BOBCATSSS 2009

The organising team in Tampere held its last meeting yesterday in snowy Finland before travelling to Porto.

Most of the team is heading to Portugal this Sunday, and we are staying for seven days, some even longer.

This blog is going to be updated during the symposium too, as time allows, so do not stop following. Another way to keep up is to look at the photos in Flickr (tag: bobcatsss2009).

Here we come!

We recently received a web questionnaire from the organisers of BOBCATSSS 2011, which will be a cooperative effort between Austria and Hungary. The multiple-choice questionnaire was directed to the organisers. The questions and answers may still be of interest to the general audience as well, so I will take a look at some of them in some detail and provide commentary from my personal point of view.

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Greetings from Porto!

Breathtaking landscapes, delicious cuisine, and rich culture. Porto is such a wonderful city! That’s what I heard people say about Porto, and I just had to see it myself.

So, here I am, a Finnish information science student, a member of the BOBCATSSS 2009 organizing committee, having the time of my life in Porto. I arrived in Porto in August 2008, five months before my Finnish colleagues’ arrival.

Besides studying at the University of Porto and getting acquainted with the city, I’ve had the chance to get to know the Portuguese team members. By frequently being in contact with my Finnish colleagues, I believe, the communication between the two teams has improved. The organizers both in Finland and in Portugal are working hard on creating yet another great BOBCATSSS.

And I have to tell you, everything I heard about Porto beforehand is true. Porto is amazing and I’m sure you’ll love it too. Looking forward to seeing you in Porto in only 7 weeks!

Até já.

Johanna Varpila
Porto & Tampere

The organising of a symposium such as BOBCATSSS requires efficient communication. Firstly, it is necessary to publish up-to-date information and instructions for the contributors and participants of the event. This website tries to answer those needs. Secondly, because not every question can be answered based on the information found on the website alone, email correspondence must also be handled. Thirdly, there is the issue of how to coordinate the functions between the organising teams in Porto and Tampere, that is, internal communication.

Fortunately, information technology comes to the rescue. Publishing and updating a website such as this can be done rather easily and inexpensively using readily available tools. Many of the external communication needs are handled by our web presence. Those that are not, require personalised treatment.

Writing replies to inquiries sent to the BOBCATSSS 2009 email address takes a lot of our time, especially now because of all kinds of questions concerning the registration. Unfortunately it can sometimes take a while for us to answer your questions, so please be patient. And please first try to find the answer by carefully reading the instructions presented on the website.

Internal communication within and between the Tampere and Porto groups is another matter altogether. The Tampere team gathers in person once or twice a week, Team Porto about once a month. The web learning environment Moodle is the primary tool which we use to coordinate activities and stay in touch. In addition to that, the teams in Porto and Tampere communicate by occasional instant messenger sessions and video conferences, plus email.

Team Tampere’s own IRC channel has proved invaluable especially when physical meetings are simply not possible: it functions as an excellent daily knowledge sharing environment of sorts, where e.g. answers to all kinds of pressing issues or questions can be collaboratively thought through, and feedback given.

There’s much more to organising a conference than meets the eye, including communication issues. All this work is meant to give you, the participants, the best experience possible!

As the zero hour for our symposium is closing day by day, the sponsorship and finance groups of both universities are constantly looking for more company partners. The work is done mainly by email, but phone calls or even traditional mail is not excluded. Sponsors are given three different levels to choose from, each including different amount of benefits. The model is copied and modified from earlier Bobcatsss organizers.

The programme is under construction, and we’re trying to get the company presentations to fit in. The highest level, platinum sponsor, offers an opportunity to have a short presentation, which the company can use as they like. Some of our partners have already decided to take advantage of this opportunity. Participants have thus a great chance to get to know the future of information specialists in the working life.

Besides the company presentation, we’re going to have an exhibition area on the conference site. As amount of participants is expected to rise above 300, companies will have good visibility among the students and professors from several universities. Bobcatsss 2009 is built to raise discussion about the occupational and scientific future of information science, and we believe that our partners have their own opinion to say on that matter. What that might be, you’ll find out it in January.

The search for Bobcatsss 2009 partners is still underway. Should your company be interested, you can contact our organizing team (bobcatsss2009@uta.fi).

Erkka Rautio
Sponsorship and finance group

Hi everyone!

Organizing BOBCATSSS has been a real adventure. It all started when we were given the opportunity to participate in BOBCATSSS 2008, at Zadar, in Croatia, thanks to the University of Porto, which financed the trip for one lecturer and a student. There we met our Finnish colleagues from the University of Tampere, with whom we had already exchanged a few ideas via MSN Messenger. I think it was only then that we truly realized the sheer dimension and complexity which organizing such a symposium implied. Thus, I fervently advise the future BOBCATSSS organizers to come to Porto in January 2009, as only then will they have direct contact with the work involved. The trip to Zadar was also an excellent opportunity for us to publicize the city which is going to host the upcoming BOBCATSSS, to present the theme and sub-themes and to captivate participants. We were loaded with information to distribute and there was high interest and curiosity in our stand, which was kindly conceded by our hosts.

The meeting we had with the BOB’2008 organizing team was very important, as we were able to clarify all the doubts that came up during the 3 days of the symposium. We exchanged contacts and these have proved very useful. We use them when we need to and we always get ready answers. I would thus like to thank everyone for all their help.

Once we were back in Porto, it was down to work. We had to get together with the team and show them what BOBCATSSS was really all about. We had to discuss what we had seen in Zadar so that everyone could have an idea as to what we were getting into. We organized the team into work groups, with two general coordinators and sub-coordinators, who are responsible for each of the areas. There are meetings between coordinators and sub-coordinators whenever necessary. We contact our colleagues in Finland regularly, through MSN, Moodle and we’ve also had a video-conference session with them. I think so far everything is going very well and that we have put together an excellent team.

Time stands still for no man, we’re already going on the 2nd Call for Papers and sponsors have been showing up. We hope Porto will be invaded in January 2009, that participants will benefit from the issues to be discussed and, obviously, that they will truly enjoy their stay in the magnificent and captivating city of Porto.

All the best,

Susana

The BOBCATSSS 2009 website has now been redesigned with a new look and architecture! It’s now easier for us to add new sections and new information. Hopefully it will prove useful to you as well, the visitors and users of the site. We have, for example, added pages on sponsorship and the BOBCATSSS symposiums in general. There’s also more information on the Contributions page.

Content can be easily shared to various social networks by the ShareThis widget, which is located at the bottom of each page. You can buy BOBCATSSS ‘09 branded products or join the Facebook group. (By the way, don’t forget Virtual BOBCATSSS.)

There’s more to come. But if you have any feedback or other comments concerning the site, or other aspects of the symposium, add a comment or use our email address!

Timo, webmaster

Hello everybody,

organizing the 17th Bobcatsss is already on the way! Or actually it started already a year ago. Last spring after Bobcatsss in Prague we were asked if we wanted to take this opportunity and to start to work with it. Our department had contacts with the University of Porto and they were interested in co-operating, and so this project began.

Last year passed doing background work and planning the project. In the beginning of this year the University of Tampere started a project course to organize Bobcatsss 2009, and it has worked quite well. A lot of work has been done and little by little the general view of the whole project is getting clearer. Different areas and their tasks are outlined and planned. Now we have to just start doing concrete things.

We have agreed that our distribution of work is that Team Tampere takes care of these websites and prepares an on-line registration system there. And Tampere is also responsible for accounting and money transactions. The host city Porto is handling the on-the-site issues such as the venues, events and all the practical aspects of the conference. Both teams are also seeking sponsors and will take part in reading and reviewing abstracts.

Every now and then both teams write in turns about how the project is progressing, and what the current issues are. This way everyone can find out what is behind the scenes and what it is like to organize a conference like Bobcatsss 2009.

Stay tuned!