The annual FGWM Workshop - why to participate

The Special Interest Group on Knowledge Management (Fachgruppe Wissensmanagement) - in short FGWM - of the German Society of Computer Science (GI) organizes an annual workshop "Knowledge and Experience Management" within the LWA workshop series (see LWA2010). Below we have compiled the main reasons why attendance to that workshop is attractive and why the workshop is unique among the many existing conferences and workshops on topics related to knowledge management:

• The workshop is not a mini-conference but a real workshop because
  • there is ample discussion time for each of the presented papers,
  • it gives the opportunity to present work in progress, possibly in its early stages only,
  • there is the possibility for break-out sessions on topics to be discussed more deeply.
• Therefore the workshop provides the opportunity for young researchers (even excellent master students) to
  • present and discuss preliminary work,
  • get feedback on their work from a larger audience with people having quite different viewpoints,
  • get accustomed to presenting and defending their work at scientific events.
• The workshop is a forum for testing the viability of new ideas (by junior as well as senior researchers) before more effort and resources are put into them.
• Since the workshop attracts students as well as senior members of the community it plays a vital role in
  • fostering the next generation of researchers (like a doctoral symposium but across institutions),
  • helping to maintain a high quality of PhD work,
  • recruiting research staff (master students looking for PhD positions, PhD students looking for postdoc positions).
• The workshop is enriched by including a few top-notch papers already presented at international venues. Since nobody can attend all relevant conferences any more this is a good opportunity to catch up on missed papers.
• The workshop is the forum for connecting with the German knowledge management community.
• Last but not least, the workshop has a very low participation fee and is thus much more affordable than pre-conference workshops which can usually only be attended when also registering to the main conference (with the full conference fee).

A statement from a young researcher why she finds the FGWM workshop attractive

The FGWM workshop offers a unique opportunity for the promotion of young researchers. With its low participation fee and the informal nature it provides a platform for young PhD students and advanced MSc students to present their projects and theses to a larger audience. It is thus an excellent opportunity to gain first experiences in scientific practice and exchange. The possibility to take part in scientific discourse already at an early stage is very valuable to young researchers. In the field of knowledge management, this is a unique feature of the FGWM workshop. Besides getting useful feedback on their work from senior researchers outside their own research group, young researchers profit from an exchange of experiences with fellow PhD students from other universities.

A statement from a senior researcher why he finds the FGWM workshop attractive

The FGWM workshop provides senior researchers not only with a platform for presenting their own research interests and discuss presented work, but also offers the opportunity to share best practices on PhD supervision among different universities and research institutions. Senior researchers can pass along experience on project proposal writing, project management, and evaluation. At this venue senior researchers are easily approachable and can help with issues PhD students might not want to discuss with their supervisors. Further, students can easily investiage career opportunities in academia.