2013 Proposed Language:

2013 Apereo North American Annual Conference

San Diego, CA | June 3-6, 2013

Opening Minds to Open Solutions:
Working together to support the academic mission

The North American Apereo Conference is designed to be an international, inclusive event, providing opportunities for community members to:

• Present perspectives based on institutional experience, access the experience of others, exchange ideas, develop dialogue and form new partnerships
• Develop an understanding of other areas of the academic enterprise by looking outside of immediate interest areas and contributing to the understanding of commonalities as well as contrasts
• Organize community-wide, project-based, or institutional discussion, dialogue and practical collaborative work

Schedule:

• June 2: Pre-conference workshops
• June 3-6: Main conference
• June 7: Developer Day

We look forward to your proposals to help with Opening Minds to Open Solutions.

DEADLINE AND REVIEW

The deadline for proposals is March 4, 2013. As proposals are received, the program committee will review and accept submissions during the open submission period (February 8-March 4). The committee expects to have all proposals reviewed and the list of final acceptances by March 18.  Please note that you may login and edit/review this proposal through the cutoff date of March 4 only.

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

• Develop a presentation title that uses key words to describe the content of your session.
• Write a short, concise, easy to read and understand abstract.
• Check your abstract for grammar, spelling, and punctuation.
• Spell out all acronyms the first time mentioned.
• Use a clear and direct writing style with active voice rather than passive.
• Persuade the reviewers of the value of your session’s content.

TITLE

Required: Please provide a print-ready title for your session. The title should be intriguing yet also clearly communicate the intent and topic of your presentation.

SESSION TYPES

Required: Your content can be delivered in several formats. You must select one type:

Presentation: Conference session presentations will run for 45 minutes with an open format. Presentations can be information sessions, panel discussions, or other speaking events. For information sessions, we recommend 30 minutes for the presentation and 15 minutes reserved for audience questions and answers. We DO NOT require presentations to center on Apereo products or projects. When developing presentations, please consider the issues, opportunities, and innovations that are most central to best practices and/or success in technology-enabled teaching, learning, and research.

Birds of a Feather Discussion: Please suggest a topic for informal collaboration and discussion. There is no need to prepare a presentation for these sessions. This is simply an opportunity for like-minded folk to meet and share.

Showcase Night/Reception: (Formerly known as Tech Demo.) One evening during the conference, community members will gather to eat, drink, and share innovations. Please consider providing a demo of your work and discussing it with community members in an informal setting. The conference will provide a table and access to electricity and wi-fi. If you need additional equipment, please indicate so in the "Abstract for Review."

Pre-conference Workshop: Hands-on, in-depth workshops will be offered on Sunday, June 2, 2013, the day before the main conference begins. Workshops can either be half-day (3 hours) or full-day (6 hours). If proposing a workshop, it should be highly interactive, allowing attendees to explore, review, practice, and/or produce outcomes based on the topic and goals of your event.

TRACKS

Required: The program will have four tracks. The goal is to generally categorize your session. You must select one track:

Developing :: Creating, Designing, Planning, Deploying, Enhancing.
This track is for instructors, software developers, system engineers, and anyone that develops solutions, content, or the platforms that run, connect, or secure them.

Using :: Teaching, Learning, Running, Practicing, Consuming.
This track is for sharing case studies, effective practices, lessons learned, or strategies to help your colleagues using Apereo software and other applications or services around the globe.

Growing :: Advocating, Leading, Expanding, Governing, Connecting.
This track is for promoting solutions, bridging communities, and increasing adoption of academic software, solutions, and practices.

Beyond :: Different, Unique, Surprising, Outside-the-Box, Other
There are many ways to share knowledge and inspire solutions, and they don't always fit into tidy labels.  This track is for all other presentation proposals that go beyond developing, using, and growing.

TYPES OF AUDIENCE/PROJECT/INTEREST

Required: Please tag your proposal with the type of audience member (Developer, Faculty, etc.), project (CAS, Sakai CLE, etc.), or interest area (e.g. Security, Mobility, etc.). You may select any tag that relates to your proposal; you must select at least one tag.

LEVEL OF AUDIENCE

Required - Please identify the knowledge level of your intended audience member: Advanced, Intermediate, Beginner, or All.

ABSTRACT

Abstract for Print (1000 characters maximum)
Required: Please provide a print-ready description of your session for conference attendees. A good description will explain the purpose of the session, the content that will be covered, and the outcomes that attendees will take away from your session.

Abstract for Review (1500 characters maximum)
Required: This required field is your opportunity to speak with the program committee. Explain your motivation to offer this event, the audience that will be served, how you will engage and interact with the audience, and any additional evidence or detail that did not fit into the print abstract that can help the committee evaluate the content and merit of your session.

OTHER ELEMENTS

Keywords
Optional: You may list additional keywords for your presentation. These keywords may assist the reviewers identify other audience types, projects, or areas of interest for consideration as tags. Please be sure to separate any keywords you enter with commas.

Needs
Optional: Please indicate the equipment or technology you prefer for your presentation. Mark all that apply.

Presenters
Required: Please list all presenters, including yourself if you are presenting, and provide contact information (name, email, professional title (including department), organization). Identify the primary presenter. Email confirmation of submission will be emailed to both the primary presenter and the original submitter.

Thank you. We look forward to reviewing your submission!

2013 Submission Message

After a proposal has been submitted, the system will present a short confirmation message. The proposed message follows:

Thank you for submitting a proposal for the 2013 Apereo Conference! The Program Committee will review and accept proposals throughout the open period (February 8-March 4).  The committee expects to have all proposals reviewed and the list of final acceptances by March 18.  Please note that you may login and edit/review this proposal through the cutoff date of March 4 only.

2012 Language (for reference):

Growing Community; Growing Possibilities

The program will have eight tracks:

Awareness and Advocacy
Open Source Software, as a movement, dates back to February 2, 1998 (2/3/98), yet even today, almost 15 years later, awareness and adoption are often hindered by assumptions, misconceptions and a general lack of knowledge regarding open source development, support and implementation. Significant resistance can arise across campuses from non-technical stakeholders, unfamiliar with the open source ecosystem. Presentations discussing non-technical issues around awareness and adoption of open source (as opposed to specific OS applications) are welcome. These presentations might include: the introduction of open source options to your campus; the procurement process for identifying and evaluating options (commercial and open); approaches for addressing common and unique concerns; lessons learned in the implementation, etc.

Design and Development
Sharing is critical among communities creating open software. Please share development projects, design approaches, usability and accessibility improvement plans and projects. Topics may also include best practices in design and development approaches that could be incorporated into software in the future.

Deployment and Integration
Presentations for people who need to make applications work on campus: developers, content providers, team leaders, and evangelists. In particular, we would like to highlight work that integrates community source projects within enterprise infrastructure, and with each other.

Expanded Solutions
For most organizations open source software is one important component of a complex ecosystem of systems and tools supporting teaching, learning and research. Please share your experiences and successes integrating solutions to expand the benefit to your faculty and students.

Getting Started
Sessions for newcomers: from faculty to developers, administrators to trainers, students to tech support. Learn the steps to evaluate, plan, deploy, promote, and support software on your campus.

Leadership and Future Directions
Open software is an element within your broader strategy and goals. How are institutions using open software to achieve strategic goals? What changes and opportunities on the horizon should be influencing the direction of the community? What other trends, advances and challenges should become part of our community planning and dialogue?

Teaching, Learning, Portfolios and Research
Technology to improve the quality of teaching, learning and research.  Please share case studies of effective teaching, research and collaboration practices as well as new approaches to technology-enabled teaching and research.

Technical Management
Deploying, supporting and managing open software is critical to its success. Please share your best practices and approaches in creating and maintaining open software successfully for your users.

The content will be delivered in a variety of formats including:

Track Sessions: The conference session presentations will run for 60 minutes with an open format. The session may include a presentation with time for questions and answers, a panel discussion, or a very brief set-up of a topic for more detailed discussion with the session participants. We DO NOT require presentations to center on the Sakai software or Jasig products. When developing presentations, please consider the issues, opportunities and innovations that are most central to best practices and/or success in technology-enabled teaching, learning and research.

Birds of a Feather Discussion: Please suggest a topic for informal collaboration and discussion. There is no need to prepare a presentation for these sessions. This is simply an opportunity for like-minded folk to meet and share.

Tech Demonstrations: One evening during the conference community members will gather to eat, drink and share innovations. Please consider providing a demo of your work and discussing it with community members in an informal setting. The conference will provide a table and access to electricity. We unfortunately cannot provide a screen and projector for each table. If you would like us to assist you in coordinating this with the hotel for a fee, please note that on your submission.

Submission Abstract Guidelines

Note: The Abstract for Print is required and should be short and to the point (1,000 character limit). The Abstract for Review is also required but can be longer (1,500 character limit) to allow you to provide more information to the reviewers. The Abstract for Review will only be used by the reviewers and will NOT be publicized in print or on the web so you may feel free to add additional comments or notes about your session in this field. In the Abstract for Review, be sure to list how the session will appeal to the primary audience you select in the "Type" area and list any additional audience types that will benefit from your session. Any additional details, such as sources or additional evidence, will help the program committee evaluate your proposal.

Keywords: While not required, providing keywords that relate to your presentation will assist the reviewers when they are looking at your presentation. Please consider listing the software considered in your session: Sakai CLE, Sakai OAE, uPortal, CAS, Bedework, 2-3-98, Identity Management, uMobile, OpenCast - or use your own keyword as appropriate.

• Develop a presentation title that uses key words to describe the content of your session.
• Write a short, concise, easy to read and understand abstract.
• Check your abstract for grammar, spelling, and punctuation.
• Spell out all acronyms the first time mentioned.
• Use a clear and direct writing style with active voice rather than passive.
• Persuade the reviewers of the value of your session’s content.

Required Elements

• Identify level of audience knowledge (Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced or All).
• Describe the content, format and how you plan to engage the audience.
• List the outcomes the audience can expect to take away from your session.

NOTE: Since you contributed this submission you are considered the Primary Presenter. If you are not the Primary Presenter, please change accordingly. Email confirmation of submission will be emailed to both Primary Presenter and Contributor. Please list all additional presenters and provide contact information (name, email, professional title (including department), organization).

If you need to make changes to this proposal, you will be able to do so at any time prior to the March 18 deadline.

Session: (drop down list, select one)  

Track: (drop down list, select one)

Type: (drop down list, select one)

Level: (drop down list, select one)

Title: (text box)

Abstract for Print: (text box)

Abstract for Review: (text box)

Keywords: (text box)

Needs: (checkbox, select all that apply)

• Computer Audio
• Flip Chart(s)
• LCD Projector and Screen
• Whiteboard
• Wifi

Presenters:

First Name (entry), Last Name (entry), Email (entry), Job Title (entry), Organization (entry), bio (entry, 1500 characters max)