http://hypertext.rmit.edu.au/dac/ May 19 - 23, 2003
hosted by the School of Applied Communication, RMIT, Melbourne, Australia.
MelbourneDAC is a fully refereed conference.
The MelbourneDAC proceedings were fully referred by an independent academic board.]]> en-us 2004-01-28T15:51:23+10:00 http://hypertext.rmit.edu.au/dac/blog_archive/000269.html The papers published via this site continue to attract considerable traffic. Several people have asked if they are peer reviewed or not. As the academic chair let me reiterate, very plainly: 1. All abstracts received anonymous peer review. 2. Accepted authors were required to write completed essays. 3. All completed essays then received anonymous peer review. 4. All authors were expected to respond to the peer review they received. The review board did all the reviewing, and they were an international group of experts in the field.... All Papers amiles 2004-01-28T15:51:23+10:00 http://hypertext.rmit.edu.au/dac/blog_archive/000268.html Always a suspect property. This, I hope, is the final entry in the MelbourneDAC blog. You will find information here about how we ran the event, what worked what didn't, as well as an archive of the event, the papers, and various delegates opinions, sentiments, and responses. I'd like to thank, for one last time, Antoanetta Ivanova of Novamedia Arts and Anna Farago of The School of Applied Communication for being the people who actually made the event happen. Good luck with what you find here, I hope it helps. (btw, I've turned off comments all over the place because of comment spam. grrr.)... amiles 2003-11-24T18:46:52+10:00 http://hypertext.rmit.edu.au/dac/blog_archive/000267.html Participants 180 delegates, 30 international from 11 countries. Australian delegates from Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia. Papers 64 papers accepted and scheduled, 56 presented. 1 Public Forum and a day of artist'ss talks. Publications Published proceedings of long papers. All papers provided to delegates on CDROM. Special issue of all papers published in Fine Art Forum. Exhibition 24 international works exhibited. Exhibition catalogue published. Press 6 articles in the daily press, 1 radio interview. Internet Traffic 13,000 discrete visits to web site to date. Sponsorship and Support RMIT, Novamedia Arts, Australian Film Commission, State Library of Victoria, Multimedia Victoria, Film Victoria, Australian Centre for the Moving Image, InterMedia:University of Bergen, Panasonic, My Mac, Ajays Catering, Grinders coffee, De Bortoli Wines, Desktop Magazine.... Process (aka management) amiles 2003-11-24T17:56:18+10:00 http://hypertext.rmit.edu.au/dac/blog_archive/000266.html Well, revisiting after several months the MelbourneDAC blog, largely to finish the last of the documentation and to provide here the final information. The conference hit a lot of home runs, which for the sake of brevity (and fatigue) I'll list and note here. These are all things or ideas that I'd do again if I were running another conference: Active International Academic Board We had an international board made up of former DAC board members, new senior academics and a smattering of young career academics. Virtually every person invited to participate said yes, and the majority did all of their reviewing and board duties brilliantly. Review Board All of those on the academic board were invited to nominate people to join the review board. There was an emphasis in the invitation to introduce young researchers and academics, including PhD students, to be involved. This was done because a) they... Process (aka management) amiles 2003-11-24T17:53:13+10:00 http://hypertext.rmit.edu.au/dac/blog_archive/000265.html After going through what I'd do again, this is the list come discussion of what I'd try to do differently, better, or not at all for next time: Publication of All Papers Online This was a good idea but the papers were only finally available online a week before the conference. This was not soon enough and didn't provide enough time for delegates to read what they specifically wanted or needed to prior to arriving. Providing a Style Guide for Papers A Word template was provided which contained the style guide for authors. There were some things missing from the style guide (for example some citation examples). Many people had a lot of trouble using the style guide, which I think was more to do with a general unfamiliarity with using Stylesheets in general. The style guide provided information about the layout of graphics, however quite a few authors... Process (aka management) amiles 2003-11-24T17:49:32+10:00 http://hypertext.rmit.edu.au/dac/blog_archive/000264.html As with the academic letter of acceptance, the following template was used for those postgraduate students who required a formal letterhead style invitation to help secure funding to attend the conference. address date Dear Name As Academic Chair of the 5th International Digital Arts and Culture Conference (melbourneDAC) I would like to invite you to present your paper 'paperTitleHere' at the conference in Melbourne during May of this year. This paper will make a valuable contribution to the conference, however I would also like to invite you to consider being a session chair during the event, and also to participate in a postgraduate mentoring scheme that we are developing. Many PhD students find that their PhD research concentrates on their thesis and that little professional development, outside of the demands of research, occurs. This is obviously inadequate in the contemporary academic world where teaching, administrative, managerial and broader academic... Process (aka management) amiles 2003-11-24T17:48:12+10:00 http://hypertext.rmit.edu.au/dac/blog_archive/000263.html For many academics a formal letter (letterhead, logo and the full catastrophe) is needed to assist in gaining funding to participate in a conference. This was offered to those presenting, approximately 20 academics and PhD students took up the offer. This is the template for academics: address date Dear Offical Title and Name As Academic Chair of the 5th International Digital Arts and Culture Conference (MelbourneDAC) I would like to invite you to present your paper 'paperNameHere' at the conference in Melbourne during May of this year. This paper will make a valuable contribution to the conference. I would also like to invite you to consider being a session chair during the event, and also to participate in the various forums that we are developing.It is well recognised that conferences form a significant aspect of professional development, knowledge dissemination, and knowledge gain for academics. However, beyond presenting current research... Process (aka management) amiles 2003-11-24T17:45:46+10:00 http://hypertext.rmit.edu.au/dac/blog_archive/000262.html To: Subject: Your DAC03 paper Dear AuthorName: -------- cut here ------------ please cross box as appropriate (one box only) and reply to dac.edu.au by Monday December 9th. [ ] yes i have read the explanantion below and would prefer a short paper (4 pages maximum) [ ] yes i have read the explanation below and will NOT be writing a paper Papers must be submitted by February 1, 2003. -------- cut here ------------ Congratulations! On behalf of the DAC03 Program Committee, I am delighted to inform you that the following paper has been accepted for development and possible presentation as a short paper at the conference: PaperTitle We apologise for being late with responding to you (we received a lot of abstracts). Please read what follows with great care. Acceptance of your abstract does NOT mean that you will be presenting at this conference. You must submit a completed... Process (aka management) amiles 2003-11-24T17:42:20+10:00 http://hypertext.rmit.edu.au/dac/blog_archive/000261.html To: Subject: Your DAC03 paper Dear Author: -------- cut here ------------ please cross box as appropriate (one box only) and reply to dac.edu.au by Monday December 9th. [ ] yes i have read the explanation below and am writing a full paper [ ] yes i have read the explanantion below and would prefer a short paper (4 pages maximum) [ ] yes i have read the explanation below and will NOT be writing a paper Papers must be submitted by February 1, 2003. -------- cut here ------------ Congratulations! On behalf of the DAC03 Program Committee, I am delighted to inform you that your abstract has been accepted for development and possible presentation as a full paper at the conference. We apologise for being late with responding to you (we received a lot of abstracts). Please read what follows with great care. Acceptance of your abstract does NOT mean... Process (aka management) amiles 2003-11-24T17:39:07+10:00 http://hypertext.rmit.edu.au/dac/blog_archive/000260.html Like the general announcement for the conference this call for papers was distributed to the same email lists and individuals. Digital Arts and Culture::2003::Streaming Wor(l)ds The 2003 iteration of the Digital Arts and Culture (DAC) international conference series is to be held on the city campus of RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia from May 19 to 23, 2003. keywords: Augmented Reality, Cyberculture, Electronic Fiction, Electronic Music, Electronic Nonfiction, Electronic Poetry, Electronic Spatiality, Electronic Temporality, Flash Fiction, Flash Nonfiction, Games Culture, Games Sociology, Games System Design, Games Theory , Hypertext Literature , Hypertext Theory , Interactive Architecture, Interactive Cinema and Video , Interactive Graphic Narrative, Interactive Performance, MOOs, MUDs, RPG, Networked Improvisation, Networked performance, Streaming Narrative, Time Based Interactive Media, Virtual Reality, Virtual Worlds, , ++proposals++ Artists, scholars, developers and practitioners working in these and cognate fields are invited to submit 500 word proposals for papers and panels by September 15, 2002.... Process (aka management) amiles 2003-11-24T17:32:43+10:00 http://hypertext.rmit.edu.au/dac/blog_archive/000259.html This is a copy of the email announcement that was distributed for MelbourneDAC. It was prior to the call for papers and call for works and was a heads up. We had set a date for the event but the online management system wasn't ready to receive papers, however people were asking, so a generic announcement was made. It was also distributed so that people could pencil it into their diaries, after all to travel to an international conference requires a good 18 to 24 months notice for preparing funding applications and the like. The email was distributed to every new media, computer game, cultural theory and interent theory themed list I could find. I think it totalled 27 or so. I also sent it to over 60 individuals. The email obviously points out where and when, but also thematically contextualised the conference. [announcement] Digital Arts and Culture::2003 MelbourneDAC::streaming wor(l)ds... Process (aka management) amiles 2003-11-24T17:31:07+10:00 http://hypertext.rmit.edu.au/dac/blog_archive/000258.html This is the email that I used to first invite people onto the MelbourneDAC academic board: Hi I am writing to you as Chair of DAC 2003, which will be held at RMIT University, Melbourne from May 19 to 23rd, 2003. (see below a detailed blurb on DAC 2003) I wish to invite you to become a member of the DAC 2003 Academic Board. The duties involved in the membership would include contributing ideas and feedback on the peer review process between August 2002 & January 2003 & specifically: 1. peer review abstracts (300 words each) *note... abstract deadline to be approx. late August 2002 & comments to be returned by late September 2002 2. help to shortlist abstracts for invitation to submit full papers 3. provide a list of additional reviewers to assist with the review of full papers 4. assist in the peer review of full papers which... Process (aka management) amiles 2003-11-24T17:14:32+10:00 http://hypertext.rmit.edu.au/dac/blog_archive/000257.html For those of you interested in running a conference, here is the template I used for the snail mail invite for the MelbourneDAC academic board. This was sent on letterhead to those who required one after the email invitation. Offical name/title address date Dear Name Goes Here (duh), As Academic Chair of the forthcoming international digital arts and culture conference, melbourneDAC, I would like to invite you to join the conference Academic Board. The full academic review board consists of a panel of invited international academics with expertise in various areas of digital culture, aesthetics, and theory, and members of this Board have nominated you as an expert peer. Your duties as a member of the Academic Board will be to review papers submitted for the conference and to participate in Board decisions about the academic management of the conference. All submitted and accepted papers will be published in... Process (aka management) amiles 2003-11-24T17:09:32+10:00 http://hypertext.rmit.edu.au/dac/blog_archive/000256.html Fine Art Forum have just published the entire proceedings of MelbourneDAC online, including long and short papers.... All Papers amiles 2003-08-08T18:22:40+10:00 http://hypertext.rmit.edu.au/dac/blog_archive/000255.html All the conference papers have now been made publicly available. As I noted the other day, to cite these the following information is relevant: Lastname, Firstname. Proceedings of the Fifth International Digital Arts and Culture Conference. "Title of Paper". RMIT, Melbourne, Australia. May 19 - 23, 2003. http://hypertext.rmit.edu.au/dac/papers/n.pdf accessed: insert date of access here.... All Papers amiles 2003-06-04T18:29:38+10:00