| [eclipse.org-eclipsecon-program-committee] Blogging about our great program |
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PC members, I add my voice to Scott's thanking you for your help in putting together what I believe is the pinnacle of EclipseCon programs. With no disrespect to Tim or Doug or Rich of PCs past, I've threatened to retire from EclipseCons after this one because I don't see how we can put together a better collection of talks in the future... However, all kidding aside, there are still three tasks for you: (1) BLOG ABOUT THE BEST It's not unexpected, but it is disappointing when some of the first few planet posts about EclipseCon are "I'm not going" [1,2]... I want to make sure that we, collectively, the program committee, tell the world what a great program we've put together. I think that it is important that the good news come from all of us and that it come out in a steady drum beat of great stuff. There are 15 main stage talks and 3 keynotes, for a total of at least 18 great posts: one by each of us and a few more by Scott. I put up a schedule on our wiki page (https://www.eclipsecon.org/wiki/2009_Program_Committee_Blogging): please reserve your spot and write on that day. (2) SPREAD THE WORD This year we're going to use an RFID badge tracking system to keep track of attendance and abandonment at each session. It's a pretty cool piece of kit and the way we're using it is completely anonymous: we're just keeping track of badges entering and leaving but won't have any names or other identify attributes associated with the badges. Anyway, the reason I mention this is that, for the first time, we're going to have real hard numbers on how many people are interested in each talk and how many people find the speaker or topic boring enough to leave in the middle. And (here's the catch) we're going to use those numbers to tailor the number of slots allocated to each category next year. So... you, as a PC member, will want to make sure that lots of people interesting in your category show up to EclipseCon. Spread the word and ensure your categories' current and future success. (3) TELL US ABOUT THE SUBMISSION SYSTEM Every year we try to make the submission system work better for you and every year it probably is better, but every year it also seems to fall short. Now, while the topic is still fresh in your mind, would be an excellent time to write a short email to Scott and Gabe and Anne and I telling us what you'd like to see in a (better/perfect) system. I, personally, was happy with some aspects, but I found the searching and sorting too confusing and slow. Some ideas about how we might build a better one include: I'd like to see some kind of "overall picture grid" that shows little squares for all the talks and then tags/buttons on the side. Clicking or mousing the buttons colors the grid squares corresponding to the selected button(s). This would be a way to get a sense of the overall space of submissions and the program. Sort of "program explorer"... Another idea I had was to use spreadsheets for everything: the submission system takes submissions and then allows the PC to download spreadsheets of them. The PC annotates their spreadsheets and then re-uploads. The system uses the PC members annotation is special columns (e.g., "comment" and "status" and "tags") to add comments, status, tags, etc. to the submissions. So then PC members could use their powerful client spreadsheet program's searching, sorting, and reporting facilities as well as work offline... What are your ideas? (4) (a Douglas Adams "trilogy") ATTEND THE PC PARTY We'll have a little program committee party on Sunday night before EclipseCon: be sure to make your travel arrangements to be able to attend. I'm thinking around 5pm at the Hyatt. RSVPs will be later, but for now just keep it in mind... Thanks again... - Bjorn --
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