[IRTalk] Are Predatory Conferences the Dark Side of the Open Access Movement?

Tue May 23 10:32:33 SAST 2017

Hi Ina, all,

Slowly going through the list of discussion topics from last week - looks
 like you all had a great big meeting or something !

I just wanted to pick up on this topic of systems to support the
organisation of events. Having the right tools to organise events is really
important - it gives groups and institutes some credibility and permanence
to their offline meetings.

There is nothing worse than being invited to a meeting that leaves no trace
- with only a random PDF file circulated describing the agenda... this
happens way too often and after the event, it's as if nothing happened at
all. Where are the slides ? Where is the recording ? What was the date ?
Where are the notes !? By organising "workshops" like this, one really just
perpetuates an exclusionary practice and introduces a lot of bias into
decision making and opinions, because only the people actually at the event
can contribute or comment on it.

Ina mentioned the PKP open conference systems. I want to mention a similar
tool which is useful for managing events and everything surrounding them -
Indico.
http://indico-software.org/

This is used very widely, and is nicely integrable into most of  the other
components of a publishing platform. It provides a really good way to
bridge the offline world into the online world.

In my opinion there is rarely a good reason not to limit event
participation to few people who can make it to your event in person.
Instead of ending up with the right people in the room, you end up with
those who happened to make it... putting that
meeting/workshop/conference/seminar/etc in a place online which follows
good practice is a really good way to open up research practice and provide
some permanence to our grey literature online.

Thanks !
Bruce

On 20 May 2017 at 10:21, Ina Smith <Ina at assaf.org.za> wrote:

> Universities incl. libraries can play an important role in managing,
> hosting and publishing their own conferences, at the same time making sure
> all processes are tracked/audited, and all preserved for the future. This
> to prevent conferences to end up in the hands of predators and publishers
> with only commercial interests. Open source software such as Open
> Conference Systems <https://pkp.sfu.ca/ocs/> perfect for this purpose.
> See how it was implemented by Stellenbosch University (SUNConferences
> <http://conferences.sun.ac.za/>) and LIASA (LIASA Events
> <http://www.liasa-new.org.za/conference/index.php/index/index/index/index>).
> This almost the next logical choice if the university already publishes its
> own scholarly journals, and the workflow very similar. As with all open
> source software, the look and feel can be customized to look great. The
> functionalities offered by this kind of system of great value. This way all
> conferences by the university are centrally preserved and managed, and each
> can have an individual look and feel.
>
>
>
>
> *Also see* Are Predatory Conferences the Dark Side of the Open Access
> Movement?
>
> https://academic.oup.com/asj/article-abstract/37/6/734/
> 2966192/Are-Predatory-Conferences-the-Dark-Side-of-the
>
>
>
> *Ina Smith*
>
> Project Manager: African Open Science Platform
> <http://africanopenscience.org.za/>
> Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAf)
> DOAJ Ambassador, Southern Africa Region
> LIASA Librarian of the Year 2016
>
>
>
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-- 
Dr. Bruce Becker, Coordinator, South African National Grid
http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6607-7145
http://www.africa-grid.org
Meraka Institute, CSIR Meiring Naude Road Pretoria 0001 South Africa
+27 12 841 3746 (w) | +27 12 841-4829 (f) | +27 84 989 6169 (m)  | + 39 392
622 9279
AIM/GTalk/Skype/MSN/Jabber : brucellino
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