[Baypiggies] BayPIGgies leadership

[jim stockford]

    there's a story that in one mapping session
someone announced something a bit inaudibly;
Lee (Felsenstein) asked "what?"
When the person explained, Lee replied
"Oh, a Forth interest group, no wonder we
couldn't understand what you meant."
    It's just a story. Shouldn't apply except maybe
to Perl.


On Apr 7, 2006, at 7:04 PM, Dennis Reinhardt wrote:

> At 02:28 PM 4/7/2006, you wrote:
>> I do think the recent suggestion of putting announcements at the end 
>> of
>> the meeting is good: it gets the meeting going quickly; people who 
>> aren't
>> interested in announcements can leave; and people who are interested 
>> can
>> find the annnouncer immediately after the announcement.
>
> Thanks.  I have been thinking more about the suggestion and would like 
> to
> refine it.
>
> The early '80s Homebrew Computer held (wildly IMO) successful meetings 
> with
> no speaker at all.  Their meetings started with an hour or so of what 
> we
> call "announcements".  Announcements, per se, are not the problem.  
> Indeed,
> we would improve our announcement process along the Homebrew model so 
> very
> few would want to leave.
>
> Homebrew formalized the announcement process: First there was a 
> "mapping"
> session followed by a "random access" session.  In the mapping session,
> people would get up and announce the topic of what they had to say.  
> They
> did *not* expound, discuss the subject matter, or offer verbal bullet
> points.  This was the "news" equivalent of reading the headline
> only.  Questions, slow delivery, and follow-up from the floor were all
> squelched by the moderator.
>
> The mapping sessions only purpose was to let the audience know who they
> wanted to contact during the immediately following random access
> session.  In random access, people would scramble to go talk (or not) 
> with
> people who made announcements during mapping.
>
> I think this model is something to contemplate.  A mapping session is a
> mapping session...  Topic announcements are *brief* (~60 seconds tops) 
> and
> without followup.  The moderator cuts off the long-winded.
>
> In Homebrew, a substantial fraction of the audience ended up making an
> announcement (50%?).  The mapping -> random access paradigm worked to
> efficiently connect Homebrew attendees, one to another.  I think there 
> is a
> potential here to learn more about each other.
>
> Now there may well be exceptional short discussion or presentation 
> items of
> general interest (e.g. a report).  Fine.  Let's schedule them on the 
> agenda
> and with a discussion leader for the topic who is responsible for 
> coherence
> and time budget.
>
> Regards, Dennis
>
>
>
>
>
> ----------------------------------
> | Dennis    | DennisR at dair.com   |
> | Reinhardt | Powerful Anti-Spam |
> ----------------------------------
>
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