Another issue is SHARE claiming copyright on materials. Some employers have issues with that, and I know there are speakers who find that particularly offensive - myself included. I choose to share what I know with peers without charge at SHARE; that does NOT give SHARE the ownership or copyright interest of those materials, and selling that knowledge by charging for the proceedings CD is even more offensive. Yes, it costs money to produce the CD, but that's the cost of doing business if you're doing conferences. It's one of a number of major reasons why I no longer attend SHARE meetings unless invited.
Another observation: no other major conference I attend permits (let alone requires) paper handouts - they get charged for the cleanup and disposal after the conference. It's time SHARE moved on, just like the cash bar at SCIDS. It's time. I like the USB pen drive idea a lot. Buying a bunch of 2G pen drives in volume makes them about $1-2 each (just got a promo chatchkes catalog, and that's what they list at for quantities > 1000), and gives SHARE a nice advertising opportunity. After all, the speakers all have power outlets for *their* laptops, and a little USB writer gadget for each room would be a reusable item that would be good for multiple conferences. That, plus a pad and pen is a nice compromise solution, and would be useful after the conference as well. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
