[Foss4g2010] Re: General track Abstract selection

[Volker Mische]

On 19.04.2010 11:00, Lluís Vicens wrote:
>
> En/na Judit Mays ha escrit:
>> Hello dear conference organisers,
>>
>> catching up on the abstract selection: what has been decided for how the
>> selection process for general track shall work?
>>
>> Now that submission deadline has passed is there a vote going on
>> somewhere? Who is taking part?
>>
> Dear Judit,
>
> All submitted papers will be reviewed by the members of the scientific
> committee[1] who are in charge to ensure the quality of the conference.
> They will accept (or not) submitted papers according to their knowledge
> and expertise and they will rank the abstracts according to the
> Quality/Interest for the Conference.
>
> At the same time, we are planning to implement a public voting system.
> Volker first and Paul offered his time and an application for the
> foss4g2010 (thanks, both of you!!) so, we are deciding how to proceed to
> make this idea a reality.
>
> We will keep you informed.
> Best,
>
> Lluís
>
> [1] http://2010.foss4g.org/scientific.php

I like that there is an academic track with an scientific committee that 
reviews those according to academic standards. Though I'm not sure if I 
like it for the general track.

For me the FOSS4G is a geek-conference, I know others that see it as a 
great chance to do business. But I'm not much aware of any people 
valueing the FOSS4G as a great academic conference.

Lasts years Abstract selection wasn't perfect, there are definitely ways 
to improve it, though I think we were on the right track. I think the 
mix of people who made the final selection was a great and they made a 
great conference possible in 2009.

Those people might have been biased in certain direction, but sometimes 
that was even a good thing. Some of them wanted to have more geeky 
topics (like me), some others wanted to make sure there are also talks 
for people with business perspective, others made sure the selection 
included a good mix from all over the world (for not being to 
US/European or Asia/Pacific specific). I even tried that as many people 
as possible were able to have a talk, and that not one person presents 5 
talks.

As you can see it was far from being scientific/academic, but for me it 
worked well and I guess, and hope, for others as well.

Cheers,
   Volker