Feedback Regarding Beginner Track Talks
Hey folks, We had some suggestions in our feedback last year to do away with the beginner track talks and workshops as they seem to lower the quality bar for the conference. We would like to know what do you folks think about this? Since this is a community event, your feedback is important and would shape the path we take. Link of the feedback form: https://goo.gl/lfK7np Regards, Team PyCon India
On Wed, Mar 23, 2016 at 5:24 PM, rajat arora <rajatarora216@gmail.com> wrote:
We had some suggestions in our feedback last year to do away with the beginner track talks and workshops as they seem to lower the quality bar for the conference.
I would think that this line of reasoning has a flaw. The quality of a conference in terms of content is shaped by the rigor, discipline and consistency applied by the editors (and the selection committee). Talk proposals with robust content that introduce the (well defined) target audience to a concept is as acceptable as well designed content intended for niche/advanced users.
We would like to know what do you folks think about this? Since this is a community event, your feedback is important and would shape the path we take.
-- sankarshan mukhopadhyay <https://twitter.com/#!/sankarshan>
On Wed, Mar 23, 2016 at 7:07 PM, sankarshan <foss.mailinglists@gmail.com> wrote:
On Wed, Mar 23, 2016 at 5:24 PM, rajat arora <rajatarora216@gmail.com> wrote:
We had some suggestions in our feedback last year to do away with the beginner track talks and workshops as they seem to lower the quality bar for the conference.
I would think that this line of reasoning has a flaw. The quality of a conference in terms of content is shaped by the rigor, discipline and consistency applied by the editors (and the selection committee). Talk proposals with robust content that introduce the (well defined) target audience to a concept is as acceptable as well designed content intended for niche/advanced users.
We would like to know what do you folks think about this? Since this is a community event, your feedback is important and would shape the path we take.
-- sankarshan mukhopadhyay <https://twitter.com/#!/sankarshan> _______________________________________________ Inpycon mailing list Inpycon@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/inpycon
+1 to that. Cutting down entirely on a track because it usually has low quality content reason can be applied to other existing tracks as well. Action should rather be on quality review of content, authors and their prior experience in the field.
On Wed, Mar 23 2016, sankarshan wrote:
On Wed, Mar 23, 2016 at 5:24 PM, rajat arora <rajatarora216@gmail.com> wrote:
We had some suggestions in our feedback last year to do away with the beginner track talks and workshops as they seem to lower the quality bar for the conference.
I would think that this line of reasoning has a flaw. The quality of a conference in terms of content is shaped by the rigor, discipline and consistency applied by the editors (and the selection committee). Talk proposals with robust content that introduce the (well defined) target audience to a concept is as acceptable as well designed content intended for niche/advanced users.
We would like to know what do you folks think about this? Since this is a community event, your feedback is important and would shape the path we take.
-- Cordially, Noufal http://nibrahim.net.in
On 23 March 2016 at 19:07, sankarshan <foss.mailinglists@gmail.com> wrote:
On Wed, Mar 23, 2016 at 5:24 PM, rajat arora <rajatarora216@gmail.com> wrote:
We had some suggestions in our feedback last year to do away with the beginner track talks and workshops as they seem to lower the quality bar for the conference.
I would think that this line of reasoning has a flaw. The quality of a conference in terms of content is shaped by the rigor, discipline and consistency applied by the editors (and the selection committee). Talk proposals with robust content that introduce the (well defined) target audience to a concept is as acceptable as well designed content intended for niche/advanced users.
I agree with some points that various people have made: * Improving the quality of the talks is imperative * A focus on better quality does not mean that beginner-level talks should be rejected out of hand. However, I really would like to weed out talks along the lines of: "Hey, I just used this wonderful Python package, and would like to talk about it". IMHO, something that could be picked up in a week by a reasonably-skilled developer should not qualify for a PyCon talk. * Likewise, we should expect more out of our audience. We should not be spoon-feeding them with material that they can, and should, learn out of a technical blog. IMHO, even beginner-level talks at PyCon should go beyond "Here is how Python works", or "Here is how to set up a first website with Django". The speaker should be bringing something to the table that is not already available on the Internet, and that's not an easy task. * Think that the way to bring about such improvements is through a more active engagement of the organising committee with prospective speakers. We need to push people to organise their talks better. Besides the quality of the content, they should also focus on how to present it to their targeted audience. Regards, Gora
On Wed, Mar 23 2016, rajat arora wrote:
Hey folks,
We had some suggestions in our feedback last year to do away with the beginner track talks and workshops as they seem to lower the quality bar for the conference.
We would like to know what do you folks think about this? Since this is a community event, your feedback is important and would shape the path we take.
This came up in a thread a long time ago https://mail.python.org/pipermail/inpycon/2014-October/009183.html The thrust of my argument was that we try to make PyCon a smaller but higher quality event. This means (among other things) - Don't have talks by inexperienced or first time speakers. - Don't have "intro to X" kinds of talks on popular technologies. but rather focus on more quality material. Reducing the number of tracks, talks or even days so that it's tighter and more intense gets a +1 from me. Talks by experienced people for beginners is probably okay but the opposite where first time speakers are using the conference mostly like a forum to practice is probably not. At the very least, I think it's a worthwhile experiment to focus on quality rather than quantity. People on the list disagreed with me when I brought this up last time. Maybe this time, the argument will find a more receptive ear. :) [...] -- Cordially, Noufal http://nibrahim.net.in
People on the list disagreed with me when I brought this up last time. Maybe this time, the argument will find a more receptive ear. :)
I actually see a consensus here till now. folks have responded against removing beginner talks but for having more quality. @noufal what you suggest in detail is exactly what others are suggesting too. Increase quality by having more quality checks and higher selection standards like - Only let people with experience an advance level of understanding give talks/workshops even for beginner level - Make sure first time speakers have to give a talk locally and provide a video of the talk We choose based on the quality of the talk. - Avoid intro to X kind of talks. Honestly you folks are right CFP is one of the biggest things we need to focus on for quality. The PyCon India team would need your feedback and support to make this successful. Please keep the suggestions coming. Regards Akkshay on behalf of Team PyCon India On Thu, Mar 24, 2016 at 12:41 AM, Noufal Ibrahim KV <noufal@nibrahim.net.in> wrote:
On Wed, Mar 23 2016, rajat arora wrote:
Hey folks,
We had some suggestions in our feedback last year to do away with the beginner track talks and workshops as they seem to lower the quality bar for the conference.
We would like to know what do you folks think about this? Since this is a community event, your feedback is important and would shape the path we take.
This came up in a thread a long time ago https://mail.python.org/pipermail/inpycon/2014-October/009183.html
The thrust of my argument was that we try to make PyCon a smaller but higher quality event. This means (among other things) - Don't have talks by inexperienced or first time speakers. - Don't have "intro to X" kinds of talks on popular technologies.
but rather focus on more quality material. Reducing the number of tracks, talks or even days so that it's tighter and more intense gets a +1 from me.
Talks by experienced people for beginners is probably okay but the opposite where first time speakers are using the conference mostly like a forum to practice is probably not. At the very least, I think it's a worthwhile experiment to focus on quality rather than quantity.
People on the list disagreed with me when I brought this up last time. Maybe this time, the argument will find a more receptive ear. :)
[...]
-- Cordially, Noufal http://nibrahim.net.in _______________________________________________ Inpycon mailing list Inpycon@python.org https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/inpycon
participants (6)
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Gora Mohanty -
Mahati C -
Noufal Ibrahim KV -
qua non -
rajat arora -
sankarshan