Interdisciplinary Open Practices Workshop

October 27 & 28, 2023 | Burlington, VT, USA

Apply for the Workshop!

Openness is increasingly relevant — open science, open government, open source software, and many others. But what practices make communities and workplaces open? And how well do those practices (activities, policies, etc.) advance innovation, transparency, and other goals? Funded by the US National Science Foundation, the Interdisciplinary Open Practices Workshop (the IOP Workshop) will establish an interdisciplinary understanding of what we know about open work practices (also called “open organizing”) and build collaborations to explore unanswered questions.

What are the Details?

When: October 27-28, 2023

Attendance Options: In-Person or Virtual

In-Person Location: Old Mill 325 (John F. Dewey Lounge), University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont, USA

Format: Single Track with invited speakers, panel sessions, lightning talks, and breakout collaboration sessions

Schedule: 9am – 5pm daily, Eastern Daylight Time

Cost: Free to attend

Application Deadline: rolling, encouraged by September 11 for travel awards

Acceptance Announcements: starting September 11, 2023, rolling thereafter

What are the Topics?

We’ll pick topics through your applications, but some of them will include:

  • Definitions of openness
  • Efficacy of open practices (e.g. for innovation, transparency)
  • Datasets that capture different degrees of openness in social interactions
  • Reproducing and replicating work
  • Visibility and attribution of work
  • Leadership and decision-making

Join Us!

Interested in attending? Click the link below to apply. We encourage everyone to submit an abstract, though you do not need to submit an abstract to apply to attend.

Apply for the Workshop!

Who Should Apply?

Anyone who creates or consumes research, from all identities and backgrounds including:
  • Any discipline (education, information science, communication, organization studies, computer science, science & technology studies, journalism, and many others!)
  • All career stages (students, postdocs, professors, staff researchers, retired researchers, etc.)
  • Any sector (academia, government, industry, non-profits, etc.)
We strongly encourage members of groups that are underrepresented in academia and early career researchers to apply.
 
Unfortunately, no further travel awards are available.

Schedule

See our full list of panels & speakers. All times listed in Eastern Daylight Time (GMT-4)

Friday, Oct 27th

  • 9:00-9:30 AM – Registration
  • 9:30-9:45 AM – Opening Remarks – John Meluso & Kendall Fortney
  • 9:45-10:15 AM – Talk by Nerea Llamas
  • 10:15-10:45 AM – Talk by Violetta Splitter
  • 10:45-11:00 AM – Break
  • 11:00 AM-12:30 PM – Panel – Open Strategy & Innovation
  • 12:30-2:00 PM – Lunch
  • 2:00-2:30 PM – Talk by Marlene Mhangami
  • 2:30-3:45 PM – Panel – Researching Openness
  • 3:45-4:00 PM – Break
  • 4:00-5:00 PM – Collaboration Session – Group & research topic selection
  • 5:00 PM – Wrap-up

Saturday, Oct 28th

  • 9:00-9:45 AM – Panel – Open Organizing Datasets
  • 9:45-10:15 AM – Talk by Richard Littauer
  • 10:15-10:30 AM – Break
  • 10:30 AM-12:00 PM – Panel – Openness Expertise Through Practice
  • 12:00-1:30 PM – Collaboration Session –  Research question ideation (working lunch)
  • 1:30-2:00 PM – Talk by Huajin Wang
  • 2:00-3:15 PM – Collaboration Session – Research study design and presentation prep
  • 3:15-3:30 PM – Break
  • 3:30-4:45 PM – Collaboration Session – Presentation by groups
  • 4:45-5:00 PM – Closing Remarks  – John Meluso & Kendall Fortney
  • 5:00 PM – Wrap-up

Confirmed Speakers

  • Nerea Llamas – Associate University Librarian for Collections Strategy and Services at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, former Interim Associate University Librarian for Research, expert on digital library collections and Latin American library materials
  • Richard Littauer – Open Source Community Organizer at Burnt Fen and SustainOSS, former Community Facilitator at the Digital Infrastructure Fund, Funding OSS Community Development Manager at Open Source Collective, and Founder of Maintainer Mountaineer
  • Marlene Mhangami – Software Engineer & Developer Advocate at Voltron Data, Director & Vice Chair of the Association for Computing Machinery Practitioner Board, former Director & Vice Chair of the Python Software Foundation
  • Violetta Splitter – Professor of Strategic Communication at the University of the Arts Berlin, Editor of recent issue of Organization Studies on open organizing
  • Huajin Wang – Director of Programs at the Center for Open Science, open science methodologies researcher, former Senior Librarian and Director for Open Science & Data Collaborations at Carnegie Mellon University

Workshop Documents

Workshop Attendee Documents

Organizing Committee Documents

Talk Formats

Panel Talks

Approximately 15 applicants have been selected to participate in one of several topical panels. One panel will focus on organizing datasets to equip participants for the collaboration sessions; the topics of the three remaining panels have been selected based on topic interest and expertise among the applicants. The panels will each consist of a group of panelists and one moderator. The panelists will each be asked to prepare a short presentation for the moderated sessions organized around the most requested topics. Each panelist will speak for 8-10 minutes followed by a moderated question and answer session.

Keynote Talks

The confirmed speakers will each give a keynote talk on a topic of their choosing related to the workshop theme. Each talk will be 15-20 minutes long with 10-15 minutes for questions.

Travel Awards

We plan to give 15 travel support awards in the amount of $1,000 each for US based attendees, with priority given to early career researchers and individuals from historically underrepresented groups in academia.

Update: Thank you for your interest, but unfortunately, no further travel awards are available.

Organizing Committee

The conference is being hosted by the Vermont Research Open Source Program Office (VERSO) of the University of Vermont (UVM) in Burlington, Vermont. VERSO is a project at UVM that seeks to build university systems and infrastructure to facilitate open-source development throughout the university for cross-unit cooperation. The members of the organizing committee are as follows: 
 
  • John Meluso (Committee Co-Chair) is the Sloan VERSO Postdoctoral Fellow for Systems, Organizations, & Inclusion at the University of Vermont. 
  • Kendall Fortney (Committee Co-Chair) is the Director of VERSO at UVM
  • Bryn Geffert has served as the Dean of Libraries for the past 3.5 years at the University of Vermont. He has a dual appointment as a professor in the History Department. 
  • Laurent Hébert-Dufresne is an Associate Professor of Computer Science at the University of Vermont where he is also the Graduate Program Director for the Vermont Complex Systems Center and Core Director for the Center of Biomedical Research Excellence on Translational Global Infectious Disease Research.
  • Juniper Lovato is an educator and researcher in the field of complex systems and data science with 12 years of experience in her field. Her current research focuses on Data Ethics, Group Privacy, Complex Systems, and Data Science. She is Research Assistant Professor of Computer Science at UVM. 

Have Questions?

Send us an email at john.meluso@uvm.edu. We’ll get back to you as soon as we can.

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