WikiSym 2012 - 8th International Symposium on Wikis and Open Collaboration - August 27-29, 2012 - Linz, Austria Early Registration Deadline is August 6, 2012 The International Symposium on Wikis and Open Collaboration (WikiSym) is the premier conference on open collaboration and related technologies. In 2012, WikiSym celebrates its 8th year of scholarly, technical and community innovation in Linz, Austria at the Ars Electronica Center.We are excited this year to be collocated with Ars Electronica, the premier digital art and science meeting that attracts over 35,000 attendees per year. Details on attending Ars Electronic can be found here: http://www.aec.at/thebigpicture/en/tickets/ We are also excited to announce that Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales will be keynoting WikiSym this year and user-generated content researcher Brent Hecht will be the closing plenary speaker. More details about attending can be found at: http://www.wikisym.org/ws2012/bin/view/Main/Attending or by following the @WikiSym twitter account. Wikisym is a leading conference in understanding how individuals, groups, organizations and society can use information and communication technology to enable novel and meaningful collaboration and collective action. Researchers and practitioners from all over the world have gathered together in these meetings to discuss and display their insights into this important area of inquiry. The conference program will include a peer-reviewed research track, experience reports, workshops, posters, demos, a doctoral consortium, invited keynotes and panel speakers. As always, the participant-organized Open Space track will run throughout the conference. Evening social events will follow, because wiki folks know the value of a good party for sparking conversation and collaboration. Finally, WikiSym co-occurs with Ars Electronica, and we are arranging experiences where conference attendees can enjoy this innovative and unusual event. Please see the program at: http://www.wikisym.org/ws2012/bin/view/Main/Program Topics include all aspects of the people, tools, contexts, and content that comprise open collaboration systems. For example: Collaboration tools and processes Social and cultural aspects of collaboration Collaboration beyond text: images, video, sound, etc. Communities and workgroups Knowledge and information production New media literacies Open source software development and use Education and Open Educational Resources E-government, open government, and public policy Law/Intellectual Property (including Creative Commons) Journalism (including participatory journalism) Art and Entertainment (including collaborative and audience-involved art) Science (including collaboratories) Publishing (including open access and open review models) Business (including open and collaborative management styles) We would like to thank our sponsors: The Wikimedia Foundation, Google, the U.S. National Science Foundation and the University of Michigan: More information and networking: http://www.wikisym.org/ws2012/ http://www.facebook.com/events/342677469143317/ http://twitter.com/wikisym http://www.wikimatrix.org/calendar/e154/2012/8th_international_symposium_wikis_and_open_collaboration We look forward to seeing you there! Brian Keegan Publicity Chair