[OSGeo-Discuss] Call for Papers for FOSS4G 2013 Academic Track

[nicolas bozon]

Hello,

Thanks for discussing this important topic.

The last global FOSS4G editions gathered on average 800+ attendees i think.
I have no clues on how many of them sumitted or attended the academic
track, but i know that this side of the conference is really important, and
that the rules should not be changed without discussion or without some
voting by the Academic and Conference comitees. Of course it won't
necessarly bring some new sponsors or direct business output each year, but
it has been part of FOSS4G since its inception in 2006, and even before,
from 2004 since the first GRASS and MapServer meetings, with all the
motivated activists, developers, researchers and professors we know.
Also there are so many active people that are using, developping and
promoting the use of FOSS4G in academia, education and research nowadays,
so the academic session should be improved, or at least not be changed like
this, IMHO.

An important point is that the Academic Commitee was always formed before
the call for Abstract and the selection and reviewing process, as Maxi and
Venka pointed out.
I've participated to the academic track since 2008, and once again as Maxi
said, i've also always sumitted an abstract first, then been acepted or
rejected by the comitee, and then finally submited a full paper (or a
poster) some time before the conference.
After that, none of my papers were published in any journals (ok, may be
they were bad i reckon, but what about the others ?). I know that that
there were a few intiatitives to publish some of the papers, but i could
never read the academic FOSS4G procedings in any scientific journals i know
(i'm may be wrong once again, but could someone bring some facts on this ?
How many papers where finally published since 2006 and where ?), or may be
in the OSGeo journal i just don't know, sorry.

This being said, i fully understand that calling, selecting, reviewing and
publishing papers takes a long time. This is really true, but what the LOC
is targeting this time ? How many papers could be really published ? What
journal exactly ? Should i subscribe to the University of Sherwood to be
hopefully published (private joke) ?
And who will take care of this very time-consuming task ? Who is being
called for particpating to the Academic comittee (would it be public soon
btw) ? Who will organize and chair the different sessions of the Academic
Track exactly ? I'm sorry for so much questions, but i think that would be
interesting to know right now for submiters or potential authors, before
one week, before trying to submit in fact.

Anyway, i'm also thinking that these new rules and such a short deadline
would just refrain submissions to the Academic track, and would finally
make it poorer. I think that many professors, researchers and students
won't sumit or will be more comfortable with subitting to the general
track, just to avoid impossible deadlines and writing efforts, not being
sure to be published somewhere. That'd just be a pitty.

Sorry for such a long email

Best regards,

Nick




2013/1/25 Massimiliano Cannata <massimiliano.cannata at supsi.ch>

> Hi,
> FWIW, I have to say that as far as i remember (and I participate at all of
> the FOSS4G meeting from Bangkok to Denver) I always:
> - submitted and abstract,
> - got acceptance or not as presenter,
> - provided a paper for proceeding, and if selected for publication.
>
> In Denver this process led me to a publication in 2012 and the deadline
> was "31 Jul 2011, Full Paper (Academic Track) submission deadline", and
> the academic committee was set far before of this.
>
> Said that, I know I'm not forced to submit scientific works to the
> scientific track (and this is what i'm going to do), but it is still a pity
> from my point of view to set possible barriers and loose contribution.
>
> That's just my 2 cents.
>
> Massimiliano
>
> --
> *Prof. Massimiliano Cannata*
>
> Head of the Geomatic Division
>
>
> Istituto scienze della Terra
>
> Dipartimento ambiente costruszione e design
>
> Scuola universitaria professionale della Svizzera italiana
>
> Campus Trevano, CH - 6952 Canobbio
>
> Tel. +41 (0)58 666 62 14****
>
> Fax +41 (0)58 666 62 09****
>
> massimiliano.cannata at supsi.ch
>
> *www.supsi.ch/ist*
>
> _______________________________________________
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> Discuss at lists.osgeo.org
> http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
>
>
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