Collaborative Event Research Articles

For love and money: Navigating values at the antiques roadshow event

AbstractAntiques Roadshow Events are held in historic locations across the United Kingdom. On site, experts evaluate objects brought in by attendees, who are often cast as passive recipients, while edited highlights make up the long‐running BBC TV program. Through Collaborative Event Ethnography at one Roadshow Event we show how object stories are navigated through “value talk” between attendees and experts in front of live audiences. Value is not a measurement but a dimension of the thing and its context. Stories and money are both integral in understanding worth, and final valuations are only partially shaped by given expertise.

The role of BioBlitzes in citizen science: insights from participants and experts

Beyond its primary role in generating scientific knowledge, citizen science also carries a potent educational dimension. An example of citizen science activities is BioBlitzes, which are collaborative events that bring together both experts and citizens, all united by a common mission: to register species observations within a defined geographical area during a predetermined time frame. In addition to comprehensively characterizing BioBlitz participants across sociodemographic, emotional, and cognitive domains, this study seeks to gain insights into the overall perceptions held by BioBlitz experts regarding these events and their participants. By considering both perspectives, we strive to achieve a more holistic understanding of BioBlitzes, elucidating their significance and impact on both the individuals participating and the broader scientific community involved. The analyzed sample corresponded to 96 participants and 11 experts. The evaluation made by the 96 participants was carried out by applying a pre-questionnaire and post-questionnaire, which allowed us to conclude that the participants, in the short term, acquired some knowledge during the event, but few emotional changes were detected. The evaluation made by the 11 experts was carried out in two online focus group sessions. It was concluded that there is a general opinion that citizens and experts learn during a BioBlitz and appreciate the social dimension of these experiences and that citizens leave the BioBlitz with more awareness of nature conservation issues.

Event marketing as an effective tool for the advertising campaign of the social network "VKontakte"

The subject of this article is event marketing as a tool for the advertising campaign of the social network "VKontakte." It provides an analytical perspective on current trends in advertising and offers specific recommendations for the effective use of marketing tools in the evolving advertising environment. The main focus is on the importance of the social network's interaction with its audience through the organization and sponsorship of various events, as well as the optimization of feedback analysis and the effectiveness of advertising campaigns in the context of digital technologies and social media. The article proposes a theoretical and practical justification for the feasibility of conducting not only online events and activities (forums, discussions, educational courses) but also offline events (concerts in clubs and open venues), as well as organizing events in collaboration with cultural and educational centers in the country. An example of the advertising campaign of the social network "VKontakte" serves as illustrative material to confirm the effectiveness of the proposed approaches. The scientific relevance and novelty of this article are manifested in several key aspects. Firstly, the work considers event marketing as an innovative tool aimed at creating "viral messages" and improving the interaction of the promoted social network with its audience, opening new perspectives in brand promotion and consumer interaction. The second aspect is related to the reverse effect in this case - the influence of social networks on the effectiveness of event marketing. Given the complexity of the nature of social networks, as they simultaneously act as service providers to their users and media channels, the combination of these two functions in the activities of such market participants allows them to leverage many advantages associated with the complexity of their nature, which increases the importance of analyzing the theoretical foundations and possibilities of advertising campaigns.

Exploring Best Practices for New Climate Change Policy and Law Program

Climate change law is seldom taught formally as a program at institutions of higher education. Hence, it is unclear as to how climate change law lessons should be delivered. This paper focuses on the exploration of best practices for new climate change policy and law program. The study engaged in purely qualitative methodology, involving interviews with 10 experts in environmental law and climate change from academia and industry partners, as well as environmental law alumni. The collected data was analysed in ATLAS.ti software version 22 using thematic analysis approach. The study found that among the recommended best practices of teaching delivery methods for the program are service learning (SL), global learning, article contributions to newspapers and project-based learning (PBL). SL involves the implementation of credited projects by the students for the benefit of a targeted community focusing on climate change issues. Meanwhile, global learning involves collaborative events with member institutions within Malaysia or abroad, in which experts, academia and industry practitioners can join and participate for sharing of experiences, skills and knowledge on climate change current issues and challenges. Students can also be encouraged to write their articles to be submitted to newspaper portals, either printed or online sites. Additionally, lecturers can prompt specific PBL projects to the students, in which students are to “carry out” climate change-related projects in this innovative and inspiring learning strategy. The final strategy is to encourage students to implement roleplay in classes, aiming at giving simulation experiences in solving climate change issues. Hopefully, this paper will become a catalyst for future studies on climate change curriculum development, particularly on teaching delivery practices. The findings are highly pertinent to United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goal SDG13 on climate action. In the broader context, the findings of the study will be a great contribution towards the attainment of sustainability efforts on climate action, particularly in capacity building of the people on teaching delivery methods of climate change policy and law.

2023 WEST COAST SECURITY CONFERENCE WELCOMING REMARKS DAY 5

On November 17, 2023, Mr. John Pyrik and Dr. Wade Deisman presented the opening address for the fifth day of this year’s West Coast Security Conference. The speakers provided insights into the intelligence and security community informed by their backgrounds and expertise in analytic methodologies, intelligence theory and applications, and policing and security. They discussed the benefit of collaborative events and programs in advancing intelligence education in Canada and noted key initiatives being pursued by the Justice Institute of British Columbia in the coming year.
 
 Received: 01-20-2024
 Revised: 01-29-2024

Beyond AOSIS: small island states’ presence and participation at COP27

ABSTRACT Small islands are at the frontline of climate change – and of climate negotiations. Yet while the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) has allowed small islands to collectively become a key player in UN climate negotiations, a focus on the group level masks important inequalities within AOSIS. This paper hence goes beyond the level of AOSIS to understand the power and agency of small island states in the global climate regime. We are interested in how islands experience and navigate the complex and unequal climate negotiations, and specifically explore the presence and participation of individual small island states at COP27. Drawing mainly on collaborative event ethnography at COP27, our analysis shows indeed stark differences across island states. Whether we look at mere presence, participation in formal negotiations or engagement ‘on the sides’, we notice that some island states are much more active than others, as a result of not only different capacities but also and importantly because of the personal commitment and engagement of individual island negotiators. Overall, this seems to reflect cultural and power inequalities within the group, but does not detract from AOSIS' overall success, as seen in the long-sought fund for loss and damage adopted at COP27.

The Sixth Brainstorming Research Assembly for Young Neuroscientists (BraYn), Naples, Italy, 27-29 September 2023.

The BraYn association aims to bolster young neuroscientists' research endeavors through collaborative support, fundraising assistance, and events promoting knowledge exchange and collaboration across Europe. Central to its mission is the annual BraYn conference, tailored for PhD students, postdocs, junior PIs, neurologists, and clinicians. This gathering champions cooperation, offering talks by key figures, educational workshops, and opportunities for attendees to present their work, compete for grants, and engage in international scientific experiences. The conference, established in 2018, has grown substantially in attendance and industry support and was adapted during the pandemic with virtual editions. The last sixth edition in Naples (27-29 September 2023) attracted over 300 delegates, focusing on peer-to-peer discussions, interdisciplinary collaboration, and interaction with renowned speakers, solidifying its place as a flagship event for Europe's budding neuroscience researchers.

Developing and validating a scale for motivation in participating in time-bounded collaborative events

Time-bounded collaborative events bring together participants from different backgrounds to address a problem by creating a computational artifact over a short period of time (e.g., one or two days). Examples of these events include hackathons, game jams, codefests, ideathons, etc. Time-bounded events present minimal restrictions for participation, with hundreds of people attending an increasing number of events each year. There are different reasons why people decide to participate in time-bounded collaborative events. While several studies focused on studying the motivations to participate in these events, there is no consensus on how to measure this motivation. This paper aims to develop and validate a measure of motivation that addresses the participants’ willingness to attend a time-bounded collaborative event. The construction process of our scale used quantitative and qualitative analysis techniques. Our model of motivation is composed of a set of 20 questions that are grouped into five sub-constructs that measure different motivations: Technical, Personal Curiosity, Personal Ideation, Social Teamwork, and Business Connections. Our results show that our measure has internal reliability and convergent and discriminant validity. Our findings contribute to a broader understanding of the motivations for participating in time-bounded collaborative events and provide some implications for the research and practice of such events.

Reaping the Harvest of Joy: Practitioner Enquiry into Intercultural Group Singing

Singers from community choirs in the UK and Norway participated in research to evaluate their experiences of singing in a collaborative choral event in the UK in June 2023. They shared personal stories of their participation and interpreted the significance of their experiences through the app-based data collection method Sensemaker®. We found strong evidence of fast social bonding through a shared emotional experience, which was amplified by the aesthetic qualities of the singing, the material qualities of the venue and the ethical qualities of leadership to model and express the values and attitudes underpinning the reported positive effects. As an intercultural activity, we found that both bonding and bridging social capital were produced through the activity, highlighting the potential of group singing as a potent form of civic imagination and for developing intercultural empathy. The study also highlights the value of practitioner enquiry as a research methodology for developing an understanding of the complex ways in which participation in cultural activities can lead to positive outcomes for participants.

Crisis Innovation: Leveraging Virtual Hackathons for Rapid Ideation

The COVID-19 crisis brought about an unprecedented wave of interest into rapid ideation and innovation. Among others, the pandemic triggered a series of collaborative innovation events—so-called hackathons—to leverage the power of the crowd for crisis response. In contrast to earlier hackathons, these events are different in their speed of mobilization, global scale, and their fully virtual nature with organizers and teams being geographically dispersed. Analyzing this new empirical phenomenon, we characterize COVID-19 hackathons against other forms of innovation crowdsourcing and describe challenges and best practices in the areas of people management, session management, technology, and knowledge management. Based on our empirical findings, we develop a conceptual framework that emphasizes the importance of managing virtual crisis hackathons as the integrated sum of its different parts. Empirical evidence is presented to demonstrate how open innovation efforts such as hackathons can be leveraged for crisis management and more generally for ideation activities in increasingly remote working environments. This article contributes to crowdsourcing research by highlighting key differences of virtual hackathons from the traditional crowdsourcing approaches and hackathons investigated by prior research. Moreover, we affirm the value of mobilizing knowledge from different sources, particularly from a broad spectrum of civil society.

An Exploration of Hackathons as Time Intense and Collaborative Forms of Crowdsourcing

Crowdsourcing has attracted increasing attention as an open innovation tool that enables firms to access the ideas and solutions of external crowds of participants. Among various crowdsourcing formats, hackathons have emerged as a form of collaborative crowdsourcing that emphasizes team-based collaboration among participants to co-create solutions to firms’ challenges under intense time pressures. Despite their increasing popularity, limited focus has been placed on understanding how hackathons should be organized and managed and the challenges that these time-intense collaborative events generate for both firms and participants. Based on a qualitative, multiple case study of six on-site hackathons, we identify and discuss four key design practices that shape these collaborative crowdsourcing forms, namely 1) problem formulation; 2) participant attraction and team composition; 3) developing the evaluation system; and 4) facilitating idea development. We show that these design practices are interrelated, with decisions about one design practice having important implications for the others, and discuss key challenges that arise from their combination. Overall, our findings highlight how organizing and managing hackathons is a complex matter that requires firms to adopt a more holistic and complementary approach. Implications for innovation management research and practice are discussed.

Stepping outside national borders: International active learning educational collaboration events.

This paper discusses the benefits of international collaborations for advanced practice nursing education. It identifies new perspectives and innovative practices to enhance cultural competency. Competent, well-trained advanced practice nurses (APNs) are necessary to provide high-quality and safe patient care, improve access to care, and address health disparities that are no longer geographically bound. In 2021, an international network of advanced practice educators established an active learning program to teach students their role in global citizenship and increase awareness of health disparities. APN students from Scotland, Wales, Minnesota, Houston, and Rotterdam participated in presentations, online discussions, and in-country scholarships. Growing health disparities have created the need for efficient international collaboration to develop new concepts, approaches, and bidirectional exchange of experiences, culture, and knowledge. Integrating global health into curricula engages students' curiosity and integrates education, research, practice, and leadership while improving cultural competency. Forty-two students participated in the international presentations. The students strongly believed in the benefit of international collaboration and the need for a universal role for the advanced practice nurse. They responded positively to sharing cultural and clinical experiences. The recent global health challenge supported the development of innovative methods to deliver education and created an opportunity for advanced practice students to develop cultural competence and critical thinking. Collaborative solutions are essential to education and healthcare as we move forward in the 21st century. Robust international collaborations have enabled the development of cultural competence and critical thinking. These are crucial elements for advanced practice roles.

Granzyme K– and amphiregulin-expressing cytotoxic T cells and activated extrafollicular B cells are potential drivers of IgG4-related disease

IgG4-related disease (IgG4-RD), an example of a type I immune disease, is an immune-mediated fibrotic disorder characterized by dysregulated resolution of severe inflammation and wound healing. However, truly dominant or pathognomonic autoantibodies related to IgG4-RD are not identified. We sought to perform single-cell RNA sequencing and T-cell receptor and B-cell receptor sequencing to obtain a comprehensive, unbiased view of tissue-infiltrating T and Bcells. We performed unbiased single-cell RNA-sequencing analysis for the transcriptome and T-cell receptor sequencing and B-cell receptor sequencing on sorted CD3+ T or CD19+ Bcells from affected tissues of patients with IgG4-RD. We also conducted quantitative analyses of CD3+ T-cell and CD19+ B-cell subsets in 68 patients with IgG4-RD and 30 patients with Sjögren syndrome. Almost all clonally expanded T cells in these lesions were either Granzyme K (GZMK)-expressing CD4+ cytotoxic T cells or GZMK+CD8+ T cells. These GZMK-expressing cytotoxic Tcells also expressed amphiregulin and TGF-β but did not express immune checkpoints, and the tissue-infiltrating CD8+ Tcells were phenotypically heterogeneous. MKI67+ B cells and IgD-CD27-CD11c-CXCR5- double-negative 3 B cells were clonally expanded and infiltrated affected tissue lesions. GZMK+CD4+ cytotoxic T cells colocalized with MKI67+ B cells in the extrafollicular area from affected tissue sites. The above-mentioned cells likely participate in T-B collaborative events, suggesting possible avenues for targeted therapies. Our findings were validated using orthogonal approaches, including multicolor immunofluorescence and the use of comparator disease groups, to support the central role of cytotoxic CD4+ and CD8+ T cells expressing GZMK, amphiregulin, and TGF-β in the pathogenesis of inflammatory fibrotic disorders.

BOSC 2023, the 24th annual Bioinformatics Open Source Conference

The 24th annual Bioinformatics Open Source Conference (BOSC 2023) was part of the 2023i conference on Intelligent Systems for Molecular Biology and the European Conference on Computational Biology (ISMB/ECCB 2023). Launched in 2000 and held yearly since, BOSC is the premier meeting covering open-source bioinformatics and open science. Like ISMB 2022, the 2023 meeting was a hybrid conference, with the in-person component hosted in Lyon, France. ISMB/ECCB attracted a near-record number of attendees, with over 2100 in person and about 900 more online. Approximately 200 people participated in BOSC sessions. In addition to 43 talks and 49 posters, BOSC featured two keynotes: Sara El-Gebali, who spoke about “A New Odyssey: Pioneering the Future of Scientific Progress Through Open Collaboration”, and Joseph Yracheta, who spoke about “The Dissonance between Scientific Altruism & Capitalist Extraction: The Zero Trust and Federated Data Sovereignty Solution.” Once again, a joint session brought together BOSC and the Bio-Ontologies COSI. The conference ended with a panel on Open and Ethical Data Sharing. As in prior years, BOSC was preceded by a CollaborationFest, a collaborative work event that brought together about 40 participants interested in synergistically combining ideas, shaping project plans, developing software, and more.

Negotiating regime complexity: Following a regime complex in the making

AbstractThis article broadens the understanding and empirical study of regime complexes by shifting the focus from the negotiation outcome to the processes of negotiating new international agreements. Although they are important to regime-complex formation and delimitation, the sites where states negotiate new agreements are rather neglected. We aim to enhance the methodological toolbox available to scholars studying global governance in two ways: (1) by demonstrating how dynamic relationships between states and international organisations (IOs) unfolding within the social space of international treaty negotiations contribute to regime-complex formation; and (2) how social network analysis (SNA) can help us to detect patterns in these relationships. Combining participant observation and collaborative event ethnography (CEE) with social network analysis, we present new empirical material illustrating how we delimited a regime complex and how IOs interact throughout the negotiation process. We applied our methodology to the case of marine-biodiversity governance and use observational data collected during three intergovernmental conferences (IGCs) (2018–19) on a new treaty for the conservation and sustainable use of marine biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction (BBNJ) for our analysis. We discuss the results in relation to our approach’s strengths and weaknesses and implications for future research on regime complexity.

K11 alternative diplomacies: Penetrating the global arts markets

This article explores structure, motivations and cross-cultural mechanics of operations of alternative cultural diplomacy in China, performed by K11. The K11 Art Mall franchise, opened in Hong Kong in 2008 by Chinese billionaire Adrian Cheng, has established its visible presence in the global arts markets by supporting contemporary Chinese artists and sponsoring major international arts residencies and large-scale events and exhibitions. Deconstructing and exploring the neo-liberal multilateral nature of K11 diplomacy, the research questions how K11 operates and navigates the international communication complexities within the global arts market. It analyses how this diplomacy is different from government-led bilateral cultural diplomacy of China and why it creates less frictions and contradictions on the international level. The article reveals that the rapid integration of K11 into the international art market is a combination of different factors. Beyond the economic power of K11 to sponsor major international events in collaboration with prestigious partners, it also possesses more flexibility and tolerance to navigate the normative environments of the ‘epistemic community’ of the global arts world, which do not always work well with national authoritative regime’s pressures. However, positioning itself as an apolitical player with a global vision, K11 is dominating a niche within the national art market, where it does not compete with state authorities. Moreover, it generates a high economic and cultural capital in China by nurturing contemporary Chinese arts and raising their prestige and value on the international level.

A song in a cold place: the role of emotions in motivating youth activism and advancing justice at the COP

ABSTRACT The emotions of youth climate justice activists are often demeaned or misrepresented both by popular media and by COP organisers. The COP itself, as a cold, bureaucratic, and repressive space that tokenises frontline voices to create an optics of care, is a source of frustration and disappointment for many youth activists. Despite this misrepresentation and repression, youth activists use their emotions to strengthen their movements and actions at the COP. Drawing on collaborative event ethnography spanning a decade, this paper analyses how Global South youth climate justice activists strategically navigate and channel emotion through acts of emotional solidarity, emotional concealment, and emotional display. We assess how youth activists’ complex emotional experiences exist in generative tension within individuals and within the youth climate justice movement. Our findings suggest that their emotional strategies unlock the capacity for exercising power while cultivating relationships necessary for climate justice.

A lighthouse to future opportunities for sustainable water provided by intelligent water hackathons in the Arabsphere

Complex water-related challenges hunger, poverty, climate change, biodiversity, land-use change, desertification agriculture, industrialization, urbanization, human population, and hygiene, need wise and urgent actions to overcome them. Globally, many drivers such as the U.S.-Chinese competition, the Russo–Ukrainian war, food security, pandemics, and human overpopulation, have water-related impacts. Freshwater is a truly complex interdisciplinary topic that requires innovative intelligent-inclusive ideas to reconcile limited water resources with expanding water demands. The article explores how artificial intelligence (AI) could rethink human-water interactions, remake water practices, humanize water science, and enhance daily water life. The Global Goals could be viewed as an integrated framework of human effort to face pressing today’s issues and to formulate a more sustainable and better world. Goal 6 (SDG 6 “sustaining water”) devoted to sustaining water and related actions for all humans is the skeleton of global goals (GGs). The Arabsphere faces severe water quality, quantity, and practice challenges to ensure the smooth achievement of global goals (GGs). Compared with the whole world and its main regions, the overall water stress indicator in the Arabsphere is greater than 100% (critical). This article explores how applied intelligence could be strengthened to achieve Goal 6, focuses on the “water stress” indicator, and how to ensure a sustainable water future (SWF) in the Arabsphere. The Intelligent Water Hackathon is a collaborative open science event. The hackathon was designed to mitigate water stress (WS) in the Arabsphere. The hackathon process involves four main phases: problem identification, team building, solution proposing, and presentation. The paper concludes hackathons could be a valuable process for the water researchers’ community to generate new and creative ideas and collective knowledge. Hackathon events could mitigate water stress, strengthen community engagement, and improve water resources outcomes. In closing, artificial intelligence (AI) methodologies are efficient providers to mitigate water stress, scarcity, and related risks. A future-driven Arab water vision based on artificial intelligence (AI) and intelligent water systems (IWSs) should be prioritized.

97 Evaluating the impact of virtual collaborative teaching methods on educating and increasing interest in general surgery in medical students

Abstract Aim This study investigated the effectiveness of a multi-collaboration (OSCEazy, NSTS, INCISION UK, NANSIG, WEDNS, BIMA, BURST Urology) General Surgical teaching session, in evaluating the educational impact of large-scale collaborative virtual teaching and increasing student’s interest in pursuing a surgical career. Method The General Surgery sessions were held virtually in early 2021, with participants voluntarily completing a post-session feedback form. A 10-point Likert scale (1- Strongly Disagree, 10- Strongly Agree) was used to collect student responses based on various domains. Confidence, knowledge, interest/commitment, and worries/concerns with regards to General Surgical content was surveyed. Furthermore, perceptions of General Surgery as a doable career and availability of research opportunities. In addition, final questions included the effects of collaborative events (added value, impact of attendance). A Wilcoxon signed-rank test was conducted, and median values were reported. Results We received 72 responses from the General Surgery Part 2 session. Results showed an increase in confidence (median: 9, SD: 1.576), knowledge (median: 9, SD: 1.172), interest/commitment (median: 8, SD: 2.106) and decreased worries/concerns (median: 8, SD: 1.771). Positive results were seen for General Surgery as a doable career (median: 8, SD: 2.197) and research availability (median:8, SD: 1.986). In terms of the collaboration, results showed an increased teaching value (median: 9, SD: 1.610) and attendance (median: 9, SD: 1.985). Conclusions The results demonstrate that online collaborative courses influence the knowledge and inspiration of students pursuing surgical specialties. In addition, large-scale collaborations increase the added value of the event and increases outreach in medical students.

Vision Quest in Posthumanist Education: Focuses, Praxes and Experiences

ABSTRACT In the context of Posthuman Studies, attention towards education is gaining increasing significance to address the anthropocentric axioms embedded in contemporary worldviews. What is posthumanist education? This paper addresses this question affirming the importance of embodying posthumanist theory in practice. Attention will be dedicated to three original keywords: selves-care; flex(st)ability; commUnity. They will be investigated as possible posthumanist focuses to respond to current educational needs. This paper is not purely theoretical; it is anchored in material experiences that are being explored by posthuman communities worldwide. We will reflect, more specifically, on the Posthuman Summer Camp, a collaborative event organized by the Italian Posthuman Network (Italy, August 10–13 2023). In this essay, the realities and possibilities that emerged during the first edition of the Camp are embraced as embodied and embedded, experiential and experimental – clearly, existential – praxes, enlightening our vision quest on posthumanist education.