[OSGeo-Discuss] Evaluations (was: a home for OSGeo hardcopy materials?)

[Dave Patton]

Cameron Shorter wrote:
> With a globally distributed, tech savvy community such as ours, I think 
> that we should avoid using paper for all but the essential legal documents.
> 
> Paper can't be machine processed, eg: searched, and requires valuable 
> man hours to read and processed.
> 
> For evaluation forms, I suggest we use a web based system in future.

For FOSS4G2007, the evaluation forms for the Conference
were done on paper, and the tabulation of those was
part of the services that the meeting management company,
Sea To Sky, provides to their clients.

For FOSS4G2007, the evaluation forms for the Workshops
and Labs were done on paper. Using a web-based system
was discussed, but was rejected in part because of
concern that it wasn't practical when two people were
sharing the same computer. The paper evaluation forms
are going to be scanned to PDF documents(1 per Workshop
or Lab), so they will be able to be searched and read.
The tabulation of the numeric results will be done by
hand, by members of the Workshop Committee, and made
available in a PDF document.

I don't have any hard evidence, but I think there will
be a higher proportion of evaluations filled out when
they are on paper, right in front of the attendees, with
prompts from the Instructors to fill them in, than using
a web-based system. Some people at FOSS4G2007(although
not many) did complete the paper evaluation form and hand
it in later at the registration desk. Scanning the paper
forms to PDF allows for a distributed process of tabulation,
and could possibly be done via Amazon Mechanical Turk:
http://www.mturk.com/mturk/welcome

For future conferences, direct involvement of, and payment to,
a local group for the management and tabulation of paper
evaluation forms could provide a tangible local benefit.

-- 
Dave Patton

Degree Confluence Project:
Canadian Coordinator
Technical Coordinator
http://www.confluence.org/

FOSS4G2007:
Workshop Committee
Conference Committee
http://www.foss4g2007.org/

Personal website:
Maps, GPS, etc.
http://members.shaw.ca/davepatton/