[Foss4g2010] Re: Starting preparation for technology comparison presentations

Tue Apr 27 16:50:23 EDT 2010

+1 to shorter talks.

I'd even be supportive of reducing general presentation slots from 30 
mins down to 20 minutes. (15 mins presentation + 5 mins questions and 
handover).

Definitely keep lightening talks - they were very well received at 
FOSS4G 2009.

On thinking about it further, for the comparison projects (with 
exception of maybe the WMS shootout), I don't think they will have grown 
to have enough depth in one year to justify more than one standard 
presentation slot. This may change by 2011.

Helena Mitasova wrote:
> I already expressed my view on this issue many times and yes, Tyler we 
> already had this discussion and I very much agree with Tyler. I go to 
> many conferences and I must say that the shorter presentations work 
> better - on-line papers are more suitable for for delivering complex, 
> detailed information (for many reasons, especially if you are looking 
> at a lot of numbers or equations).
>
> Just as an example: recently I was at a conference with 30-40 min 
> presentations by highly regarded speakers in the field followed by 
> 5-10 min lightning talks highlighting some new exciting developments. 
> The general agreement after the conference was to reduce the long 
> plenaries and include more short talks, I hope we will follow similar 
> trend with this conference and give more people opportunity to speak,
>
> Helena
>
>
> Helena Mitasova
> Associate Professor
> Department of Marine, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
> North Carolina State University
> 1125 Jordan Hall
> NCSU Box 8208
> Raleigh, NC 27695-8208
> http://skagit.meas.ncsu.edu/~helena/
>
> email: hmitaso at unity.ncsu.edu
> ph: 919-513-1327 (no voicemail)
> fax 919 515-7802
>
>
>
>
> On Apr 27, 2010, at 2:46 PM, Tyler Mitchell (OSGeo) wrote:
>
>> 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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-- 
Cameron Shorter
Geospatial Director
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