THEWEBCONF

On behalf of the WWW2007 Program Committee, we are delighted to welcome you to WWW2007, the 16^th conference in the World Wide Web conference series.

The number of submissions to the refereed papers track and their quality has grown over the years. This year we had a record 755 submissions, of which we accepted 111 papers (a 14.7% acceptance rate). In response to the growing interest from the research community, we added a fourth day to the refereed papers track program, which allowed us to accept approximately 20% more papers than previous years. Despite this increase, many good papers had to be turned away. The refereed papers track consists of thirteen research areas. This year, we introduced two new tracks -- Web Services and XML and Web Data, which were formed by splitting the old "XML and Web Services" track into two new tracks. We also eliminated the "Alternate papers tracks" by folding those research areas into the regular refereed paper tracks. Thus, Technology for Developing Regions and Industrial Practice and Experience were regular refereed paper tracks this year and submissions were subjected to the same process as other tracks. We are pleased to report that both sets of changes were successful--the new tracks drew a healthy number of submissions and the quality of submissions to the new and the former alternate tracks were comparable to the other tracks. The table below summarizes the number of submissions and the number of accepted papers in each track.

All papers underwent a rigorous review process by the technical program committee---each paper was reviewed by at least three reviewers, followed by an online discussion phase to reconcile conflicting opinions. Candidate accept, borderline and controversial papers were discussed at length at a two day program committee meeting, which was attended by all track and deputy chairs. Some track chairs attended the meeting via audio conferencing from a satellite California site. We are pleased with the final outcome and present to you a technical program comprising 111 papers, all of which are of the highest standard.