[OSGeo-Discuss] FOSS4G North America - Blind voting [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

Thu Jan 17 14:16:41 PST 2013

David,
I'm comfortable with the program committee's decision as you describe 
it. I do retain a mild preference for presenter names to be mentioned 
during the community voting process, but am also interested to hear what 
insights you gain from trialling this blind community review process.

I do agree with all comments and reasoning so far that direct results of 
community voting shouldn't be published, but rather should be used as a 
guide to the LOC for selecting a balanced program.

On 18/01/2013 9:04 AM, Fawcett, David (MPCA) wrote:
> Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] FOSS4G North America - Blind voting 
> [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]
>
> The Program Committee had a healthy discussion about the pros and cons 
> of structuring the community review process so that presentations are 
> evaluated solely on the title and abstract description.  We decided as 
> a group that the potential positives outweighed the potential negatives.
>
> The community review process is an important part of the selection of 
> presenters, but it is not the only input.  The Program Committee will 
> use that data along with their own review of the abstracts, knowledge 
> of the speakers, the number of presentation slots, expected makeup of 
> the registrants, and other factors to put together the best program 
> that we can for FOSS4G NA 2013.
>
> It would actually be interesting if we could test to see if this 
> review methodology had any effect on who submitted abstracts.  That 
> may best be accomplished by surveying the people who submit them.
>
> We haven't discussed it as a committee, but I personally don't think 
> that it is productive to publish the results of the community review 
> and will push to not do that.  At the same time, if someone has 
> concerns about how decisions are made, they should talk to us.  The 
> Program Committee is made up of some great people who represent 
> various parts of the FOSS4G community.
>
> We are working hard, and our only agenda is to make this the best 
> FOSS4G event ever.  If anyone feels that they have a perspective that 
> is missing from the committee, we would be happy to have them join the 
> committee.
>
> David.
>
> *From:*discuss-bounces at lists.osgeo.org 
> [mailto:discuss-bounces at lists.osgeo.org] *On Behalf Of *Bruce Bannerman
> *Sent:* Thursday, January 17, 2013 3:17 PM
> *To:* Cameron Shorter; discuss at lists.osgeo.org
> *Subject:* Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] FOSS4G North America - Blind voting 
> [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]
>
> Cameron,
>
> Agreed.
>
> As has been discussed in similar threads, and as we found for Sydney, 
> it helps the LOC determine relative popularity of presentations for 
> room allocation.
>
> However, perhaps the actual final results  do not need to be published.
>
> Presenters are either accepted or they're not, after deliberation by 
> the LOC.
>
> There is no need to establish a popularity contest.
>
> Bruce
>
>
> On 18/01/13 6:24 AM, "Cameron Shorter" <cameron.shorter at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On 17/01/13 03:58, David William Bitner wrote:
> > Additionally following advice from other events as well as many
> > members of our community, we are making the community review process
> > for presentation submission author anonymous as a concern with how we
> > have done this in the past has been the fear that many folks have of
> > feeling publicly shamed with critique and voting of their proposals.
> > These are only two small steps that we are taking to addressing an
> > environment in the overall open source world that by the numbers is
> > very unwelcome to women and other groups (while there have not been
> > any overt issues that I know of as part of any FOSS4G, if you look at
> > the percentage of female conference goers or developers in our
> > community, we do have a long ways to go).
>
> David,
> If I understand you correctly, you are suggesting blind voting on
> abstracts without knowing who will be presenting it?
> I've heard that blind auditions has been successfully applied to
> recruitment for orchestras, (which makes sense), however I don't think
> it is applicable for Open Source communities.
>
> You see, in selecting Open Source presentations, I think it is very
> important to know who will be presenting, almost as important as the
> presentation content itself. This is because the presenters who will
> have the most insightful content, and who will attract the most audience
> are usually those who have built up a large, very public reputation, (as
> leaders of open source communities, usually with a long history of
> insightful emails, blogs, and IRC trails).
>
> I appreciate the importance of being welcoming to all communities. In
> fact, I think that successful Open Source communities are naturally
> welcoming as they have managed to attract developers and community.
> However, I don't think that blind voting is right for us.
>
> --
> Cameron Shorter
> Geospatial Solutions Manager
> Tel: +61 (0)2 8570 5050
> Mob: +61 (0)419 142 254
>
> Think Globally, Fix Locally
> Geospatial Solutions enhanced with Open Standards and Open Source
> http://www.lisasoft.com
>
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-- 
Cameron Shorter
Geospatial Solutions Manager
Tel: +61 (0)2 8570 5050
Mob: +61 (0)419 142 254

Think Globally, Fix Locally
Geospatial Solutions enhanced with Open Standards and Open Source
http://www.lisasoft.com

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