[Linux-aus] Proposal: LCA lightning talks be selected in papers selection process

[Andrew Donnellan]

On Sun, 27 Jan 2019 at 20:43, Jonathan Woithe via linux-aus <
linux-aus at lists.linux.org.au> wrote:

> Hi Paul
>
> On Sun, Jan 27, 2019 at 05:44:16PM +1100, Paul Wayper via linux-aus wrote:
> > I'd like to propose that the lightning talks be considered in the same
> > process as submitting talks for LCA.
>
> This is an interesting suggestion and deserves to be discussed.  Thanks for
> bringing it up.
>
> Speaking personally, I would not be keen on this for a number of reasons.
> Perhaps most significate is that the short notice is part of what makes the
> lightning talks what they are.  True, it does mean that they are not as
> polished as standard conference talks.  However, often lightning talks are
> shaped by the conference itself: talks which were heard, hallway
> discussions, issues which turn up in the weeks before the conference, and
> so
> on.  If lightning talk submission and selection occurred before the
> conference then we'd miss this.
>
> > I would rather not see people simply edit down a pre-canned 50 minute
> talk
> > into a five minute blur of slides and gabbling.
>
> While this certainly can and does happen, the majority of lightning talks
> don't come across to be like this, at least not to me.  Granted, they are
> often delivered at a rapid pace.
>
> > And thanks, once again, to all the organisers of LCA, the LA committee
> for
> > providing support for LCA, and all the many people who put time, effort
> > and sometimes blood, tears and sweat into making the conference go well.
> > It was a great time and a great credit to Christchurch's Linux community.
>
> +1
>

Agree with all of the above.

While lightning talks would be more polished if people had more time, I
think requiring talk submission more than a couple of days ahead of time
somewhat defeats one of the main points of lightning talks, and I am happy
to sacrifice a bit of polish for that.

That said - like everything, it's a question of tradeoffs, and I'm not
saying the current process is perfect. Perhaps there could be some kind of
a rolling acceptance system? People who arrive at the conf with their talk
proposal already thought out can submit earlier in the week and a certain
number of slots are allocated each day, so they get more time to work on
their talk... (But perhaps that just adds a lot of complexity to what is
fundamentally supposed to be a light and informal affair?)


-- 
Andrew Donnellan
http://andrew.donnellan.id.au         andrew at donnellan.id.au
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