On Mon, Nov 16, 2015 at 3:17 PM, Stephen Gallagher <sgallagh(a)redhat.com> wrote:
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I just wanted to reopen this topic from ages past.
Since Flock began, talks have been voted on anonymously, with only the
conference organizers knowing who has proposed this talk. The
intention of course was to ensure that we don't end up only with talks
from long-time contributors getting voted in. Unfortunately, this has
occasionally resulted in situations where someone who does not have
sufficient expertise talking about things (and those who do have had
their talk excluded because they didn't write as interesting a synopsis).
The latter case is intended and actually showing the process working.
Why would you vote for someone that has a boring sounding talk and
cannot take the time and effort to write a decent synopsis?
Similarly, the conference is created around what the attendees find
interesting. Even if the synopsis is very accurate and detailed, if
it isn't interesting to the majority then it isn't going to get votes.
And while this has happened, it has been very very limited. We simply
do not get enough talk submissions to cut as many as people would
think.
As for "sufficient expertise", yes we had that issue. We've learned
from it and take expertise into account when creating the schedule.
Remember, the votes are a heavy part of the creation but they are not
the final say at all. I do not believe the last Flock had this issue.
If you know of cases where someone without sufficient expertise
presented a talk, please email the flock staff privately.
So this year, I'd like to suggest that we consider including the
speaker's identity in the voting. If we're still concerned about it
becoming a "good-old-boys' club", then perhaps we could provide a
specific track or other reserved space specifically for relative
newcomers (scheduled carefully so that these are not ignored).
I'm opposed to setting aside space for newcomers. I'm skeptical about
allowing speaker identity in the votes, but not strictly opposed.
Frankly, I'd like to see a major reduction in _talks_ overall.
Perhaps one day of them, with the remainder of Flock being focused on
_doing_ things. If that happens, then competition for talk slots is
going to be higher.
josh