The potential of online academic conferences to increase faculty interaction in a networked world.

• Author: Oualha, Leila
• Position: Conference news - Report

1. INTRODUCTION

   Conferences have been a key part of academic interaction since medieval times. For centuries academic conferences have bought together researchers to present and discuss their work. Historically conferences have provided an important channel for exchange of information between researchers.

   However recent economic hardships by universities are threatening the ability of researchers to travel to conferences. This reduction in travel budgets ny many schools has accelerated a trend in declining conference attendance that has been developing for the last decade (Backmon, et. al. 1999). In addition concerns about the environmental impact of travel to conferences has caused others to question the value of the travel to conferences due to the environmental impact (Hall 2007). Griffen (et al 2005) noted that this trend may lead to the extinction of traditional academic conferences.

   Faced with this challenge industry and government have looked to the use of new media to replace traditional meetings with video conferencing. News stories about the use of new media by industry and government for events, meetings and conferences are common. However there is a nearly total absence of literature about the process of applying the new media technology to the organization of online academic conferences conference. This paper is an exploratory discussion designed to close that gap by exploring the factors to consider in the application of the new media to the development of quality online academic conferences. In this paper a comparison will be made between the elements of a traditional on-ground academic conference and an online academic conference using the new media.

2. LITERATURE REVIEW

   Hosting and organizing any event or conference requires a long list of steps to do. The organizers have to arrange the flights, the hotel stay for the attendees, even sometimes car rental and any mean of transportation. After that planners need to make all the arrangements during the conference like the catering, the room set up, and the registration procedures. But with the new technology, all these steps can be omitted and avoided. Organizing an online event is a common practice for the companies to save the costs and time of traveling to meetings.

   Several articles and papers have been published on video conferencing for businesses (Hoyle 2002, Stevens 2005, Woodard 2009). Lightolier, a 150-year-old lighting manufacturer organized an online event, which to launch their new product on the east and the west cost simultaneously. The called the event a "hybrid". Biba (2008) stated "Hybrid event brings groups together live and on web" and showed how the advantage to the company was to be able to reach out to several states without having to travel out of states. He also noted that the financial benefits were extremely high since the firm saved on flight arrangements, the catering, the hotel accommodations, plus the cost of a large event.

   In 2003, Minority University-Space Interdisciplinary Network (MU-SPIN) organized an online conference for scientists from the various NASA Enterprises to present their plans for future...