I agree that the discussion should focus on ways of adapting the
conference to serve the expanding community without losing the good
qualities that come from keeping it small. This is the future, so the
community is only going to get bigger.
Perhaps coordinating a different regional meetup every 3 or 4 months is
not a bad idea. This way, there are more options in terms of timing, it
can stay small, and folks at orgs with smaller budgets can justify the
lower travel costs to their managers. Of course, registration would not
be closed to participants outside the region. And yes, streaming should
be a priority [...signs up for video streaming/archiving team].
Presentations for each conference could even be grouped to loosely focus
on certain areas of the domain -- which would draw a concentration of
those interested in certain domain issues/software. One of the main
draws for me to Access this year was the focus on Open Data.
-Shaun
On 12/22/11 11:25 AM, Michael North wrote:
I have followed this discussion with great interest and have only one
comment....."watch out for the slippery slope."
There will be "unintended consequences" whenever you try to ensure a "just" registration system, be
it by controlling "randomness" or by "qualifying" the participants. Where do you stop!
In the spirit of collaboration and openness, instead of focusing on how to control the
250 registration slots, we should focus on how to make it available to more people (be it
by size increase or by video streaming, etc). True openness and fairness for
registration will mean that some people will always not be able to attend, and setting
up registration "justice" will not fix that.... approximately 150+ people (and
more in the future) will not be able to attend no matter what. And if there is no
solution to increasing participation, then so be it. It stays the same size, and
registration opens at the advertised time (everyone will know when that is) and close
when full. Everyone will know that....and make their plans accordingly.
I think of it like the Oklahoma Land Rush, or getting your plane reservations for
Christmas. Some get in, some do not, and each person is responsible only to himself for
doing it "in time."
This is from a person who is coming for the first time following two failed
attempts to attend in previous years.
My humble opinion only.
Michael North
-----Original Message-----
From: Code for Libraries [mailto:CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of Reese,
Terry
Sent: Thursday, December 22, 2011 9:46 AM
To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU
Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] Obvious answer to registration limitations
I find it hard not to laugh a little bit at this ongoing discussion because it
is so uniquely part of this community. On the one hand, you have some very
creative people that think that they see a problem and want to fix it. On the
other, people are spinning their wheels, throwing out the crazies solutions
trying to solve a problem that we as the community have created ourselves. It
makes me smile because it really does personify both the strengths and weakness
of this community. I think people like this group because there certainly
isn't a lack of ideas or people willing to spend time and energy on them. When
we put that energy towards coding and solving problems in libraries -- good
things happen (as well as some crazy things). However, there are those times
when it feels like things go off the rails and to me, this is one of them.
The conference is a nice event. It's something I know a lot of us enjoy
because it’s a time to get together with colleagues and find out what people
are working on. One of the reasons it works is because of its size. It's one
of the few conferences where I get the opportunity to meet most of the
attendees and get to have significant conversations around some very cool
projects. But it's certainly not the only place where this happens.
And with all that said, I can't help but make one suggestion to help add some
diversity to the registration process. I've not looked at the list fully to
see who is attending, but I think you'd find that some institutions are sending
large contingencies to the conference (and I can't toss stones, because Oregon
State is one of them). A simple solution would be to limit registrations per
institution, much the same way CNI does. My guess is that if registration per
institution was capped, at least during the early registration period, you'd
find that a much more diverse audience could attend.
--TR
***************************
Terry Reese, Associate Professor
Gray Family Chair for
Innovative Library Services
121 Valley Library
Corvallis, OR 97331
tel: 541.737.6384
***************************
-----Original Message-----
From: Code for Libraries [mailto:CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU] On Behalf Of Brett
Bonfield
Sent: Thursday, December 22, 2011 7:27 AM
To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU
Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] Obvious answer to registration limitations
Seems like a hybrid system might make sense.
Reserve spots for presenters and scholarship winners, and decide on both before
registration opens. I'm sure it's difficult to coordinate voting for
presenters, and I know from having volunteered on the scholarship committee
that it would be difficult to complete that process in time. But I think it
would be worth it.
I think it also makes sense to reserve spots for some number of volunteers. I
think this would help with continuity, help to preserve the idea that everyone
is a participant, reward people who put in considerable time, and also
encourage more people to volunteer for the more time-consuming jobs. As with
presenters, volunteers would have to pay for registration and their reserved
spots would be non-transferable. Code4lib could vote on which volunteer
positions guarantee the option to attend the conference.
I think the rest of the open spots could be divided between
first-come-first-served and a lottery system (50/50? 60/40?). The people who
are sitting at their computers the moment registration opens would still get
in, and the people who didn't know that was required -- the newer folks whose
participation is necessary for code4lib to stay relevant -- would have a
reasonable chance to see, in person, what code4lib is all about.
Brett
Brett Bonfield
Director
Collingswood Public Library
On Thu, Dec 22, 2011 at 9:50 AM, Edward M. Corrado<ecorr...@ecorrado.us> wrote:
I disagree about the random registration concept. As long as the time
is announced in advance (which was done this year) people should plan
accordingly. You didn't need to register the first minute this year. I
registered an hour after registration opened and while I was initially
on the waiting list, I eventually got a slot. If I ended up getting
locked out it would've been my own fault. I could have done what
others did and purposely avoided scheduling meetings around that time
and rescheduled the one that was but I didn't. Yes, I have bazillions
of other things to do and the registration time wasn't convenient for
me, but everyone else has bazillions of things to do as well. It would
not have been luck that got the people in who registered before me a
slot - it would have been a combination of their good planning and my
poor planning. Yes good people miss out when registration fills up and
maybe the library world suffers, but a random process would still have
good people miss out -- including those who would make the effort and
adjust there schedules accordingly -- which I think would lead to the
library world suffering more.
Edward
On Wed, Dec 21, 2011 at 8:00 PM, Karen Schneider<kgschnei...@gmail.com> wrote:
I was really hoping that our Associate Director for Library
Technology could attend Code4Lib. She did her best, but didn't make
it. She was then pushed hard, early on, to drop her hotel room, which
she did not do (good for her) though I'm guessing she has by now.
We're a 5-person library and it's amazing to have someone with her
expertise (IT tried to steal her before I arrived, but I took her
back), and we wouldn't be what we were without her. I felt I owed her
Code4Lib, but busy with my own distractions I hadn't been on this
list for a long time, and didn't tune in to the fact that
registration for C4L has become so nutzo that either she or her proxy
needed to be sitting on the reg process the very minute it opened,
not a few minutes later. She was probably doing one of the 8
bazillion things she does every long day that help keep us going and
differentiate us from all the other teeny-weeny uni libraries out there.
The library world will be a little less than what it could be because
she's not at Code4Lib.
My idea: registration should open for two weeks, close, and then
assign spots randomly (and if it's too hard to think how that might
be done, I have a few thousand old catalog cards you can toss in a bucket).
FYI, I know what zoia is, and I even know WHO the real Zoia is, but
invoking that super-secret-stuff is just icky. Maybe she doesn't need
your super-secret decoder rings anyway. She does want to stretch
herself beyond what we can make possible. We'll keep looking.
Karen G. Schneider
Director for Library Services
Holy Names University
http://library.hnu.edu
--
Shaun D. Ellis
Digital Library Interface Developer
Firestone Library, Princeton University
voice: 609.258.1698 | sha...@princeton.edu
