Open Repositories 2018 : Sustaining Open

The annual Open Repositories Conference is a practitioner based conference that brings together people from higher education, government, libraries, archives and museums to focus on repository infrastructure, tools, services, and policies. The Conference provides a forum for delegates from around the world to explore the challenges and opportunities that arise at the interface of technology and scholarly publishing and practice.

Background :

Research and Cultural Heritage communities have embraced the idea of Open:

  • open communities,
  • open source software,
  • open data,
  • scholarly communications, and
  • open access publications and collections.

These projects and communities require different modes of thinking and resourcing than purchasing vended products.  

While open may be the way forward, mitigating fatigue, finding sustainable funding, and building flexible digital repository platforms is something most of us are striving for. 

While not limited to the below topics, the Conference focuses on issues around the sustainability of:

  • Open source software – sustainability of software developed locally and large open source systems, legacy code
  • Community – reaching out to new audiences, developing a community, governance
  • Content – research data, digital preservation, persistent URLs, archiving
  • Teams/People – staff and knowledge within the community, contingency planning, training and development, and succession planning
  • Projects – sustainability of projects beyond the grant, maturing communities
  • Infrastructure/Integrations – integrations between systems, changing technical environments
  • Policy – national, international, local and community policy and decisions
  • Challenges of sustainability – funding, local, technical, community
  • Rights and Copyright – including Data Protection, sharing and storing of content
  • Reuse, standards, and reproducibility – for example: software, data, content types
  • New open technologies and standards.   

Presentations will be 30 minutes long including questions.

Panels

Panel proposals are expected to be two to four pages (see below for submission templates). Successful submissions in past years have typically described work relevant to a wide audience and applicable beyond a single software system. All panels are expected to include at least some degree of diversity in viewpoints and personal background of the panelists. Panel sessions are expected to include a short presentation from each panel member followed by a discussion. Panels may take an entire session or may be combined with another submission.

Panels can be 45 or 90 minutes long.

Discussion Question & Answer

Discussion Q&A can be 45 or 90 minutes long.

Posters

The Conference welcomes  invite one-page proposals for posters that showcase current work (see below for submission templates). OR2018 will feature physical posters only. Posters will be on display throughout the conference. Instructions for preparing the posters will be distributed to authors of accepted poster proposals prior to the conference. Poster submitters will be expected to give a one-minute teaser to encourage visitors to their poster during the conference.

Posters presentations will be 1 minute.

Developer Track: Top Tips, Cunning Code and Imaginative Innovation

Each year a significant proportion of the delegates at Open Repositories are software developers who work on repository software or related services. OR2018 will feature a Developer Track that will provide a focus for showcasing work and exchanging ideas.

Building on the success of previous Developer Tracks, where we encouraged live hacking and audience participation, we invite members of the technical community to share the features, systems, tools and best practices that are important to you (see below for submission templates).

The 15 minute presentations can be as informal as you like, but we encourage live demonstrations, tours of code repositories, examples of cool features, and the unique viewpoints that so many members of our community possess. Proposals should be one to two pages, including a title, a brief outline of what will be shared with the community, and technologies covered. Developers are also encouraged to contribute to the other tracks.

Developer Track presentations are 15 minutes including questions.

Ideas Challenge

OR2018 will also again include the popular Ideas Challenge. Taking part in this competition provides an opportunity to take an active role in repository innovation, in collaboration with your peers and in pursuit of prizes. The Ideas Challenge is open to all conference attendees. Further details and guidance on the Ideas Challenge will be forthcoming closer to the conference.

Workshops and tutorials

The first day of Open Repositories will be dedicated to workshops and tutorials.

One to two-page proposals addressing theoretical or practical issues around digital repositories are welcomed. See below for Proposal Templates; please address the following in your proposal:

  • The subject of the event and what knowledge you intend to convey
  • Length of session (90 minutes, 3 hours or a whole day)
  • A brief statement on the learning outcomes from the session
  • The target audience for your session and how many attendees you plan to accommodate
  • Technology and facility requirements
  • Any other supplies or support required
  • Anything else you believe is pertinent to carrying out the session

Please note, the program committee may consider submissions for other tracks and formats, as appropriate.

Visit the conference website to get more information about submission templates - Submission System - Review Process - Code of Conduct - Scholarship Programme.

The 13th annual conference on Open Repositories. June 4-7, 2018 on Twitter @OR2018MT#OR2018

Since 2006 Open Repositories has hosted an annual conference that brings together users and developers of open digital repository platforms. For further information about Open Repositories and links to past conference sites, please visit the OR home page

Subscribe to announcements about Open Repositories conferences by joining the OR Google Group.

The Open Repositories Steering Committee in conjunction with Universität Hamburg is very pleased to announce that the 14th Open Repositories Conference will be held in Hamburg, Germany from 10-13 June 2019 at Universität HamburgLink to online version of this text.

Contact information OR2019: http://or2019.net

Call for Expressions of Interest in hosting the annual Open Repositories Conference, 2020

The Open Repositories Steering Committee seeks Expressions of Interest (EoI) from candidate host organizations for the 2020 Open Repositories Annual Conference series. Proposals from all geographic areas will be given consideration.

Link to online version

Important dates : The Open Repositories Steering Committee is accepting Expressions of Interest (EoI) to host the OR2020 conferences until February 28th, 2018. Shortlisted sites will be notified by the end of March 2018 and invited to submit a full proposal. Please direct these EoIs and any enquiries to OR Steering Committee Chair Elin Stangeland - [email protected].

Fuller guidance is provided in the Open Repositories Conference Handbook on the Open Repositories wiki.

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