C4L2010planning: wishlist

Planning for Code4Lib 2010 in Asheville, NC

Critical things that must work

• Internet access (i.e. wifi) with good bandwidth
• Internet access (i.e. wifi) with good bandwidth
• Internet access (i.e. wifi) with good bandwidth
• Food must accommodate special dietary needs

Everything else, including quality of hotel rooms, is secondary.

Internet

• Host local mirror of #code4lib IRC - http://www.tummy.com/Community/Articles/pycon2007-network/
• Rent G3 line for dedicated access for speakers (?)
• Have a contingency aircard so at least speakers can go online (?)
• Hook up to UNCA's Internet connection from the hotel (?)
• bridge server (between outside and local wireless)?
• forwarding server?
• VPN needs to work
• higher ports need to work
• some wired access in room?

Technology (non-internet)

• Multi-platform computer for presenters--mbklein has Mac/Windows, Ubuntu, Ctrl-key to swich beteween them
• One person suggests a google docs acct to pull presentations together (still need them offline and downloadable)
• Encourage those doing demos to do screencast backups
• Post all info in several places. Emailed info needs to be posted to website

Social Activities

• Signup sheet for nightly dinner activities
  • pick out, say, 5 restaurants, encourage new attendees to connect
  • make reservations!
• code4lib revue?
• Big enough hospitality suite/spare room for evening/break activities
• Provide paper maps for participants, info on places to go
• Game night (esp. board games and games like Werewolf)
• Bess' brother-in-law works at a microbrewery. Possible tour?

Food & Drink

• solicit info about dietary needs
  • vegan
  • vegetarian
  • other needs specified on registration forms

• Requests
  • sweet tea
  • more beer (code4lib brew for the hospitality suite?)
  • more happy hours (possibly a HH before LT?)
  • hot breakfast
  • candy
  • hot soft pretzels & mustard
  • BBQ

Sponsorship

• Potential sponsor and contact list
• Conference scholarships
  • Consider scholarship for LIS graduate students, CS undergrads
• Andrew Nagy says: vendors want value, something tangible; can hit them up for more $

Choosing speakers

• Ask people to write why they nominated keynote speakers
• Do we need more gender diversity of keynote & 20 minute talks? (Is this important to us?)
• Do we want to limit the number of speakers from any one organization?
• Do we want topic-based categories when voting?
  • e.g. 5 high-geekiness talks
  • e.g. 5 theory talks
  • e.g. 5 UI/usability/design-centered talks
• Voting needs 2 criteria: geekiness and vote preference. (In 2008 the sum of these was the total IIRC)
• Reserve 1-2 spots in 20-minute talks for cutting edge speakers
• How do we ensure we get fresh topics?
• Do we combine pre-voting to avoid duplication?

Attendees

• Who gets to come and how do we decide?
  • Some suggestions included: require involvement if not previous attendance
  • Some suggestions included: open to previous attendees a day before the main conference
  • Some suggestions included: keep it as is
• How do we encourage international participation when we're not in the same town as an outdoor fountains international airport?
• Can it be bigger? Do we want it to be? Or do we value the smaller crowd and the more personal, professional connections it affords?
• Who is the conference for?
  • library systems
  • software engineers
  • programmers
  • librarians
  • designers
  •  ???
• "This is the only conference for coders"; "Saw no code, so I'm here to give a LT"
• Do-it-yourself crowd

Choosing 2011 venue

• Announce the process early in the conference so that people can get set up with logins
• Reminder during the last day of voting
• Evaluate internet from 2010: do we need to be at a university for internet conference support?

Integration with IRC, twitter stream, and other backstreams

• Is IRC the 'backchannel'? OR is the conference the once-yearly 'frontchannel'?
• Consider suggestions from http://pistachioconsulting.com/twitter-presentations/ regarding integration with backchannel.
  • e.g. offer speakers help monitoring the channel ('an ombudsman for the audience')
• Advice from dev8 via BenO:
  • @davetaz setup projection/feed of the twittered #dev8d tags + @andymcg set up a netvibe channel to follow the tags elsewhere @jschneider Twitter feed screen in bkgd of these photos: http://is.gd/jOwW http://is.gd/jOxd & see @jvvw review of event: http://is.gd/jOxy
• Make it easier for people to find IRC
  • "code4lib station" with signup info and help?
• Not everybody multistreams. Would multiple rooms help (reduce volume)? Or...?
• Publish backchannel, e.g. http://reallywow.com/c4l09/logslice/20090225/14:00-14:20

Openness & transparency, getting to know people

• a code4lib program/conference committee providing support and accumulated wisdom to the organizing committee
• Wordle nametags (popular at dev8. what happens if people don't have blogs/twitterstreams/friendfeed/etc?)

Video

• Sync the timecode in the video with the IRC logs
• 3rd camera for IRC?
• Highlights reel from previous year at end of 2010 conference?

Lightning Talks Do's and Don'ts

• Have an MC/cat herder lined up in advance
• Don't have one entity do two LTs back to back
• Ask those who've already spoken to "go last"
  • e.g. only present if there's time)-- "share the air"
  • Do we need a policy or clarity on expectations? (e.g. no repeats)
• Create a LT do's and dont's page in the conference webspace
  • link to existing LT advice
• 2 projectors, minimum. 3 if possible (3rd to display backchannels)
• make transitions to LT during coffeebreak or other downtime

Advice for speakers

• Font up
• Speak up
• Introduce yourself

Breakouts

• Consider setting 2-3 breakouts in advance
• Have 1-2 'unbreakout' sessions
• 11 is too many, IMO
• Trouble when different people are at different levels with a software discussed
  • how to know in advance?
  • Fedora access controls

List of Interesting things in Asheville, for future reference

see also Google Map, proposal

• The Chocolate Fetish
• Woolworth Gallery (collaborative arts and crafts sale space in an old Woolworth's, with intact, functional lunch bar and a Swedish furniture shop in the basement)