Fork me on GitHub
#events
<
2015-08-11
>
avery17:08:29

Would anyone here be interested in a remote Clojure conference? What time of year would you prefer it? Any special requests or differences from regularly scheduled conferences you’d like to see?

bhoggard17:08:12

I would be interested. It might be easier to have "beginner" tracks. I'm also interested in learning more about working well with editors and REPLs, structuring applications, and deployment.

a.gazzarini19:08:54

I would be interested, too. +1 for the beginner tracks

cfleming20:08:04

@avey_q: How would a remote Clojure conference work?

spiralganglion21:08:28

+1 for the remote conf

spiralganglion21:08:56

@cfleming: there was a JS remote conf not too long ago: https://jsremoteconf.com

cfleming21:08:19

@ivanreese: Thanks, that’s a cool idea.

spiralganglion21:08:35

I'd be curious to know how the experience is different from just.. watching the talk videos on youtube.

spiralganglion21:08:37

Perhaps, live chat?

cfleming21:08:42

@avey_q: I’d definitely be interested.

cfleming21:08:34

@ivanreese: Yeah, I’m not sure about that. It seems like you’d need some added value somehow. I was thinking live interaction of some kind but people could get that just in a Slack/IRC chat while the conf was on anyway.

spiralganglion21:08:01

I think the added value is.. it would foster some additional talk-like presentations that otherwise might not happen, and get people just that much more involved and active in the community.

spiralganglion21:08:08

Wild conjecture, that.

spiralganglion21:08:24

Hey... "conjecture"... that sounds like a j pun waiting to happen.

cfleming21:08:56

Now I need to think of a library I can use that name for.

spiralganglion21:08:25

I nominate: A chat bot.

spiralganglion21:08:20

Like the ELIZA "doctor"

cfleming21:08:23

Or an AI library.

cfleming21:08:58

Perhaps one of those sock puppet debugging chat bots for Clojure, like: https://sites.google.com/site/codeconsultantplugin/

roberto21:08:06

there was also a remote conf held sometime last year. Here are some of my thoughts:

roberto21:08:42

1. They had a chat system online during the talks. I didn’t like it. There were lots of sexist and anti-semitic comments on it.

roberto21:08:27

2. There was a voting mechanism for questions. So you could add a question and ppl would vote on them, The questions with the most vote were the ones that got asked at the end of a presentation.

roberto21:08:46

Now this posed a couple problems, but the main one was that by day 2, the thing was hacked.

roberto21:08:12

Which brings me back to point 1: who the hell has the time to hack instead of pay attention to a talk?

roberto21:08:35

So, I would suggest: 1. Charging to weed out some bad eggs. Or you can only ask a question if you donate money to a Non-Profit organization.

roberto21:08:04

2. Somehow have a way to enforce a CoC.

roberto21:08:13

3. Disable the chat during a presentation.

spiralganglion21:08:03

@roberto: What if the chat just happens in a private group here in the Slack?

dottedmag21:08:52

Or anywhere else in the Internet

roberto21:08:54

So, my main pet peeve with chat during a talk, is that what are you doing chatting during a talk? If we were in a real conf it would be totally rude.

roberto21:08:25

but if it needs to happen, then yes, here would be fine, but it would be great to also have it moderated and a CoC

roberto21:08:39

so that ppl don’t get too rude…..

roberto21:08:49

it is easier to be rude on chat also…. something to consider

dottedmag21:08:54

I remember lively chats during the http://X.org talks on FOSDEM which greatly enriched the experience (links to the related code/documentation, discussion of related issues etc)

spiralganglion21:08:19

I agree — a CoC is a must.

roberto21:08:53

yeah, it was kind of sad to see the chat on that virtual conference, a lot of the chatter was not even related to the presentation at times.

spiralganglion21:08:56

There is chat during real confs (everyone has a phone, many people have a laptop, and everyone is tweeting the whole time), and it's opt in.

roberto21:08:09

and attendees commenting on how some of the women presenters looked, etc...

spiralganglion21:08:18

Yeah.. that's sad.

spiralganglion21:08:28

The conf you're referring to.. was that a CLJ conf?

roberto21:08:39

no, it was one organized by hack hands

roberto21:08:42

hmmm, let me find the link

roberto21:08:15

ah it was hack summit

spiralganglion21:08:23

Yeah.. I've never seen that sort of nonsense in the CLJ community. I'd be surprised if a CLJ-focussed conf had the same problem.

spiralganglion21:08:40

fingers crossed

roberto21:08:50

well, the thing is, ppl that are not part of the CLJ community will also join….

spiralganglion21:08:21

Right, but.. that always happens anyway.

roberto21:08:24

the barrier to entry is lower, which is good, so there will be lots of attendees that are not familiar with the culture in the CLJ community

spiralganglion21:08:26

Clojure is growing like crazy.

spiralganglion21:08:42

It's a constant battle to keep the conduct standards up.

spiralganglion21:08:51

This will just be another extension of that, no?

roberto21:08:07

yeah, it doesn’t mean we should just throw our hands up and give up

spiralganglion21:08:34

We'll just make it clear (as we always do) that there's no tolerance for hostility.

roberto22:08:13

maybe, what was sad about hack summit, imo, was that there was no moderation, so no one was called out on their bs

spiralganglion22:08:00

Hopefully, if the CLJ remote conf chat has a reasonable proportion of people already steeped in the community..

spiralganglion22:08:18

It'll help make informal moderation happen.

spiralganglion22:08:32

Making formal moderation a small (but likely necessary) task.

roberto22:08:33

yeah, also, the organizer for jsremote conf would probably have some tips.

roberto22:08:07

also, it would be wise to have a small fee, and not make it totally free. Organizing a conf, even if remote, takes lots of work and effort.

spiralganglion22:08:16

I'm pretty sure that it was organized by Charles Max Wood from JavaScript Jabber. He seems super outgoing, so he'd probably be happy to take some time to offer advice.

roberto22:08:29

yeah, it was him

spiralganglion22:08:06

@avey_q: Yes; Any time of year; If there were something special that could be done to take advantage of the "remote" nature of the conf, that'd be really neat, but that's rather open-ended and likely orthogonal to putting on a solidly "good" remote conf.

spiralganglion22:08:24

One of the big benefits of a regular conf is the networking / fun social events. I wonder what could be done to capture that spirit in a remote conf.

spiralganglion22:08:10

(Trying to think of ways to make a remote conf experience greater than just... watching Conj videos and chatting with people on Clojurians)

cfleming22:08:28

@ivanreese: That’s the problem, I think.

cfleming22:08:53

What I like most about conferences is the hallway track - I generally only end up seeing about half the talks.

cfleming22:08:53

I don’t see a good way to replicate that online beyond what is already available.

nullptr23:08:59

i think we’re in the remote hallway right now...

sashton23:08:22

Just throwing it out there: for some talks, local Meetup groups could get together to watch/discuss

Alex Miller (Clojure team)23:08:23

If anyone needs anything on this stuff, let me know. Sounds like some good ideas.