Scheduling a Virtual CSCW

The CSCW2020 draft program is now available!

Planning a conference schedule is always a balancing act, and going virtual increases the challenge. We needed to have presentation slots for almost 220 papers, but we also wanted to keep the days relatively short. The schedule in our usual in-person conference can stretch to 12+ hours. But Zoom meetings are tiring and a virtual conference will be inevitably be competing with our other home and work obligations. This year we are limiting the formal part of our program to about 5½ hours per day.

Another balancing act centered around time zones. We wanted to preserve the energy and experience of synchronous sessions, but when should they be? We (in conjunction with the chairs of our virtually co-located conference UIST) explored many different options and investigated how other conferences have handled the issue. We also looked carefully at our historic attendance and community composition. In short, our analyses showed that there’s no perfect solution.

In the end, we decided to have the conference technical program as a single 5½ hour block each day, beginning at 7am Minneapolis time. This will be early morning in North America, mid-afternoon in Europe, and late evening/night in Asia. Each workshop will set its own schedule — check the CSCW website and individual workshop homepages for details.

We recognize that not everyone will be available during conference hours, and we’re working to support asynchronous participation. Each paper will have an accompanying video presentation that will be available during and after the conference. Plenary sessions and panels will be recorded in Zoom and made available through the conference website. Text chats will help continue the conversation across time zones. Of course, the conference platform itself will be open 24 hours, and we expect that we could find some attendees hanging out at any time of day. We’re also encouraging organizations or groups to host their own social events outside of the schedule conference hours — let us know what you’re planning and we’ll help you publicize it!

As always, let us know if you have any questions!

Matthew Bietz and Andrea Wiggins
CSCW 2020 Co-Chairs