Basic info ---------- Software name: Open Conferences System (OCS) URL: http://pkp.sfu.ca/?q=ocs License: GPLv2 Last sign of upstream activity: 2012-03-16 v2.3.5 release Programming language: PHP Supported database backends: MySQL, PostgreSQL Supported authentication backends: (not checked, internal only IIRC)
DebConf requirements: --------------------- Ability to manage attendee data: It includes a large array of fields, but AFAICT it's basically targetted at academic, contact information Talk submission workflow: This ConfMS really shines on this, as it's built for peer-reviewed academic conferences. The workflow can be a bit daunting, as it is sometimes just too rich. Talk rating workflow: Several workflows available, including strict peer-review (where some attendees can take the role of reviewing peers), director-based, committee-based. Usually, each abstract is sent to two or three people who decide whether a full paper should be requested or not. Quite different from our needs IMO Talk feedback workflow: Don't know if there is one. Reporting ability: Don't know Internationalization capability: I18N-able; translations provided for ~20 languages. However, the quality of the translations is sometimes below par (i.e. the Spanish translation is quite lacking IMO) Ability to extend in a maintainable way: Does not seem *too* hard... but then again, it's PHP, so I think we'd all feel quite dirty. Maintainability and PHP don't mix well together. Any other DebConf features already supported: Payments accomodation IIRC Have you ever successfully installed or hacked it? Was it hard? I have installed it recently, and hacked it _very_ little (i.e. removing functionality rather than adding to it). It's not hard, although it is not as trivial as I'd like (and then again, when is it?) Overall summary --------------- Most important strengths: Great for academic conferences, very good talk workflow. The PKP group that authors it authors other important pieces of free software for academic purposes (such as the Open Journal System, Open Harvest System... do you see a pattern here?) Most important weaknesses: Not as user-friendly as I'd like, many users have complained at getting to the right screens. Would you recommend we use it, and why? No. It's a great piece of software, but not precisely suited for our mindset. _______________________________________________ Debconf-discuss mailing list Debconf-discuss@lists.debconf.org http://lists.debconf.org/mailman/listinfo/debconf-discuss
