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| Open Conference Systems | |
|---|---|
| Name | Open Conference Systems |
| Developer | Public Knowledge Project |
| Released | 2003 |
| Latest release | 3.3 |
| Programming language | PHP |
| Operating system | Cross-platform |
| License | GNU General Public License |
Open Conference Systems Open Conference Systems is an open-source conference management application produced by the Public Knowledge Project, designed to support scholarly events, peer review workflows, and program publishing. It integrates with platforms and standards used by Association for Computing Machinery, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, American Society of Mechanical Engineers, and other organizations for conference proceedings, aiming to interoperate with repositories such as DSpace, EPrints, and indexing services like Google Scholar.
Open Conference Systems provides a web-based system for managing submissions, reviews, scheduling, and publishing for conferences, workshops, and symposia. It was created to give event organizers an alternative to proprietary services used by institutions such as Stanford University, University of Oxford, Harvard University, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The software supports multilingual interfaces used by projects connected to European Commission initiatives, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, and regional consortia like Australasian Open Access Strategy Group.
Development began under the aegis of the Public Knowledge Project with funding from agencies including the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, National Institutes of Health, and provincial partners such as Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation. Early adopters included conferences associated with American Association for the Advancement of Science, Association for Computing Machinery SIGCHI, and Society for Neuroscience. Over time, the codebase incorporated contributions from developer communities linked to GitHub, academic projects at University of British Columbia, and digital library initiatives like Digital Public Library of America. Major version milestones paralleled changes in metadata standards championed by Dublin Core registries and harvesting protocols like OAI-PMH.
Key features include a submission portal capable of handling abstracts and full papers, peer review management akin to systems used by Elsevier and Springer Nature, and scheduling modules similar to tools adopted by IEEE Conference Planning Committee. The platform supports roles for organizers, reviewers, and authors, with export options into formats used by CrossRef, DOAJ, and conference proceedings vendors associated with ACM Digital Library and IEEE Xplore. It provides theming and plugin hooks adopted by projects at University of Toronto, University of Melbourne, and McGill University for branding and interoperability with institutional repositories like Harvard DASH.
Deployments have ranged from single-conference sites hosted by departments at Columbia University and University of California, Berkeley to large multi-track events organized by American Historical Association, International Communication Association, and regional networks such as Asia-Pacific Network for Global Health. Installations often run on stacks incorporating Linux, MySQL, and Apache HTTP Server or NGINX, with packaging and code sharing facilitated through communities on GitHub and developer forums moderated by the Public Knowledge Project. Training and adoption have been supported via workshops at conferences organized by Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers and digital preservation initiatives like LOCKSS.
The project governance has involved contributions from scholars, librarians, and technologists affiliated with Simon Fraser University, University of British Columbia, and partner organizations including Stanford Libraries and Harvard Library. Oversight and strategic direction have been influenced by funding partnerships with bodies such as the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and collaborations with consortia like SPARC and Coalition for Networked Information. The community convenes in mailing lists, code repositories, and meetings similar to governance practices at projects like WordPress and Drupal.
Security practices for installations mirror recommendations from institutions like National Institute of Standards and Technology and guidelines adopted by Internet Engineering Task Force RFCs, focusing on patching, secure authentication, and transport encryption used in environments at Cornell University and Yale University. Privacy workflows align with policies shaped by legislation such as Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act and frameworks referenced by European Data Protection Board, addressing reviewer anonymity and author consent consistent with standards promoted by Committee on Publication Ethics.
Notable uses include conference platforms for events organized by Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, program management for symposia associated with Royal Society, and regional science meetings coordinated by European Geosciences Union. Case studies document deployments at institutions such as University of British Columbia, University of Pretoria, and Monash University, and evaluations have appeared in venues like Journal of Documentation, Learned Publishing, and conference presentations at Open Repositories and PKP Scholarly Publishing Conference.
Category:Conference management software