JACoW Conference Coordination: Continuity for Sustainability - Examining the JACoW ModelSpeaker: Christine Petit-Jean-Genaz (CERN) Presentation Updated for TM'21 in Trieste This year JACoW celebrates its 25th anniversary. In the past couple of years we took stock of what we had achieved as a Collaboration, and we set in motion a number of initiatives that will be implemented in the coming couple of years. Throughout these years JACoW has developed tools, techniques and procedures. Its "model" relies on the training of newcomers to the Collaboration in the use of our conference management tools, and in publication techniques, with hands-on editing experience during conferences. These skills are gradually assimilated, and then passed on to future newcomers. The quality of published proceedings has improved considerably over the years. The JACoW Archive is highly appreciated by the whole community. But since JACoW is based on good will, there are times when the fragility of the model may jeopardise its continuity and sustainability. For newcomers, here is a little history to better understand the JACoW model ... Accelerator Conferences and Electronic PublicationPAC'95 and EPAC'96 were the first accelerator conferences to attempt electronic publication of proceedings, at a time when contributions were submitted on 1MB diskettes (figures hand drawn ...), plus paper copies just in case .... and Acrobat was in its infancy, not to say embryonic ... PAC'95 experienced considerable difficulties:
EPAC'96 editors (John Poole and Christine) were the first to "sample" the PAC'95 exercise, and decided to introduce:
 EPAC'96 (Sitges, Spain) was the first event when editors processed contributions during the conference. The team looked like this: John Poole, CERN (who later became the first JACoW Chair)
Publication of around 800 papers on a server at CERN was achieved around three months after the conference, similar to the time it took to compile several 1000 page volumes from camera-ready paper and send to Singapore for reproduction (EPAC). Today editing typically starts around 3 days before the start of the conference and many events regularly publish "pre-press" (without author lists, etc.) at the close of the conference, and on JACoW.org around 2 to 3 weeks after the event. JACoW Was BornIlan Ben-Zvi, BNL (SPC Chair of PAC'99) was at the origin of the idea to publish PAC and EPAC proceedings at the same site, such that all proceedings would be searchable across the same site. APAC (first event in Japan in 1998) was welcomed to this infant Collaboration. This representation is shown in the list of editors at EPAC'96. Read more about it at: https://www.jacow.org/uploads/About/Article_KASOKUKI.pdf Post-Mortem Reports from 1996: https://www.jacow.org/Team/Post-MortemReports Team Meetings from 2001: https://www.jacow.org/Team/PreviousTMAndWorkshops Software Development for Programme ManagementUntil around 2000, there was no standard software for programme management, registration, etc.
PAC and EPAC joined forces to develop a common application, "SPMS"
The JACoW Model, for Continuity and SustainabilityToday the JACoW Model offers continuity across all conference series via the training of new editors:
Newcomers gradually acquire expertise, and in turn share this with the future newcomers. Since there are no permanent JACoW staff, every effort has been made to support this model in order not to lose expertise. Conference series, especially the smaller ones, benefit from the Central Repository, mailing lists and experienced advice in conference and scientific programme management, as well as online help. The JACoW site is open access, so free of charge to all. But, publication on JACoW does have a cost: training of editors, their attendance at TMs and conferences, rental of a proceedings office, of soft- and hardware, organising the editorial/IT effort during a conference, etc. This cost should be included in the budget of all conferences. Before the electronic era paper proceedings and mailing them represented more than 30% of the budget of a conference ... Several attempts have been made over the years to estimate the cost of outsourcing the publication of proceedings for the same quality product as on jacow.org. Each time it could be demonstrated that producing JACoW quality proceedings resulted in a higher cost when the work was outsourced to commercial companies. Continuity and sustainability via the JACoW model remains thus for the time being the key to maintaining the status quo of JACoW, relying on support from:
The Kickoff Session is for the time being a necessary regular feature with the dual aim to:
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