Chris Lamb wrote...
> Here is the salient section from the linked page by Eric Holscher:
Quite frankly, I find this very upsetting.
> Let's start with speakers. Many first-time speakers that I know have
> an intense anxiety around having the audience ask questions. They
> think, "I am going to go up and give a talk, and then someone in the
> audience will contradict or embarrass me for lack of knowledge
> afterward." Audience questions after talks are one of the biggest
> sources of stress for speakers.
No doubt this is an issue. BUT: There are other, better ways to deal
with it than avoidance: By learning how to handle the situation. Being
able to preset your ideas, not necessarily in such a formal event as a
DebConf, is a key competence - we'll I'd say in your entire life.
So if the first time you give a presentation is a huge hall with several
hundred atendees: Tough call. I strongly advise to go into some
training: Give the presentation to a few friends first, then perhaps at
the local Linux Users Group or something similar. You should do this
anyway to check whether your timing is okay.
About embarrassing behaviour from the audience: First, this barely ever
happens, and unless your talk was about a highly controversial topic you
may trust you will not experience anything bad. Enough people in the
audience have experience with presenting, they will at least be polite
enough to show respect you gave a presentation at all.
Giving a presentation is not an exam. And actually it can be a lot of
fun - although I learned this many years after school where it always
was a nightmare indeed.
Having said that: Q&A is a hard moment indeed: You're done with your
presentation, somewhat exhausted, and now people ask questions, jumping
all across your topic and beyond. Being able to follow reqires some
energy. On the other hand, I found Q&A always a refreshing experience
since people share other views on an issue, giving completely new ideas
about it.
And this is why ...
> Now for the audience. (...)
... I cannot subscribe this at all.
The other part I miss here: What else to do then? Certainly many *want*
to discuss the topic of the presentation. Is there any other space where
this might happen instead?
So perhaps one suggestion for DebConf: Make Q&A optional:
> Such an idea could potentially be accomodated in a similar fashion to
> the "Record talk? [Y]/n" question for a talk proposal; an "Allow Q&A?
> [Y]/n", also defaulting to "yes".
+1
Christoph
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