+1 for Terry's idea of limiting the number of participants each institution can send. I don't know what this number would be, but I think it would help increase diversity, since it might get more people working in smaller organizations into the conference.
On Dec 22, 2011, at 7:46 AM, Reese, Terry wrote: > 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
