Re: [Linux-aus] linux.conf.au Possible *Future* Programme Format

[Tim Connors <tconnors+la@astro.swin.edu.au>]

On Wed, 10 Jan 2007, Steven Hanley wrote:

> On Wed, Jan 10, 2007 at 10:45:49AM +1030, David Lloyd wrote:
> >  * If one extends the conference to a whole week, how would that:
> >    - affect pricing
> >    - affect scheduling
> >    - affect staffing requirements (where staff may be volunteers but you
> >      know what I mean)
> 
> One problemw e keep having every year now is the amount of cool content we
> have to reject, it got worse agian this yyear with such a huge number of
> talks submitted and I am sure they had tyo reject a heck of a lot of really
> cool stuff.

Mind you, it's healthy to reject stuff, and still healthy to reject good 
stuff.

Any operator of an expensive scientific instrument with contending 
scientific users has the same problem of needing to reject stuff, and it 
can be a damned discouraging thing to turn away projects you think will 
really help science.  Yet astronomers consider it healthy if their 
telescopes are oversubscribed by a factor of about 3 -- with such 
oversubscription factors, only the best contenders bother to propose a 
project (because a 5 page detailed proposal takes so much effort to 
write), and then only the best of the best are allocated time in a process 
similar to LCA's.

It's a good thing -- it ensures that the audience are gauranteed the best 
of talks, so it is a more prestigous event to turn up to be an audience 
member.  If you're a serial bad talker, you won't get a chance to bore 
your audience more than twice.

> arranged to have more main conference time from a money perspective. Prixces
> realisitcally owuld not have to change much if at all. Of course the two
> mini conf days are kind of usd bby the team to set up and tesat a bunch of
> stuff for the main confernece (part of the treating mini confs as second

Lay off the port already!  It's only midday!

-- 
Tim Connors
http://site.aao.gov.au/twc