About the Conference

The 12th International Symposium on Open Collaboration (OpenSym 2016) is the premier conference on open collaboration research and practice, including open source, open data, open education, wikis and related social media, Wikipedia, and IT-driven open innovation research.

OpenSym is the first conference series to bring together the different strands of open collaboration researchers and practitioners, seeking to create synergies and inspire new collaboration between computer scientists, social scientists, legal scholars, and everyone interested in understanding open collaboration and how it is changing the world.

OpenSym 2016 will be held in Berlin, Germany, on August 17-19, 2016.

OpenSym is held in-cooperation with ACM SIGWEB and ACM SIGSOFT. The conference proceedings will be archived in the ACM digital library like all prior editions.

Research paper submission deadline is March 25th April 8th, 2016.

The Free/Libre/Open Source Software Research Track

The research track of free/libre/open source software (FLOSS) is looking for submissions on, but is not limited to, the following topics:

• FLOSS development, including both software engineering aspects and human factors
• FLOSS communities, including developer, but also user or business communities and ecosystems
• FLOSS and innovation, how both are related, and new innovation models based on FLOSS
• Motivation and incentives to FLOSS development and adoption
• Business models based on FLOSS and sustainability of FLOSS projects
• FLOSS technologies, especially those taking advantage of being FLOSS
• Legal aspects of FLOSS, including copyright and (dual-)licensing
• Education and FLOSS
• Impact of FLOSS in specific domains or technological areas, and FLOSS adoption
• FLOSS development processes, such as code reviews, joining process, etc.

Submission Information and Instructions

The following types of submissions are invited:

• Long research papers (max. 10 pages)
• Short research papers (2 to 4 pages)
• Research posters (1 to 2 pages)
• Research-in-progress presentations (max. 10 pages)

Research papers present integrative reviews or original reports of substantive new theoretical or empirical work. Research papers will be reviewed by the research track program committee to meet rigorous academic standards of publication. Papers will be reviewed for relevance, conceptual quality, innovation and clarity of presentation. They must be written in English. At least one author of accepted papers is required to attend the conference in order to present the paper.

Research-in-progress presentations, like research papers, present integrative reviews or original reports of substantive new theoretical or empirical work. However, research presentations are a new format specifically aimed at social science researchers who want to use OpenSym as a pre-publication venue before journal publication. Only the abstracts of these papers will be published as part of the proceedings thus leaving open the opportunity for journal publication at a later date. Research presentations will be reviewed by the research track program committee to meet rigorous academic standards just like research papers.

Research posters enable researchers to present late-breaking research results, significant research work in progress, or research work that is best communicated in conversation. OpenSym’s lively poster sessions let conference attendees exchange ideas one-on-one with authors, and let authors discuss their work in detail with those attendees most deeply interested in the topic. Successful applicants will display their posters, up to 1x2m in size, at a special session during the event.

The OpenSym website provides more information about the available paper types.

Submissions for experience reports (long and short), tutorials, workshops, panels, non-research posters, and demos are also sought but are handled through the industry and community track, please see the industry and community track call for submissions.

Submissions to OpenSym’s Doctoral Symposium are sought but are handled separately, please see the doctoral symposium call for submissions.

Submissions should follow the standard ACM SIG proceedings format. All papers must conform at time of submission to the formatting instructions and must not exceed the page limits, including all text, references, appendices and figures. All submissions must in PDF format.

All papers and posters should be submitted electronically through EasyChair using the following URL: https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=opensym2016.

Submission and Notification Deadlines

• Submission deadline: March 25th April 8th, 2016
• Notification to authors: May 27th, 2016
• Camera-ready deadline: June 3rd, 2016

As long as it is March 25th April 8th, 2016, somewhere on earth, your submission will be accepted.

Research Track Committee

Committee Chairs

• Daniel German – University of Victoria, Canada (co-chair)
• Stefan Koch – Bogazici University, Turkey (co-chair)

Committee Members (under construction)

• Bram Adams – Polytechnique of Montreal, Canada
• Cornelia Boldyreff – University of East London, UK
• Jesús M. González Barahona – Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Spain
• Robert Hirschfeld – HPI, University of Potsdam, Germany
• Nicolas Jullien – Institut Telecom Bretagne, France
• Walt Scacchi – University of California, Irvine, USA
• Maha Shaikh – London School of Economics, UK
• Emad Shihab – Concordia University, Canada
• Megan Squire – Elon University, USA
• Klaas-Jan Stol – LERO – University of Limerick, Ireland
• Stefano Zacchiroli – Université Paris Diderot, France
• Franz Zieris – Freie Universität Berlin, Germany