1. Awareness Support in
Scientific Event
Management with
Wolfgang Reinhardt, Julian Maicher
Hendrik Drachsler and Peter Sloep
University of Paderborn, Germany & Open University of the Netherlands

2. What’s so special about scientific events?
✓ conferences, symposia, workshops
✓ important events for researchers
✓ presentation & discussion of research results and
new approaches
✓ exchange of ideas
✓ negotiations about new projects
✓ nurturing of the own professional network
2

3. Organization of scientific events
✓ honorable office
✓ huge manual effort
✓ up to 24 months of preparation for 250 people
event (IEEE)
✓ roles, phases and realization differ between
events
➡ our goal: common model of scientific events
3

4. Roles in managing scientific events
4

5. Roles in managing scientific events
Members of the organization committee
(organizers)
4

6. Roles in managing scientific events
Members of the organization committee Chairs of the program committee
(organizers) (program chairs)
4

7. Roles in managing scientific events
Members of the organization committee Chairs of the program committee
(organizers) (program chairs)
Members of the program committee
(Reviewer)
4

8. Roles in managing scientific events
Members of the organization committee Chairs of the program committee
(organizers) (program chairs)
Members of the program committee
(Reviewer)
Participants
4

9. Roles in managing scientific events
Members of the organization committee Chairs of the program committee
(organizers) (program chairs)
Members of the program committee
(Reviewer)
Participants Authors
4

10. Phases in managing scientific events
preparation phase submission phase review phase selection phase
program planning
follow-up phase event phase registration phase
phase
5

11. Phases in managing scientific events
preparation phase submission phase review phase selection phase
program planning
follow-up phase event phase registration phase
phase
✓ theme and scope of the event
✓ time, location, name
✓ sponsors
✓ members of the organization and program committee
✓ call for paper publication
5

12. Phases in managing scientific events
preparation phase submission phase review phase selection phase
program planning
follow-up phase event phase registration phase
phase
✓ authors submit proposals (different accepted formats)
✓ organizers receive, archive and acknowledge receipt
✓ authors may edit submissions until deadline
5

13. Phases in managing scientific events
preparation phase submission phase review phase selection phase
program planning
follow-up phase event phase registration phase
phase
✓ many different forms
✓ reviewer assignment
✓ review criteria have to be defined
✓ reviews due until defined deadline
✓ poss. notification of other reviewers
5

14. Phases in managing scientific events
preparation phase submission phase review phase selection phase
program planning
follow-up phase event phase registration phase
phase
✓ selection and notification about acceptance / rejection
✓ poss. revision or additional reviews
✓ dispatch of reviewer comments and deadlines for final / reworked
versions
5

15. Phases in managing scientific events
preparation phase submission phase review phase selection phase
program planning
follow-up phase event phase registration phase
phase
✓ selection and notification about acceptance / rejection
✓ poss. revision or additional reviews
✓ dispatch of reviewer comments and deadlines for final / reworked
versions
5

16. Phases in managing scientific events
preparation phase submission phase review phase selection phase
program planning
follow-up phase event phase registration phase
phase
✓ start of program planning
✓ typically active until event is over
✓ clustering of accepted proposals into sessions
✓ assigment of session chairs
✓ continuous fine-tuning of the event program
5

17. Phases in managing scientific events
preparation phase submission phase review phase selection phase
program planning
follow-up phase event phase registration phase
phase
✓ registration of participants (receipts, lists of attendees, ...)
✓ the event
✓ keep anything on track and all attendees happy :)
✓ sending / publishing proceedings & special issues
5

18. Phases in managing scientific events
Creation of the technical event program
preparation phase submission phase review phase selection phase
program planning
follow-up phase event phase registration phase
phase
5

19. Creation of the technical event program
✓ event program is the cornerstone of scientific
events
✓ highest manual efforts
✓ submission
✓ review
✓ decision
✓ re-submission
6

20. Creation of the technical event program II
✓ different variants of realization
✓ multi-staged submisson (abstract, full paper,
rebuttal, final paper) vs. regular submission
(full paper, final paper)
✓ variation in review processes
✓ open peer review
✓ blind review
✓ double blind review
7

21. Problems during the organization
✓ management of large amounts of data
✓ creation of the event program
✓ details of the event program
✓ grouping by topics, consideration of meetings,
availability of rooms etc.
✓ communication with the participants
8

22. Problems during the organization
✓ creation of the event program
✓ Communication with the participants
✓ Email
✓ Website

23. Problems during the organization
✓ creation of the event program
✓ Communication with the participants
✓ Email
✓ Website

24. Problems during the organization
✓ creation of the event program
✓ Communication with the participants
✓ Email
✓ Website

25. Problems during the organization
✓ creation of the event program
✓ Communication with the participants
✓ Email
✓ Website

26. Participation in scientific events
✓ networking with other participants
✓ individual event program
✓ discovery of relevant events

27. Participation in scientific events
✓ networking with other participants
✓ individual event program
✓ discovery of relevant events

28. Participation in scientific events
✓ networking with other participants
✓ individual event program
✓ discovery of relevant events

29. (Awareness) Problems as participant
✓ Most event management tools for one event only
✓ When and where will be the next relevant
events?
✓ Who of my contacts will be at event X?
✓ Which of the parallel session should I attend?
✓ Are the information on the website still up-to-
date?
11

30. Concept
event management social networking
features features
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31. Concept
integrated solution
12

32. Concept
12

33. Goals
✓ Support all phases of the generic event model
✓ provide awareness support for all roles of
people
✓ try not to replace existing tools but to
incorporate them in the tool design & feature
selection
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34. Feature comparison

35. Feature comparison

36. Feature comparison

37. not all features
Feature comparison available yet

38. Realization
• Used technologies
• Goals:
• Using of standards
• Maintainability
• Easy extensibility
• BDD and TDD using Cucumber and RSpec
RSpec
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39. Demo in the demo session...
and sign up for the public beta at
http://ginkgosem.com
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40. Conclusion
✓ generic model of scientific events
✓ integration of classic conference management
systems features with those known from social
networks
✓ awareness support for organizers, reviewers &
attendees
✓ successful evaluation of ginkgo in the context of
1st Workshop on Awareness and Reflection in
Learning Networks (ARNets’11) at EC-TEL 2011
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41. What’s next
✓ implementation of missing features
✓ Recommender Systems
✓ Events, Peers, Papers, Reviewers
✓ Enhanced awareness support for organizers and
reviewers
✓ Visual analytics
✓ Call Ontology (more on this later)
✓ Mobile Clients, API development & visual
makeover
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42. wolfgang reinhardt
university of paderborn
social media ginkgo
twitter recommendations
awareness
research networks
bibliometrics
research 2.0
artefact-actor-networks sna
www.isitjustme.de
@wollepb @wollepb @wolfgang.reinhardt
@wollepb @wollepb @wolfgang.reinhardt
@wollepb @wollepb @wollepb