need to include a short bio with photo and online presence (e.g. URLs), work plan, list of core team members, commitment to the attendance of TAB meeting, introductory text of your interested SIG (optional), and budget plan (optional).

It is noted that nomination packages coming from people without experiences of serving as leading volunteers for technical communities, conferences, or large online groups, or journals in the Special Interest Group (SIG) field will be filtered out during the review and selection process.

Chair Selection Deadline

The review process will be conducted by a group of leading volunteers in the worldwide Services Innovation Community. The onsite interview will be also arranged during SCF. The founding chairs of all SIGs will be selected and announced at SCF Opening based on the interview results and review comments of the submitted nomination packages.

SIG Chair - Nomination Package

1. Yearly Work Plan (Statement of Works)

The proposed activities include but not limited to organize special sessions, innovation showcases, summer school, tutorials, panels, job fair, poster, and other activities at one of our flagship conferences.

2. List of Special Interest Group (SIG) Core Team Members

Each SIG needs to build a core team and a group of members to promote its technical activities. A core team includes 10-16 researchers, practitioners from academia or industry.  All the core team members should be proactive and passionate on promoting the associated SIG activities. For each SIG, there could be multiple technology areas, which can be led by the core team members.

The core team members or other proactive members of our SIGs will be recommended to become a member of the program committee or organizing committee of our conferences within SCF. Some members can be also recommended to become a member of the editorial board or special issue editor of the corresponding journals such as the Services Transactions on Services Computing (STSC), the Services Transactions on Cloud Computing (STCC), the Services Transactions on Big Data (STBD), and the Services Transactions on Internet of Things (STIOT).

The SIG core team members are willing to serve for the community and dedicate time for conducting technical activities.  Seniority should also be considered as important quality for the core team. The core team list includes each member’s full name, email, affiliation, and technology area.  We will publish that information on the Services Society Technical Activities Board website (http://ServicesSociety.org/).

3. Commitment to the Attendance of our TAB meetings

Our TAB meetings are ways for the SIG leaders to exchange information and define technical directions for the worldwide services community. Each SIG must have a representative (chair or co-chair) to attend our annual meeting to be held most likely during SCF.  In 2020, the location is in San Diego, USA. Best practices of SIG activities will be summarized and shared among SIG leaders during the meetings. Other TAB meetings may be conducted via electronic ways (e.g. email, online group chat, online group discussion, Internet-based conference calls).

4. A Special Interest Group (SIG) Introductory Text

A Special Interest Group (SIG) needs a description on its scope, major technical activities, and impacts to the society. It may include an introductory text with 200-300 words in total. The submitted description by the SIG chairs will be reviewed and approved by the Technical Activity Board of Services Society. The approved description will be published on the Services Society website. We may also publish a SIG’s information in the conference proceedings of a corresponding conference within SCF.

5. Budget Plan

This part includes potential revenue sources (e.g. meeting registration fees, corporate sponsorship, etc.) and expenses for conducting professional activities.  This part is optional for the nomination package. Once a SIG chair is announced, a detailed budget plan needs to be submitted based on the guidelines from the Services Society.