Right - sorry! :) CSCW is one of the top academic conferences where research about open collaboration is published and presented and there's been a ton of Wikimedia-related work there. It's an ACM conference, which means it has a lot of computer science influence, but it's quite interdisciplinary. For PhD students, the doctoral consortium is a great place to meet up with people who really know their stuff, and have conversations and hopefully insights together about your research.

Also, there are lots of opportunities to submit posters, demos, and other contributions to the conference. Deadlines for these are in October and then there will be workshop position papers due in November: http://cscw.acm.org/participation.html

I've been to, organized, and presented at a few CSCWs, WikiSyms, and Wikimanias and am happy to answer any questions folks might have. :) 



On Wed, Aug 28, 2013 at 8:37 AM, Sumana Harihareswara <sumanah@wikimedia.org> wrote:
On 08/27/2013 06:01 PM, Andrea Forte wrote:
> Hi all - The CSCW DC is a great opportunity to meet with outstanding senior
> researchers and students. As an alumn of the 2006 cohort, I highly
> recommend it!
>
> --
>
> ***Please forward to Ph.D. students at your institution***
>
> The Doctoral Colloquium is a forum in which Ph.D. students meet and
> discuss their work with each other and a panel of experienced CSCW
> researchers and practitioners. The colloquium itself will begin with
> dinner Saturday night February 15, 2014 and continue all day Sunday
> February 16, 2014.
>
> All submissions must be received by the chairs by 5:00pm (17:00)
> Pacific Time on October 7, 2014. Submissions received after this date
> will not be considered. All submissions will be acknowledged by email.
>
> We welcome applicants from a broad range of disciplines and approaches
> that inform CSCW, including anthropology, sociology, computer science,
> cognitive science, organizational studies, and related fields. We are
> particularly interested in applications from institutions and groups
> that have not traditionally been well-represented at past CSCW
> conferences.
>
> Applicants should be Ph.D. students with an already well-established
> direction of research relevant to CSCW, but whose research would
> benefit from guidance provided by peers and senior colleagues at the
> Doctoral Colloquium. Preference will be given to students who have a
> defined topic and program of work e.g., who have proposed their topics
> and are within 2 years of graduation within a 5 year program or are
> half way through a 3 (or 4) year program.
>
> The Colloquium committee will select approximately 15 participants who
> will be expected to give short, informal presentations of their work
> during the Colloquium, to be followed by extensive group discussion.
> Participants will also present their research in an interactive poster
> session during the main technical program of the conference.
>
> Applicants should submit the following items by email to
> dc2014@cscw.acm.org with the subject line "CSCW2014 Colloquium
> Submission." All items below should be collated into one PDF file
> named YOURNAME_CSCWDC2014.pdf (substitute your full name where it
> reads YOURNAME):
>
> * A FOUR-page overview of your doctoral research that describes your
> research question, work in progress, and expected contributions. This
> overview should also include (1) a paragraph that articulates what you
> hope to gain from attending the CSCW Doctoral Colloquium, and (2) an
> abstract of no more than 100 words. Your overview will be published in
> the ACM Digital Library and distributed to all attendees as part of
> the Conference Extended Abstracts. Please submit your overview in the
> Extended Abstracts Format.
> * A short (2-3 paragraph) biographical sketch on another page.
> * An up-to-date curriculum vitae.
> * Optionally, one publication that you feel best illustrates your
> progress in your research.
> * An email letter from your supervisor sent to dc2014@cscw.acm.org
> indicating that they support your application to the colloquium and
> that they agree that your research is at an appropriate stage for
> participation. These letters should also make reference to how you
> might benefit from the Doctoral Colloquium and how they expect that
> you might benefit the other students in this group experience. The
> email should have "CSCW Doctoral Colloquium: " + YOUR NAME in the
> subject header.
>
> Doctoral Colloquium Co-Chairs
>
> Claus Bossen, Aarhus University
> Darren Gergle, Northwestern Universitydc2014@cscw.acm.org
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"CSCW" is "Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing".
:-) (I looked it up at http://cscw.acm.org/ )

--
Sumana Harihareswara
Engineering Community Manager
Wikimedia Foundation

--
 :: Andrea Forte
 :: Assistant Professor
 :: College of Information Science and Technology, Drexel University
 :: http://www.andreaforte.net