7th International Symposium on Wikis and Open Collaboration
October 3-5, 2011 | Mountain View, California

The International Symposium on Wikis and Open Collaboration (WikiSym) is the premier conference on open collaboration and related technologies. In 2011, WikiSym celebrates its 7th year of scholarly, technical and community innovation in Mountain View, California at the Microsoft Research Campus in Silicon Valley.

Submissions are invited for the following categories:

^{[1] As determined at the International Date Line. In other words, as long as it's still April 4th or May 20th somewhere on Earth, the system will accept your submissions.}

See submission instructions for more details. Accepted contributions are published in the ACM digital library.

The conference program will include a peer-reviewed research track, as well as experience reports, workshops, a doctoral consortium, invited keynotes and panel speakers. Evening social events will follow, because wiki folks know the value of a good party for sparking conversation and collaboration. As always, Open Space, a participant-organized track will also run throughout the conference. Many of the most innovative technology companies in the world have a presence in Mountain View, which makes it an ideal venue for hatching new ideas and thoughtful debate about collaborative computing among technologists, researchers, educators, and activists.

Topics appropriate for research submissions include all aspects of the people, tools, contexts, and content that comprise open collaboration systems. For example:

• Collaboration tools and processes
• Social and cultural aspects of collaboration
• Collaboration beyond text: images, video, sound, etc.
• Communities and workgroups
• Knowledge and information production
• New media literacies
• Uses and impact of wikis and open resources in specific fields, such as
  • Education/Open Educational Resources
  • Law/Intellectual Property
  • Journalism
  • Art
  • Science
  • Publishing
  • Business
  • Entertainment

In addition to research and development topics, WikiSym also invites innovative proposals for wiki-style art and performance.

Research papers present integrative reviews or original reports of substantive new work: theoretical, empirical, or in the design, development and/or deployment of novel systems.

Research papers will be reviewed by the Program Committee to meet rigorous academic standards of publication. Papers will be reviewed for relevance, conceptual quality, innovation and clarity of presentation. They should be written in English and must not exceed 10 pages (for full papers) or 4 pages (for short papers). At least one author of accepted papers is required to attend the conference in order to present the paper.

Accepted submissions will be published in the WikiSym proceedings and archived in the ACM Digital Library. Submitted papers should use the ACM SIG Proceedings Format, see: http://www.acm.org/sigs/pubs/proceed/template.html

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.

A workshop proposal should consist of approximately two pages describing 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, 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).

Panels provide an interactive forum for bringing together people with interesting points of view to discuss compelling wiki issues. Panels involve participation from both the panelists and audience members in a lively discussion. Proposals for panels should consist of approximately two pages describing what you intend to do and how your session will meet the criteria described above. It should include a concise abstract and one-paragraph biographies of panelists and moderators. A panel submission will be reviewed and selected for their interest to the community. Each panel will be given a 90-minute time slot.

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 projects and deployments. Many attendees want to learn from people on the front lines what it is like to do things like start a company wiki, use a wiki in classroom education, or build a political campaign around a wiki. Experience reports are intended to present experience and reflections, they are reviewed for usefulness, clarity and reflection. Strong experience reports discuss both benefits and drawbacks of the approaches used. Reports may focus on a particular aspect of technology usage and practice, or describe broad project experiences. These reports complement the research track and may lead to future research track papers.

Poster presentations enable researchers to present late-breaking results, significant work in progress, or work that is best communicated in conversation. WikiSym'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.

Poster proposals may describe original research, engineering, or experience reports. Submissions should consist of a two-page extended abstract outlining the content of the poster and should be submitted in the ACM SIG Proceedings Format, see: http://www.acm.org/sigs/pubs/proceed/template.html.

Successful applicants will display their posters, up to 1x2m in size, at a special session during the Symposium.

No format is better suited for demonstrating the utility of new collaboration tools technology than showing and using it. If you would like to demonstrate new features or products, this is the place! Demonstrations give presenters an opportunity to show running systems and gather feedback. Demo submissions will be reviewed based on their relevance to the community. A submission should be one page in length, with a title and a short description of the demo. The description should include 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 may be included.

The WikiSym 2011 Doctoral Symposium is a forum in which Ph.D. students can meet and discuss their work with each other and a panel of experienced researchers and practitioners. The symposium will be held on Sunday October 2 on the campus of Stanford University. Thanks to generous support from the National Science Foundation, funding is available to support PhD students who are admitted to the doctoral symposium.

See doctoral symposium application details for more information.

For short and informal opportunities to organize discussion, brain-storming, and other collaborative activities, the Open Space track will run throughout WikiSym. Open Space is an entirely participant-organized track and requires no submission or review.