On getting rejected from OpenCon
Last week notifications for the OpenCon 2016 meeting in Washington, DC went out. On Twitter I’ve seen a lot of joy and a lot of disappointment. Some disappointment so great that people have said they won’t bother again. I know the feeling. As someone whose OpenCon application was unsuccessful in 2014 and 2015, and who is on the organizing committee for OpenCon 2016, I wanted to share my experience.
If you don’t read any further, I want to you to know this: OpenCon is more than a meeting. Since 2014 it has grown to be a community with frequent community calls, webcasts, and dozens of satellite events around the world. Your involvement and contribution to the community is important and extends past the DC meeting. I hope you get or stay involved, attend OpenCon Live, and bring OpenCon to your local community by hosting an OpenCon satellite event. Your worth is not determined by if you were invited to the DC meeting.
Last year I went through a rough patch professionally and personally. I was really frustrated with my Open and scholarly communication work. I had just moved countries and states, and was struggling with adjusting and depression. I constantly felt like I was losing ground, not finding the collaborators I needed, and desperately needing some inspiration. I remember telling a friend I felt like I had to claw a space out for myself. And then my rejection for OpenCon 2015 came. The rejection felt like a confirmation about how I was feeling: The work I was doing wasn’t important and I didn’t belong in this community.
OpenCon is ultimately just a conference and a meeting. But it’s been called “life changing” and the “best conference I ever attended” from previous attendees. It’s designed to be a different conference experience and is aimed at students and early career professionals. Attendance is by invitation and the majority of early career attendees are provided scholarships to attend. It helps shift conference attendance and representation in the Open movement where typically only established researchers and advocates can afford to have a presence. It’s difficult to not feel hurt by an unsuccessful application, take it as a personal rejection, or as a negative evaluation on your contributions to the Open movement.
Earlier this year I read a blog post from an OpenCon 2015 attendee who praised the meeting, said it made her feel like she had a place in the movement, and inspired her to take action. I’m really glad for the positive impact OpenCon has had on people, the amazing work that has come from alumni, and the great advocates I’m not sure we’d have heavily involved in the movement otherwise. But I remember reading that blog post and thinking how OpenCon had the opposite effect on me. My rejection was on the list of things that made me feel like I should just give up on the work (and that feeling still pops up frequently). Seeing the tweets and comments this year about the disappointment, how OpenCon was a dream for them, I know I’m not alone with taking a rejection hard. The organizers behind OpenCon have created a fantastic, vital, and important space for students and early career professionals. They don’t want anyone to feel negatively… but it’s impossible to prevent that when there are more applicants than there are conference spaces.
If your application to OpenCon 2016 was unsuccessful, you know that this year OpenCon received a record number of applications from over 170 countries. I cannot speak for the rest of the organizing committee, but as an individual I felt the number of applications were positively overwhelming. The increase of applications in certain regions showed just how impactful recent Open advocacy work (particularly from OpenCon alums) has been! I loved getting to read about the great projects and ideas people had. I learned more about Open advocacy in other countries. There were more strong applicants than there are conference spaces. And unfortunately many of the people I was inspired by didn’t receive an invitation to attend. OpenCon’s main meeting is fairly small — compared to other conferences and especially compared to the applicant pool. OpenCon aims to bring together people new to Open, those already involved, and established advocates.
Frankly, I still carried a bit of negativity toward OpenCon until this past month when we began reviewing applications and moving toward decisions. Deciding who receives an invitation is a complicated process and is a careful balancing act. We seek to have representation across experience levels and from different regions. This is further complicated by having to operate within funding limits — if only we had unlimited funds to bring everyone together! I know it’s difficult to understand from the outside and it feels like a very personal rejection, but as a member of this year’s organizing committee I saw the process first hand and know how difficult decisions were. I no longer feel hurt by my unsuccessful applications in 2014 and 2015, because I’ve gotten to know the community at a higher level. I’ve seen its reach past the main meeting. I’ve met inspiring OpenCon alums at other conferences, on Twitter, and through webcasts. I now know that all are welcome to the community calls and before I didn’t feel a part of the OpenCon community. I’m planning an awesome satellite event at my university in November to expand the OpenCon community. I thought about posting this blog months ago and again a week ago, but decided to share after seeing some negative experiences the past few days. I’m deeply concerned about how unsuccessful applicants will take the rejection, worried we’ll lose their valuable perspective and future important work. If you applied and were unsuccessful, please know that your work and contributions both to the OpenCon community and the Open movement overall is important. Please keep at it. Find partners in your region. Host a satellite event. When we tell you we want you to get involved and take action, we sincerely mean it.
Open advocacy often feels sysphesian. We push the boulder up the hill — advocate, organize, and feel like we’re making important progress — but then the boulder just rolls back down. And we have to start again. And again and again. It’s exhausting. It’s often thankless work. It’s easy to get disheartened. This is compounded when we put so much work into an application and hope to join a curated, “life changing” community conference and are unsuccessful. And unfortunately, the vast majority of OpenCon applicants cannot attend the DC meeting. But that doesn’t mean you can’t be involved with the OpenCon community and contribute valuable work to advance Open Access, Open Education, and Open Data. Let’s keep pushing that boulder up the hill together. Lean on this community when you need to. Even if you didn’t get invited to the DC meeting, you still belong in this community. Reach out if you need help finding a partner or want to know how to get further involved.
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