Category Archives: Announcement

Open Space at WikiSym

Announcement

OpenSpace is the energy of a good coffee break, with the flexible structure of wiki, where last minute, new creative ideas that otherwise wouldn’t be on the WikiSym program to be worked on by all types of wiki enthusiasts, in a format that allows deeper consideration of an issue than can be achieved with a 20 minute presentation.

As a point of reference, many unconferences are organized with OpenSpace or a variant.

While OpenSpace sessions aren’t actually scheduled until they’re on the wall during the conference, feel free to write here what you’re thinking about putting on the wall:  Possible Sessions

More to come just before WikiSym’08

Announcement, Uncategorized, WikiSym 2008

RedBullAirRace2007_00380As you may already know, one of the Red Bull Air Race World Championship’s races will happen in Porto, on 6th and 7th September. It’s one of the ten cities to host this unique event, for the second time now. The first time was last year, 2007, as was a huge sucess both for viewers, organizers and for the hosting community.

The race over the River Douro will be the eight of this season, which will be followed by a race in Spain (maybe in Vallencia, but still not confirmed, hapenning in September 27th and 28th) and the last one in Perth (Western Australia, in November 1st and 2nd).

RedBullAirRace2007_00492The race days in 2007 were compared to the S. João’s evening (in English, St. John), the traditional popular festival, in June, when thousands of people hang out on the streets of Porto and surroundings all night.

Photos: Tiago Pereira (click on the photos to enlarge)

Here’s a bit more of Red Bull Air Race in Portugal:

PORTO AND VILA NOVA DE GAIA – THE CITIES OF BRIDGES

TWO CITIES, ONE RIVER
The two cities of Oporto and Vila Nova de Gaia face each other from opposite sides of the Douro river – Oporto in the north bank and Gaia in the south. Six Pontes, or bridges, in total, join them. Of those, Ponte Dona Maria and Ponte Dom Luís, the two oldest ones, were built in the 19th century, respectively by Gustave Eiffel and by his partner in business, Théophile Seyrig. Ponte da Arrábida, Ponte de São João and Ponte do Freixo date from the 20th century, while the newest one, Ponte Infante Dom Henrique, is no older than the 21st century.
Being one of the oldest cities in Europe, Oporto is proud of its well preserved historical quarter and was awarded World Heritage Site status by UNESCO in 1996. Oporto and Gaia are further connected by the famous Oporto wine, traditionally stored in wine cellars that over the years have been built in Gaia and act as a magnet for tourists visiting Northern Portugal. There stand the names of the English families that left their winemaking mark in the Douro region over the centuries: Taylor, Sandeman, Graham or Croft, to name but a few.
Fine wine and the Douro River may be the lifeblood of the two cities, but visitors will also benefit from a widely varied cultural offer. The Serralves Foundation – with its vast collection of contemporary art and amazing gardens – the House of Music – a multidisciplinary place where you can listen to great music and much more – or Oporto Cathedral, dating from the 12th and 13th centuries, are some of the unmissable features north of the river. Also worth mentioning, on the south margin, are the Grijó Monastery (16 th/17th century), the Serra do Pilar Monastery (16th century) or Casa Barbot, a unique example of the Art Nouveau style in the city.

Oporto/Gaia – The race
The eighth leg of the Red Bull Air Race will be run over the river, in the Ribeira of Oporto and Gaia Docks area, on the weekend of the 6th and 7th September. The race course will be set between Ponte Dom Luís I and the Massarelos overpass.

This info was taken from Red Bull Air Race Official Website. Please check this website for information on accomodation, transportation to and from the places and ticket information as well. The website is available in Portuguese, Spanish, French and English.

You can also check the Red Bull Air Race Hospitality website to know more about the event.

RedBullAirRace2007_00020

There’s a magazine on each place available for download, containing information on the race, on the place and on previous relevant happenings. A bulletin will be distributed during the qualifying races and the final race days.

Photography: Tiago Pereira

Advance Registration: still open until 1st September!

Announcement, WikiSym 2008

By request of several participants, we will keep the advance registration open until 1st September.

After that, you can register onsite. Contact us, if you need anything else.

WikiSym 2008 Program: build your own conference schedule!

Announcement, General, WikiSym 2008

WikiSym 2008 @ FEUP

Two weeks before WikiSym 2008 is the right time for you to start “cooking” your own conference program. Following are some of the “ingredients” for you to use on your own “recipe”.

OpenSpace: 21 hours of conference space for you to lead!

All the WikiSym 2008 conference program is wrapped by an OpenSpace track: starting from the conference opening, morning news, four sessions per day (6 hours/day), evening news, and ending with the conference closing. A total of 18 hours for you to organize your own sessions, on your topics of interest and meet others sharing the same interests. The OpenSpace program will always be open until the end of the conference, but you can start thinking on this space to use it for your own needs.

Keynotes and Talks: George P. Landow, Steward Nickolas, and Dan Ingalls

Three inspiring talks from our invited speakers will be strong points of the conference aiming to provide us three different perspectives and insights to challenge our thinking and how we decide, our interests, and our passions.

Tutorials: 4 short tutorials for you to attend them all in a row!

If you are always uncertain about which tutorials to choose to attend, WikiSym 2008 Tutorials will help you. No need to choose! A set of short four tutorials (90 min/each), all scheduled in a row, on the first day, will offer you the chance to learn classic and cutting edge topics, from the most experienced presenters worldwide on the topic!

After the tutorials end, you will be able to go deeper on the topic in the OpenSpace.

Easy, just take the initiative and propose a session with the presenter!

Workshops: 3 different ones to choose from…

Workshops are always very fun and highly interactive events, where
groups of researchers and practitioners meet to bring, discuss, and try to
solve challenging problems.

If you didn’t submitted a position paper or any other contribution, you are welcome anyway. Your opinion is always valuable for the workshop! Each workshop has each its own schedule, but they will happen on Monday, all day.

Research Track: 20 papers organized in 6 different sessions

A rigorous selection of research papers describing substantiated new research or
novel technical results, will help advance the state of the art, or report on
significant experience.

Panel

The schedule panel will offer a unique forum to spotlight emerging issues on end-user programming with wikis. It is expected to tackle controversial topics head-on in a relaxed and highly interactive way, where each one has a voice.

Posters and Demos: a very rich set this year!

A rich set of selected posters will provide an excellent forum for authors to present their work in an informal and interactive setting. Demonstrations will complement posters or not and will provide you an opportunity to show your latest work to an experienced audience.

If you didn’t submitted your work, don’t worry, we will try to find a place for you in the rooms!

WikiFest: come learn how to grow a successful wiki!

WikiFest is a new conference session, starting this year’s edition, devoted to helping you start and grow a successful wiki. Come and learn with those that succeeded on the wikis they deployed.

DoctoralSpace: pursuing a PhD on wikis? This is for you!

The DoctoralSpace is an interactive forum for doctoral students to provide guidance on their doctoral work. Students close to their dissertation completion submitted their work and will discuss it in the forum. Students beginning their research are especially invited to attend.

Social and Special Events

Between all the conference sessions, WikiSym 2008 will provide you many opportunities for you to gather with your peers, meet your friends, make new ones, socialize and find common interests in an informal way. The Special Event will provide you an intensive visit to some of the most important points of interest of Porto and its riverfront. Unforgettable!!!

WikiWalk: know more of Porto and be challenged by Wiki practitioners!

If you are still in Porto in the morning of Thursday, September 11, you need to participate in the WikiWalk.

We’ll take the wiki way into the historic streets of Porto, joining with Porto’s vibrant intellectual and Web communities to explore the city and its networked art and media.

At the start of the day, we’ll discuss topics of particular interest — including new topics raised at WikiSym — over cups of strong Portuguese coffee. And then we’ll walk through interesting parts of Porto, perhaps visiting some notable Web studios, bookstores, cafés, notable buildings, and other venues of new and old media.

Inspired by the very successful BlogWalk meetings, WikiWalk extends the international symposium to the community and brings conferees out of the lecture hall for more casual and spontaneous discussion.

What else? Lots…

Yes, you will add lots to WikiSym 2008 program! Get ready!

Or as you will hear many times on Sunday, 7th September, in the riverfront:

“Smoke on!”

🙂

Ademar Aguiar

WikiSym 2008 Panel: End-User Programming with Application Wikis

Announcement, WikiSym 2008

We are happy to announce a WikiSym 2008 panel on end-user programming with application wikis. Panelists will be Ludovic Dubost, Stewart Nickolas, and Peter Thoeny, and of course you, readers of this blog and participants at WikiSym, as we are hoping to make this as engaging as possible. Please let us know what questions we should ask the panelists by commenting on this blog entry or by asking them in person at WikiSym 2008!

ABSTRACT

Wikis empower users to collaborate with each other using prose. Users imprint data structures and processes onto wiki pages using social and technical conventions. Application wikis enhance wiki engines with lightweight programming features that aid in making data structures and processes explicit. Using these features, end-users can program a wiki to better support them in their collaborative processes and integrate their work into the overall IT infrastructure. Application wikis make database access and business process integration easy from within the wiki while maintaining the wiki-style of collaborative work. The panelists of this panel, together with the audience and the moderator, will review existing work and explore future research directions in application wikis.

About the Panelists

Continue reading WikiSym 2008 Panel: End-User Programming with Application Wikis →

Clarification: Informal posters will continue to be accepted

Announcement, General, WikiSym 2008

In answer to a Research Fellow in a Department of Sociology at a UK university:

[I received a letter from Wikisym] re: submitting a paper:

In a number of cases, the most interesting aspects of your paper might be submitted as a poster or demonstration proposal. I would very much like you to consider this as well.

The conference website gives a deadline for poster submissions on June 30.

How should we proceed? Should we still aim for a poster or prepare a more informal presentation to be given during one of the open sessions of WikiSym?

We would love to have as much feedback as possible from the wiki developer/researcher community on this service proposal.

What is in your opinion the best way to present this?

We responded:

The June 30th deadline for posters was for those that wanted to be considered for inclusion in the ACM abstracts.

We are happy to continue to receive and consider posters on an informal basis.

Regards and thanks,
Martin.

I hope this clears up any confusion.

CfP: First Workshop on “Interdisciplinary Research on Wiki Communities”

Announcement, WikiSym 2008

CALL FOR PAPERS

First Workshop on “Interdisciplinary Research on Wiki Communities”, on September 8, 2008, at WikiSym 2008, Porto, Portugal, September 8-10, 2008

Introduction

The array of approaches to studying wikis is a source of wealth but also a possible source of confusion: What are appropriate methodologies for the analysis of wiki communities? Which are the most critical parameters (both quantitative and qualitative) for study in wiki evolution and outcomes? Is it possible to find effective interdisciplinary approaches to augment our overall understanding of these dynamic creative environments?
Continue reading CfP: First Workshop on “Interdisciplinary Research on Wiki Communities” →

Register Early! Register before 20th July!

Announcement, WikiSym 2008

Early Registration for WikiSym 2008 is possible until 20th July. By registering early you save your money and you also help us organize a better WikiSym 2008 Conference Program.

Advance registration will be possible until 25th August. After that, only onsite registrations are accepted.

Thanks!

Poster submission results are out!

Announcement, General, WikiSym 2008

Hi all,

Thank you for bearing with us!

So, after many hours of deliberation, the posters and demo team have completed their evaluations. I have just finished sending out the notifications. If you have submitted something and have not received an answer it is important that you contact me (demosandposters@wikisym.org) before Monday 21 July.

Similar to papers, posters were subjected to peer review. Each poster proposal was reviewed by at least three committee members and some, especially those we couldn’t take, were read by five or six separate reviewers.

Unlike papers, however, posters didn’t need to show depth of research rigour. Instead, posters were selected on the basis of clarity and relevance to the wiki community, coupled with originality, utility and degree of innovation. Nevertheless, some posters did show such rigour and those now have the option to be included into the ACM Proceedings as an ACM-DL abstract. ACM inclusion may not be appropriate or matter in every case but should the author choose inclusion in the ACM proceedings, the final copy needs to be submitted for July 26, 2008. Of the 26 demo/poster proposals submitted, we accepted 11 candidates for the ACM.

Some posters or demo submitters received letters asking them to clarify what they intend to show. An example of this is where the topic looks really interesting but there was no obvious pathway as to how they met their goal. Those people are welcome to reformulate their poster, and, we will help you evolve your submission. Due to the Jul 26 ACM deadline, posters reworked this way are unlikely to be ready for the ACM proceedings. We will continue to be keen to bring all late-breaking news as last-minute posters, so you still get to share and discuss your findings with your peers in the industry.

Finally, we have OpenSpace/UnConference track for the conference. This means that even ideas that haven’t been written may well be fantastic ingredients to these dynamic conversations. Everyone has the opportunity to present and you may find that you are able convey verbally your ideas to engage your fellow participants at WikiSym2008.

Regards,

Martin

Martin Cleaver M.Sc. MBA
WikiSym 2008 Demos and Posters Chair
http://www.BlendedPerspectives.com/

WikiSym Poster feedback

Announcement, WikiSym 2008

Things have gotten a little hectic here at WikiSym.

Even with our responses for your paper submissions now back to you, our team has not yet completed our promised review of the posters and demo submissions. We haven’t forgotten!

To meet demand, I’ve just recruited a couple of extra volunteers for this task (I can’t tell you who, just yet, of course ;)); I hope we’ll be done by Thursday.

We’ve had some further excellent submissions. So, thank you: both for your efforts and your patience.

Martin.