[Inpycon] Development Sprints

[Abhaya Agarwal]

On Wed, Oct 15, 2014 at 4:25 PM, sankarshan <foss.mailinglists at gmail.com>
wrote:

> On Wed, Oct 15, 2014 at 4:08 PM, Abhaya Agarwal
> <abhaya.agarwal at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > +1 but we need to be wary of the criteria we employ. Taking an extreme
> > example, disallowing students would also reduce the number of first
> timers
> > and beginners significantly but it is not a good criteria to use (not to
> > mention impossible to enforce).
>
> I would be wary and disappointed if PSSI were to attempt and create a
> "criteria for inclusion". I have stated (elsewhere) that PSSI would
> need to decide on the nature of the conference. Such a decision would
> drive the content and other associated involvement.
>
> Students, first-time participants and everyone else should feel
> equally welcome at the conference. The content of the conference does
> not necessarily have to cater to everyone.
>

Absolutely agree. Bad choice of words on my part. I was referring to the
implicit criteria like increased ticket price, holding the conference on
weekdays etc and arguing against them. The direction of the conference
should be controlled via the content only.

> So I think we should be raising the bar for the presenters. Which will in
> > turn lead to self selection of audience as well (with a delay of one
> year).
>
> And then the question is - what is the path to raising the bar, who
> will drive it


Two ideas I have: 1) Invited talks (other than keynotes) 2) Tracks with
specific focus (ex: Python and computer science)


> and how does it get measured to have an impact.
>

A good yardstick is crucial. Even the current discussion is guided the
vague impressions we have - our own and of those we spoke to.

While we can strive to make sure that all talks are well delivered, making
all talks interesting to majority is a lost cause. As a corollary,
aggregated feedback on individual talks is not likely to be informative.

Personally, if I find 2-3 good talks over 2 days (judged based on my
personal interest) combined with couple of other interesting conversations
offline, I consider that time well spent. I am not sure how to codify this
and collect similar data from a big enough sample of participants.

Regards,
Abhaya
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