Call for Organizers: 2014 FORCE Conference (formally Beyond the PDF)
Paul Groth
The 2014 FORCE Conference - Call for Organizers
About FORCE 11
Force 11 is a community of scholars, librarians, archivists, publishers and research funders that has arisen organically to help facilitate the change toward improved knowledge creation and sharing. Individually and collectively, it aims to bring about a change in modern scholarly communications through the effective use of information technology.
History: Beyond the PDF
The Beyond the PDF workshop/conference was originally organized by members of the FORCE11 community in Jan. 2011 to bring together a community to discuss how to move to “us beyond a static and disparate data and knowledge representation to rich integrated content which grows and changes the more we learn.” The conference had 96 attendees. An outgrowth of this conference and a subsequent seminar was the establishment of FORCE11. A second conference was held in 2013 again focusing on the same themes and this time organized under the guidance of the FORCE11 organization. It had 212 attendees.
As many attendees will attest, the Beyond the PDF meetings were a unique and dynamic forum. They brought together a diverse group of people scholars from science, librarians, archivists, publishers and research funders in a lively and intense environment of discussion (both off and online) with a focus on producing collectively better scholarly communication from the bottom up . This goal was realized in a number of ways including:
A projected Twitter stream acting as a lively backchannel
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Streamed video of the event
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Concrete challenges that provided a focal point of the event (e.g. working on a common set of science, or creating 1k challenges for the community)
Time for lively breakout events
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Lots of Demos
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A variety of session types (not just talks)
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Plenty of time for networking
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Low registration fees
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Outreach to students and developing countries
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A compact two days that ensures an exciting atmosphere
As we move forward, it is critical to maintain this spirit but with the view to ensuring that the topics and discussion and outcomes can reflect the broader goals of the community comprising FORCE 11.
Future: The FORCE 11 Conference
While the Beyond the PDF conference had a good brand within Force 11’s original community, it limited the possibilities for outreach: while in some communities, “the PDF” is shorthand for a number of attitudes towards scholarly and scientific communication, in others (particularly in the humanities) it is a simply a technology. Since our conference is really about pushing scholarly communication forward as a whole, we are transitioning in 2014 away from “Beyond the PDF” to the FORCE Conference.
Why Host?
The FORCE conference is rare event that reaches a number of different communities and, most importantly, people who “do”. The conference includes attendees from startups to policy makers. It puts your organization in front of a connected audience. For example, at Beyond the PDF 2 there were over 600 participants on twitter generating 3600 tweets. It provides a way of connecting individuals in your organization who may be working in different disciplines. The Network Institute used the Beyond the PDF 2 event to help its mission of connecting different departments together around the theme of networks.
Finally, you have the opportunity of shaping the conference itself. Unlike many other conferences, you can shape how the event is hosted and designed. Past conferences have had significant external funding making it possible to create a memorable event. We will work with the organizers to help establish how to fund the events.
Requirements for the host
A detailed list of requirements can be provided on request, however, there are a couple of things that are key.
The ability to provide rooms or facilities to cater to roughly 200 people.
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Amazing wifi (recommended for 800 people).
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Local knowledge.
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An affordable environment to keep costs down and the conference accessible to all.
Break out rooms if possible.
We also encourage a multidisciplinary team that’s really excited about the impact. Also, we note that hosts will help with the process of obtaining funds.
If you have any questions, please ask.
Expression of Interest
If you are interested in hosting, please send a 1 page expression of interest to ex...@force11.org . This should briefly explain:
Why you want to host the FORCE conference.
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Potential dates in 2014.
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The organizing team.
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Briefly, how you think you can meet the requirements above.
- Any nifty ideas you have for the conference
Dr. Paul Groth (p.t....@vu.nl)
http://www.few.vu.nl/~pgroth/
Assistant Professor
- Web & Media Group | Department of Computer Science
- The Network Institute
VU University Amsterdam