Re: Penguin Conmatt_arnoldApril 21 2008, 22:45:15 UTC
Olivia,
thanks, that's really informative. The weird thing about that bad panelist in the Space Monkeys panel is that she isn't listed in our schedule, no matter which source I go to. So I have no idea who she is.
One of our needs is for more panel moderators. It seems that discussion could have used one. "Beginner Baptism On The Command Line" was another that needed one, but it never occurred to us that a solo talk would need a moderator. I was there, and I have to disagree with you on this one. Audience members should not interrupt a speaker during a solo talk until the Q&A section. Discussion got in the way, and ruined the talk for me. I see where you're coming from, because clearly an audience-participation event would be a format that you would enjoy. We should do that in the future for this topic, and state explicitly in the blurb that it is "audience participation". But this was not supposed to be a discussion, and could not achieve its stated purposes if it were.
I'd like him to do it again and provide a "shusher". Then we beginners can learn at a pace that the speaker sets for us without distractions. There will not be a peanut gallery of non-beginners impressing each other, getting ahead of the presentation, making obscure tangential comments that make no sense to the un-initiated, and arguing over things that are irrelevant except to the truly CLI-passionate. A discussion is something they could do after it's over and the beginners-- who have no reason to care about any of that-- have left.
On Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced: We've tried for years, and gave up on it before each con because no one could determine in advance whether a talk would be Beginner, Intermediate or Advanced without listening to it.
On wanting to be more than one place at once: With this many events, we have an event going on in each room in order to fit them all in. With that many events happening at once (usually about nine or so), it's inevitable that most people will want to attend more than one. Last year when I was head of programming, I put the events on a spreadsheet that is color-coded to check that panels on the same area of interest would overlap as seldom as possible. But on the whole it's impossible to avoid due to sheer abundance. For years we have embraced and celebrated this surplus of riches. It's better than the alternative.
thanks, that's really informative. The weird thing about that bad panelist in the Space Monkeys panel is that she isn't listed in our schedule, no matter which source I go to. So I have no idea who she is.
One of our needs is for more panel moderators. It seems that discussion could have used one. "Beginner Baptism On The Command Line" was another that needed one, but it never occurred to us that a solo talk would need a moderator. I was there, and I have to disagree with you on this one. Audience members should not interrupt a speaker during a solo talk until the Q&A section. Discussion got in the way, and ruined the talk for me. I see where you're coming from, because clearly an audience-participation event would be a format that you would enjoy. We should do that in the future for this topic, and state explicitly in the blurb that it is "audience participation". But this was not supposed to be a discussion, and could not achieve its stated purposes if it were.
I'd like him to do it again and provide a "shusher". Then we beginners can learn at a pace that the speaker sets for us without distractions. There will not be a peanut gallery of non-beginners impressing each other, getting ahead of the presentation, making obscure tangential comments that make no sense to the un-initiated, and arguing over things that are irrelevant except to the truly CLI-passionate. A discussion is something they could do after it's over and the beginners-- who have no reason to care about any of that-- have left.
On Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced: We've tried for years, and gave up on it before each con because no one could determine in advance whether a talk would be Beginner, Intermediate or Advanced without listening to it.
On wanting to be more than one place at once: With this many events, we have an event going on in each room in order to fit them all in. With that many events happening at once (usually about nine or so), it's inevitable that most people will want to attend more than one. Last year when I was head of programming, I put the events on a spreadsheet that is color-coded to check that panels on the same area of interest would overlap as seldom as possible. But on the whole it's impossible to avoid due to sheer abundance. For years we have embraced and celebrated this surplus of riches. It's better than the alternative.
Thanks for the great comments, Olivia!
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