Defined as “collaboration that is egalitarian (everyone can join, no principled or artificial barriers to participation exist), meritocratic (decisions and status are merit-based rather than imposed) and self-organizing (processes adapt to people rather than people adapt to pre-defined processes)”, we are seeking community contributions that best exemplify this definition of open collaboration.
Industry and community contributions can stem from and address the different open collaboration domains such as:
- Free, libre, and open source software projects and practice
- Open data projects and practice
- Open access projects and practice
- IT-driven open innovation projects and practice
- Wikipedia and related Wikimedia foundation projects and practice
- Open science and education
- Other open collaboration (wikis, social media, etc.) projects and practice
Types of Community Track Submissions
The following types of papers can be submitted to the community track:
- Experience reports long and short: A regular presentation slot (30min) will be provided
- Workshop proposals: A workshop slot (half-day or full-day) will be provided
- Panel proposals: A session (90min) discussion slot for the panel will be provided
- Demo proposals: Space and time is provided during the demo session (90min)
- Tutorial proposals: A tutorial slot (90min) will be provided at the conference
Submissions are reviewed by the community track committee for their interest to the OpenSym community in general. For questions about community track submissions, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us.
Experience Reports
Experience reports are an integral part of the conference program. These are opportunities to discuss how ideas that sound good on paper (and at conferences!) work in real life. Many attendees want to learn from people on the front lines what it is like to do things like start a company wiki, run an open source project, or build a political campaign using open collaboration systems.
Experience reports are not research papers; their goal is to present experience and reflections on a particular case, and they are reviewed for usefulness, clarity and reflection. Strong experience reports discuss both benefits and drawbacks of the approaches used and clearly call out lessons learned. Reports may focus on a particular aspect of technology usage and practice, or describe broad project experiences.
Short experience reports may be 2-4 pages long, long experience reports may be 5-10 pages long. At the conference, a regular presentation slot (30min) will be provided.
Workshops
Workshops provide an opportunity for researchers and practitioners to discuss and learn about topics that require in-depth, extended engagement such as new systems, research methods, standards, and formats.
Workshop proposals should describe what you intend to do and how your session will meet the criteria described above. It should include a concise abstract, proposed time frame (half-day or full-day), what you plan to do during the workshop, and one-paragraph biographies of all organizers.
Workshop proposals will be reviewed and selected for their interest to the community. Each accepted workshop will be provided with a meeting room for either a half or full day. Organizers may also request technology and materials (projector, flip pads, etc).
A workshop proposal may be up to 4 pages long. At the conference, a workshop slot (half-day or full-day) will be provided.
Panels
Panels provide an interactive forum for bringing together people with interesting points of view to discuss compelling issues around open collaboration. Panels involve participation from both the panelists and audience members in a lively discussion. Proposals for panels should describe the topics and goals and explain how the panel will be organized and how the OpenSym community will benefit. It should include a concise abstract and one-paragraph biographies of panelists and moderators. Panel submissions will be reviewed and selected for their interest to the community.
A panel proposal may be up to 4 pages long. At the conference, a session (90min) discussion slot for the panel will be provided.
Demos
No format is better suited for demonstrating the utility of new collaboration technologies than showing and using them. Demonstrations give presenters an opportunity to show running systems and gather feedback. Demo submissions should provide a setup for the demo, a specific description of what you plan to demo, what you hope to get out of demoing, and how the audience will benefit. A short note of any special technical requirements should be included. Demo submissions will be reviewed based on their relevance to the community.
A demo proposal may be up to 2 pages long. At the conference, space and time will be provided at the demo session (90min).
Tutorials
Tutorials tutorials are half-day classes, taught by experts, designed to help professionals rapidly come up to speed on a specific technology or methodology. Tutorials can be lecture-oriented or participatory. Tutorial attendees deserve the highest standard of excellence in tutorial preparation and delivery. Tutorial presenters are typically experts in their chosen topic and experienced speakers skilled in preparing and delivering educational presentations. When selecting tutorials, we will consider the presenter’s knowledge of the proposed topic and past success at teaching it.
A tutorial proposal may be up to 4 pages long. At the conference, a tutorial slot (90min) will be provided.
Submission Information and Instructions
Submissions should follow the standard ACM 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 https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=opensym2016
Authors should submit by the first submission deadline to ensure that space is left at the conference. A second later deadline will allow for a limited number of submissions to be considered for inclusion in the conference as well.
- First submission deadline: April 22nd, 2016
- First notification to authors: May 6th, 2016
- Second submission deadline: June 3rd, 2016
- Second notification to authors: June 17th, 2016
- Camera-ready deadline: June 24, 2016
As long as it is April 22nd, 2016, or June 3rd, 2016, somewhere on earth, your submission will be accepted.
Community Track Committee
Committee Chairs
Simon Dückert, Cogneon, Germany (chair)
Lorraine Morgan, Maynooth University (chair)
Committee Members
Michael Cahalane, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
Trevor Clohessy, NUI Galway, Ireland
Kieran Conboy, NUI Galway, Ireland
Brian Donnellan, Maynooth University, Ireland
Matt Levy, San Francisco State University, USA
Matt Germonprez, University of Nebraska at Omaha, Canada
Rob Gleasure, University College Cork, Ireland
Dirk Riehle, Friedrich-Alexander-University (tutorials sub-committee chair)
Klaas-Jan Stol, Lero, University of Limerick, Ireland
Eoin Whelan, NUI Galway, Ireland