I’m on the Program Committee for the Workshop on Flexible Modeling Tools (FlexiTools) at ICSE 2011 in Honolulu, Hawaii.

The workshop addresses the problem that formal modeling tools (such as UML diagram editors) and more informal but flexible, free-form approaches (such as white boards or office tools) have complementary strengths and weaknesses. Whichever practitioners choose for a particular task, they lose the advantages of the other, with attendant frustration and loss of productivity. The goal of this workshop is to develop flexible modeling tools that blend the advantages of modeling tools and the more free-form approaches.

The focus of FlexiTools 2011 will be on challenge problems in the area of flexible modeling with the goal to identify a foundational set of challenges and concerns for the field of flexible modeling, and promising directions for addressing each.

Prospective participants are invited to submit 2-5 page position papers on any topic relevant to the dichotomy between modeling tools and more free-form approaches.

I’m looking forward to reading your papers! Submissions are due on February 7, 2011.

This is the workshop website http://www.ics.uci.edu/~nlopezgi/flexitoolsICSE2011/