In another SWET forum I introduced the Research Cooperative, an online meeting place for researchers, editors, translators, publishers, and others. The Cooperative now has more than 800 members from more than 50 countries.

Recently I created a set of support pages for an international prehistory congress that will be held in Hanoi later this year (IPPA 2009), with researchers coming from all over Asia and the Pacific, from a great variety of linguistic contexts (including Japan). These pages are not a substitute for the official congress website; they are merely a place where session convenors, speakers, and other participants can gather (and hop between sessions) to:

(1) help each other prepare papers for the congress,
(2) contact each other during the congress, and
(3) communicate about further writing and eventual publishing after the congress.

At the same time, editors, translators, language service companies and so on that have joined the Research Cooperative can also view the public session pages, become familiar with emerging plans for publication, and offer help where appropriate. Conversely, congress participants who have a need for help with editing or translation (for example) can easily look at the various service-orientated forums of the Research Cooperative, and the profiles of the entire member base, to seek help if needed.

This close juxtaposition of conference support pages within a wider context of editors, translators and others is an original social experiment. I invite members of SWET to visit the Research Cooperative to observe what happens and to participate.

I would also be grateful for any comments and advice from members of SWET about this project, here, within the SWET forums. There might be other meetings and conferences that could be supported in a similar way by the Research Cooperative. If any members of SWET would like to develop a conference support system at the Research Cooperative (for a client, for example) then I can explain how this is done.