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Re: [Debconf-discuss] Talk != BOF



On Sat, Jun 10, 2006 at 01:47:06AM +0200, Holger Levsen wrote:

> On Friday 09 June 2006 23:42, Lars Wirzenius wrote:
> > That requirement is, of course, entirely up to the organizers. The
> > Debconf organizers have declared that all talks must be accompanied by
> > papers.

> > Of course, saying "give your talk as a BOF instead" is *exactly* the
> > kind of behavior that leads to BOFs that are not a meeting of interested
> > peers, but talks in disguise. "Demoting" talks into BOFs is just wrong.
> > Some topics are best served with a talk, others with a BOF, and moving
> > between them isn't a particularly good idea. (Some topics are served
> > well with either, or both, of course.)

> We discussed this in the "how was debconf6, what was good, what needs 
> improvement" add-hoc-session on the grass in Oaxtepec. And also after dc6 on 
> irc on #debconf-team.

> We came up with following types: 

> 1. talk (more or less like the talks this year)
> 2. presentations (no paper in advance required, no sponsorship given)
> 3. bof (more or less like the bofs this year)
> 4. ad-hoc bofs (not in schedule)

FWIW, I had decided that next year I would not be giving any talks at
DebConf because I regard the paper submission process as a farce.  (I also
found that material preparation for the talks substantially interfered with
my ability to enjoy the conference itself, so I'm not sure I would give a
presentation next year either, but that's somewhat beside the point.)  In
both of the talks I co-presented this year, I consider the papers a waste
*of* paper containing no original information, being entirely secondary to
the talks themselves.  I find, looking at the proceedings for the first time
as I write this mail, that other papers are definitely more worthwhile, but
either there's a double-standard for paper quality based on the identity of
the speaker, or the standards are so low as to make the paper requirement
itself, and the coupling of paper-writing with sponsorship money, wholly
insulting.

-- 
Steve Langasek                   Give me a lever long enough and a Free OS
Debian Developer                   to set it on, and I can move the world.
vorlon@debian.org                                   http://www.debian.org/

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