Call for Papers – The 15th International Symposium on Open Collaboration

Research paper and poster submission deadline is 31 March 2019
Practitioner poster submission deadline is 16 June 2019
Doctoral Symposium submission deadline is 27 April 2019

About the Conference

The 15th International Symposium on Open Collaboration (OpenSym 2019) is the premier conference on open collaboration research and practice, including open source, open data, open science, 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 research and practice, seeking to create synergies and inspire new collaborations between people from computer science, information science, social science, humanities, and everyone interested in understanding open collaboration and how it is changing the world.

This year’s conference will be held in Skövde, Sweden, on 20-22 August 2019. A Doctoral Symposium will take place on 19 August 2019.

Call for Submissons

OpenSym 2019 invites submissions for original research papers, posters (to be submitted as extended abstracts), practitioner posters (to be submitted as short abstracts), and student papers for a doctoral consortium.

Research papers: The research paper submission deadline is 31 March 2019. Submitted papers should present integrative reviews or original reports of substantive new work: theoretical, empirical, and/or in the design, development and/or deployment of novel concepts, systems, and mechanisms. Research papers will be reviewed to meet rigorous academic standards of publication. Papers will be reviewed for relevance, conceptual quality, innovation and clarity of presentation.

There is no minimum or maximum length for submitted research papers. Rather, reviewers will be instructed to weigh the contribution of a paper relative to its length. Papers should report research thoroughly but succinctly: brevity is a virtue. A typical length of a “long research paper” is 10 pages (formerly the maximum length limit and the limit on OpenSym tracks), but may be shorter if the contribution can be described and supported in fewer pages—shorter, more focused papers (called “short research papers” previously) are encouraged and will be reviewed like any other paper. While we will review papers longer than 10 pages, the contribution must warrant the extra length. Reviewers will be instructed to reject papers whose length is incommensurate with the size of their contribution. Papers should be formatted in ACM SIGCHI paper format. Reviewing is not double-blind so manuscripts do not need to be anonymized.

Authors whose submitted papers have been accepted for presentation at the conference have a choice of:
• having their paper become part of the official proceedings, archived in the ACM Digital Library,
• having no publication record at all but only the presentation at the conference.

Posters: The poster submission deadline is 31 March 2019. To propose a poster, authors should submit an extended abstract (not more than 4 pages) describing the content of the poster which will be published in a non-archival companion proceedings of the conference. Posters should use the ACM SIGCHI templates for extended abstracts. Reviewing is not double-blind so abstracts do not need to be anonymized.

Practitioner posters: The practitioner poster submission deadline is 16 June 2019. To promote participation amongst practitioners, OpenSym also invites authors to submit a short (one page) abstract containing the title and a description (max 200 words) of the content of a practitioner poster. Authors of accepted short abstracts for practitioner posters are invited to bring accepted posters to be exhibited during the conference. Practitioner posters will not be published in the proceedings of the conference.

Student papers (OpenSym Doctoral Consortium): The student paper submission deadline is 27 April 2019. The OpenSym Doctoral Consortium provides an opportunity for doctoral students to present and develop their research in an interdisciplinary workshop. The Consortium will be action-focused, with an emphasis on conceptualisation, analysis, and visualisation skills and techniques rather than standard presentations. We invite students who feel this kind of experience will serve to progress their dissertation journey to apply for this unique opportunity to share and develop their work with students and staff. Submissions should not exceed 5 pages (in ACM SIGCHI paper format) and should contain (i) stage of Ph.D (ii) statement of research problem/objective (iii) summary of closely related prior research (iv) research method used or planned (v) expected contribution of work.

Paper Proceedings: OpenSym is held in-cooperation with ACM SIGWEB and ACM SIGSOFT and the conference proceedings will be archived in the ACM digital library like all prior editions. OpenSym seeks to accommodate the needs of the different research disciplines it draws on including disciplines with archival conference proceedings and disciplines where authors usually present at conferences and publish later.

Response from authors: At OpenSym, authors will be given the opportunity to write a response to their reviews before final decisions are made. This should be treated as an opportunity to correct any mistakes or misconceptions in the reviews as well as to propose minor changes that the authors can make during the two weeks between notification and the camera-ready deadline.

Important Dates

Research papers and posters
• Submission deadline: 31 March 2019
• Reviews sent to authors: 19 May 2019
• Response to reviews from authors due: 5 June 2019
• Decision notification: 12 June 2019
• Camera-ready papers due: 26 June 2019

Practitioner posters
• Submission deadline: 16 June 2019
• Decision notification: 24 June 2019.

Doctoral Consortium
• Submission deadline: 27 April 2019
• Decision notification: 15 May 2019

Topics

We are looking for submissions on, but not limited to, the following topics:

Free/Libre and Open Source Software (FLOSS)
• FLOSS development communities, including both software engineering aspects and human factors
• FLOSS development processes, such as code reviews, joining process, etc.
• Best practices and case studies of open collaboration with FLOSS
• FLOSS collaboration beyond software (e.g. FLOSS collaboration for open data/content, open standards, open hardware, etc.)

Wikipedia and Wikimedia Research
• Participation in Wikimedia communities
• Group Dynamics and Organization in Wikipedia and related projects
• Readership/Engagement on Wikipedia and related projects
• Technical Infrastructure and Design in Wikimedia projects
• Evaluating Content of Wikimedia projects
• Knowledge Diffusion, Outreach, and Generalization

Open Collaboration Research, esp. Wikis and Social Media
• Novel open collaboration technologies ranging from entirely new socio-technical systems to MediaWiki extensions
• Wikis in corporations, academia, non-profits, and other organizations
• Online collaboration using social media technologies (e.g., Wikis, Blogs, Twitter)
• Theoretical work on open collaboration
• Digital divides and open collaboration technologies

Open Data and Open Science
• Open data quality, standards, measures and metrics
• Open data and open science methods, applications and prototypes
• Best practices and case studies for Open Data and Open Science
• Repositories, networks and working platforms for open scientific communication, collaboration, exchange and access to open knowledge

Open Education
• Tools and methods for managing, storing and sharing of Open Educational Resources (OER)
• Open online learning environments such as MOOCs
• Enabling individual learning paths
• Connecting formal and informal learning
• Supporting self-paced learning and co-construction of knowledge
• Development of new knowledge or products (e.g. Maker Spaces), collecting data (e.g. Citizen Science) or discussing political topics (e.g. e-participation).

Open Innovation
• Architecture and design of open innovation systems
• The role of IT-artefacts in open and collaborative innovation activities
• Implementation of open innovation platforms in corporate IT landscapes
• IT security, intellectual property and personal anonymity in open innovation
• Best practices and case studies of open data, open standards, open source for open innovation
• Open innovation and GLAM

Open Policy/Open Government
• Open policy formulation and design
• Implications of open policies for governments
• Implementation of open policies
• Measuring the success and impact of open policies
• Best practices and cases studies of open policy/government
• Openness in various public initiatives (e.g. Smart Cities, Internet of Things etc.)

Open Standards
• Communities for development, maintenance, use, and implementation of open standards
• Implications of open standards for governments and other organizations
• Open standards development processes
• Open standards and licensing aspects

The OpenSym Conference Experience

OpenSym 2019 will be held at the University of Skövde, Sweden on 20-22 August 2019. Research and community presentations and performances will be accompanied by keynotes, invited speakers, and a social program. Skövde is located between Vänern and Vättern, the two largest lakes in Sweden. This part of the country is known for its beautiful landscapes, with wide fields, forests and many lakes. Skövde is situated on the main railway line between Stockholm and Göteborg, and is easily reachable by high-speed train connections.

A Doctoral Symposium will also be held on 19 August 2019, the day before the conference begins.

This conference provides a platform for researchers and practitioners from a variety of domains to share insights and ideas relevant to understanding open collaboration in its many forms. The open space track is a key ingredient of the event that distinguishes OpenSym from other conferences. It is an integral part of the program that makes it easy to talk to other researchers and practitioners and to stretch your imagination and conversations beyond the limits of your own discipline, exposing you to the full breadth of open collaboration research. The open space track is entirely participant-organized, is open for everyone, and requires no submission or review.

Conference Organization

The General Chairs of the conference are Björn Lundell and Jonas Gamalielsson, (University of Skövde, Sweden). Feel free to contact us with any questions you might have at info [at] opensym.org.

The Program Co-Chairs are:
* Lorraine Morgan (Lero, National University of Ireland Galway)
* Gregorio Robles (Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Spain).

For more information: http://www.opensym.org/os2019/