apple turnover
The 14th ICC is going well. There have been, however, a few hiccups. In one session yesterday, one speaker did not show. This meant my talk got moved up and there was an extra 20 mins for general discussion. The discussion was really good and no one felt as if any time were wasted. By contrast, a session I was in this morning was missing two speakers, as it turned out. The session chair appeared remarkably inept, unsure what to do. He did not want to start the next talk early (understandable at a meeting with multiple, parallel sessions), but he did not simply say “we’ll take a ten minute break and re-convene at 10”. Then, in order to fill the time, he asked the next speaker to give a longer introduction to his talk, essentially fobbing the job off on someone else. When that talk was finished and it turned out the last speaker was also a no-show, he rather unenthusiastically declared we had an early coffee break. I was not impressed, especially in direct contrast to the way a similar situation was handled the day before.
Another topic I wanted to address is the recent habit some people have developed of taking pictures of the slides during the presentation. This varies from one individual taking a picture of one or two slides, to several people photographing every slide for their records. I dislike this practice and find it incredibly disruptive both to the speaker and the other listeners. On top of that, there is a certain amount of intellectual property that goes into a presentation and taking a photo seems akin to stealing another’s work. Frequently, the photos aren’t good enough to pawn off as your own, but the direct duplication in any form somehow crosses a line. An exception could be made if the speaker has given prior permission. I have also attended meetings where all presentations are later posted online for posterity but we were consulted first and given the opportunity to remove or change any part of the talk before it was posted.
This first time I experienced this photo-taking phenomenon was with a bunch of undergrads, who would bustle in making an extraordinary racket, sit in front and take photos, then bustle out again in a gaggle. I thought it was just something that people who didn’t know any better and were lazy and didn’t want to take notes did. But here, I’m seeing professional scientists doing exactly the same thing, so I don’t know what’s going on. I suppose if I’m speaking in a session where this is occurring, I will politely ask at the beginning of my talk not to take photos. In my case, almost all the data I work with is in public domain, so they’re taking photos of all my processing results and image enhancements. If they’re interested in the data, they can go get it themselves.
What do you think? Does the same thing happen at meetings in other fields?
Another topic I wanted to address is the recent habit some people have developed of taking pictures of the slides during the presentation. This varies from one individual taking a picture of one or two slides, to several people photographing every slide for their records. I dislike this practice and find it incredibly disruptive both to the speaker and the other listeners. On top of that, there is a certain amount of intellectual property that goes into a presentation and taking a photo seems akin to stealing another’s work. Frequently, the photos aren’t good enough to pawn off as your own, but the direct duplication in any form somehow crosses a line. An exception could be made if the speaker has given prior permission. I have also attended meetings where all presentations are later posted online for posterity but we were consulted first and given the opportunity to remove or change any part of the talk before it was posted.
This first time I experienced this photo-taking phenomenon was with a bunch of undergrads, who would bustle in making an extraordinary racket, sit in front and take photos, then bustle out again in a gaggle. I thought it was just something that people who didn’t know any better and were lazy and didn’t want to take notes did. But here, I’m seeing professional scientists doing exactly the same thing, so I don’t know what’s going on. I suppose if I’m speaking in a session where this is occurring, I will politely ask at the beginning of my talk not to take photos. In my case, almost all the data I work with is in public domain, so they’re taking photos of all my processing results and image enhancements. If they’re interested in the data, they can go get it themselves.
What do you think? Does the same thing happen at meetings in other fields?