[Foss4g2010] Re: Starting preparation for technology comparison presentations

[Tyler Mitchell (OSGeo)]

I'm not personally in favour of talks longer than 30 minutes, no matter 
what topic and even most of the plenaries.  It encourages people to keep 
to their points and talk straight to the matter.  That's what attendees 
expect and most presenters won't lament having to be succinct.

Greater than 30 minutes gets boring fast (or is it just me?) and the 
odds are that in a plenary session there are still lots of people who 
really don't care about the topic, but just show up since the tracks are 
shut down.  So mixing it up so more topics get presented (with shorter 
spots) helps keep more people interested and will help draw them to the 
plenary instead of drifting out because one topic dominates the session. 
  If it's a topic the deserves more presentation time, then do a part #2 
in the normal sessions to finish it off for the audience that really 
wants it.

I'm not referring specifically to the WMS shootout or live dvd 
presentation, but I think the principles could apply well there too. 
Naturally, the lightning talks are very appealing since it keeps things 
moving, interesting and comes in chewable sized portions.

Sorry if this was discussed before, but thinking of sitting through a 
couple 60 minutes presentations made me panic.  I'll retract my position 
for any sponsor who needs 60 minutes to be able to fund the event though ;-)

Tyler



On 04/27/2010 06:56 AM, Lorenzo Becchi wrote:
> If they are really cool as the wms shootouts we can remove lightening
> talks...
> With Jeff we have decided to reserve one hour for the Wms benchmarks
>
> Lorenzo
>
>> On 21 Apr 2010 01:03, "Cameron Shorter" <cameron.shorter at gmail.com
>> <mailto:cameron.shorter at gmail.com>> wrote:
>>
>> Lluis,
>> There was an email to the WMS Shootout benchmarking list today
>> suggesting that they should start putting together tests soon if they
>> are going to get presentations put together in time for foss4g.
>>
>> I'm interested to know what comparative presentations have already
>> been identified to be presented at foss4g, and which will go through
>> the competitive selection process.
>>
>> My reasoning is that as soon as a comparative presentation has been
>> selected, we are in a position to lobby people to help create the
>> presentation.
>>
>> Am I right in understanding that the Organising Committee have already
>> committed to a LiveDVD overview during the plenary session? Note, I
>> think that we should only dedicate 60 minutes to this overview instead
>> of 90 minutes. I would like to make it even shorter (maybe 45 mins),
>> although I'm not sure if that will be possible. I'd like to keep the
>> presentation very high level, and leave details to other presentations
>> (like the technology comparison presentations).
>>
>> Also of note, it will be difficult to squeeze some of the comparative
>> presentations in 30 minutes. The FOSS4G 2009 WMS shootout lasted 47
>> mins. The WMS Shootout made part of the final plenary session, and if
>> the other comparative projects are ranked highly enough by the
>> community, you may consider making them plenary sessions too. (I
>> realise this will be a difficult decision, as one plenary session
>> removes 6 streamed sessions.)
>>
>> --
>> 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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