C4L2010planning: wishlist

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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)