National New Media Congress, Congress Management System

We designed and developed congress management system with Alternative Informatics Association for New Media Congress which was held at Kocaeli University, Kadir Has University and Mersin University respectively.

We had a complicated planning process which includes database planning, information architecture, user scenarios and screen drafts. Every year, with previous years’ experience at hand, we continued to improve with every new version of the system. Implemented scenarios within Drupal-based congress management system which we think applicable to many congress’ is as follows:

Congress management system user roles:

• Congress Participant
• Declaration Owner
• Referee
• Secretariat

Congress management system workflow:

• Declaration owner uploads abstracts. A notification is sent both to declaration owner and secretariat that statement abstract is uploaded.
• After the deadline for submitting papers, secretariat or the organizing committee evaluates statements. Automatic e-mail notification is sent to the owners of papers that are rejected from formal or thematic point of view.
• 3 referees are appointed from the system for the declarations that passed the first stage. Following the appointment of referees, an evaluation form for each referee is created automatically.
• Notification and evaluation forms are sent to the corresponding referees. Referees cannot see any information about the declaration owner, and are only entitled to see the report itself. Referees do scoring based on various criteria and fill in the evaluation section of the form for the declaration.
• Scores on each form is processed by the system in accordance with an algorithm to reveal if the decleration is passed for the corresponding referee.
• The declarations that pass 2 out of 3 referee evaluations are considered approved. The declaration owner is informed with a detailed notification email whether his/her declaration passed evaluation and  which referee made what kind of assesments about his/her declaration.

Finally, the software for the New Media Congress which will be held the 3rd time this year, has been created thanks to the flexible structure of the Drupal and the user experience accumulated for 2 years. This year's 3rd version of the Congress Management System has reached to a point that will greatly satisfy both the congress referees and organizers alike.