The application period for OpenCon 2017 on November 11-13 in Berlin is now open! The application is available at http://www.opencon2017.org/apply and includes the opportunity to apply for a travel scholarship. Applications will close on August 1st at 11:59pm U.S. Pacific Time.
OpenCon seeks to bring together effective, engaged students and early career academic professionals from around the world to advance Open Access, Open Education, and Open Data—regardless of their ability to pay for travel costs. In OpenCon’s first three years, most invited attendees who required financial support received full or partial scholarships to attend the conference. For this reason, attendance at OpenCon is by application only.
The benefits of applying for OpenCon 2017 extend far beyond attending the meeting in Berlin this November. It’s an opportunity to find new collaborators, get connected with scholarships to attend related conferences, and actively participate in a larger community of Open advocates year-round.
Students and early career academic professionals of all experience levels are encouraged to apply. We want to support those who have ideas for new projects and initiatives in addition to those who are already leading them. The most important criteria is an interest in advancing Open Access, Open Education, and Open Data and a commitment to taking action. You can learn more about the types of projects and impact OpenCon community members are working on to advance Open through our recently released community report.
Like previous years, OpenCon 2017 will feature a program of keynotes, panel discussions, workshops, and hackathons on Open Access, Open Education, and Open Data. Participants will build skills in key areas, network with diverse attendees from dozens of nations around the world, and engage with leaders in the Open movement. Speakers at previous OpenCon conferences have included Jimmy Wales (Co-founder of Wikipedia), Amy Rosenbaum (Director of Legislative Affairs to the US President Barack Obama), Julia Reda (Member of the European Parliament), and Brewster Kahle (Founder and Digital Librarian of Internet Archive).
While attendance at the main conference in Berlin is by application only, everyone is invited to participate freely in the interactive webcast, OpenCon 2017 Live. OpenCon is also looking for partners to host satellite events—meetings that combine themes from the global conference with local presentations, workshops, and discussions to advance the conversation around Open in your local community. In 2016, there were 28 OpenCon satellite events in twenty countries—all thanks to our incredible hosts, who included students, scientists, librarians, researchers, and advocates from around the world who are working hard to increase action around Open Access, Open Data, and Open Education. To express interest in hosting your own satellite event and get more information, please visit http://www.opencon2017.org/satellite.
The meeting in Berlin serves as the centerpiece of a much larger network to foster initiatives and collaboration among the next generation across OpenCon’s issue areas. We hope that you can become an active part of the community by joining our discussion list, tuning in for our monthly community calls, finding collaborators for Open projects, or hosting an OpenCon satellite event in your region.
Apply now, and join the OpenCon community today!
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OpenCon is the conference for students and early career academic professionals interested in advancing Open Access, Open Education, and Open Data. OpenCon is hosted by SPARC and the Right to Research Coalition.
SPARC, the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition, is a global coalition committed to making Open the default for research and education. SPARC empowers people to solve big problems and make new discoveries through the adoption of policies and practices that advance Open Access, Open Data, and Open Education. Learn more at sparcopen.org.
The Right to Research Coalition is an international alliance of graduate and undergraduate student organizations, which collectively represent nearly 7 million students in over 100 countries around the world, that advocate for and educate students about open methods of scholarly publishing. The Right to Research Coalition is a project of SPARC.