Re: [openstack-community] Choosing track chairs (Was: Proposal: remove voting on speaking proposals for Barcelona Summit)
Claire, Could you clarify the selection and communication of the track chairs for the summit ? Given that the community voting is a suggestion to the chairs, this role is also key in finding an interesting and varied summit. (BTW, I appreciate the debate on both this and the birthday celebrations which are also regular conversation topics) Tim From: Claire Massey <claire@openstack.org> Date: Tuesday 17 May 2016 at 21:40 To: "Community@lists.openstack.org" <Community@lists.openstack.org> Subject: [openstack-community] Proposal: remove voting on speaking proposals for Barcelona Summit Hi everyone, For the past few Summits, we've received mixed feedback about having the community vote on proposed sessions as part of the call for speakers process. Historically, after the call for speakers closes, we publish all submitted sessions for community voting before the track chairs review them. The track chairs then choose how much weight to put on the voting resuls, if any, because they make the ultimate decision about which sessions are selected. More info on Track Chairs can be found at the bottom of this email. With the growing number of speaking submissions (we had 1,300 for Austin), some community members have expressed concerns about social media channels and email getting spammed during the week of voting. We also think many community members are unclear as to how much the votes weigh on the final decision. For example, some think that if someone campaigns for votes or asks their colleagues to vote, the session will likely be accepted (which may not be the case). We would like to propose removing voting from the selection process for the October 2016 Barcelona Summit, but want to get your input before making a final decision. Our thinking is that by removing voting from the process, we will: - Save valuable time during the overall Summit programming process, which should allow us to publish the final agenda and notify speakers sooner - Allow our development teams more time to focus on improving the mobile app and web schedule developed during the last Summit cycle - Reduce the spam and noise around voting, so we don't cause Twitter fatigue before we're promoting the final agenda and key themes - Level the playing field for speakers from startups, new community members, etc. who may not have an established network in the community for voting We initially started the voting process for good reasons and we do think there's value, but we're reaching a point where the costs are starting to outweigh the benefits. We'd like to get your input before we open the call for speakers in early June for the Barcelona Summit. Thanks, Claire Track Chair Info Track Chairs are subject matter experts who review submissions to their particular track, for example "storage" or "cloud applications." There are typically 3-4 chairs per track who review and collaboratively decide which presentations are ultimately accepted for inclusion on the final agenda. The Foundation strives to recruit Track Chairs from a diverse set of companies, regions, roles in the community (i.e., contributing developers, users and business leaders) and areas of expertise. Information on how to nominate yourself or someone else to serve as a track chair for the Barcelona Summit will be published when the call for speakers goes live in early June. For reference, here's information on the Track Chairs from the Austin Summit: https://etherpad.openstack.org/p/Austin_Summit_Track_Chairs and https://www.openstack.org/summit/austin-2016/categories/selection-process.
Hi Tim, There are a few different ways that people come to be Track Chairs. In a few weeks when the Call for Speakers opens for the Barcelona Summit the submission and login pages will include a link to the "Speaker Selection Process". That link will open to a page that looks similar to this page that was used for the Austin Summit: https://www.openstack.org/summit/austin-2016/categories/selection-process <https://www.openstack.org/summit/austin-2016/categories/selection-process>. The page for Barelona will include a call to action to nominate yourself or a colleague to serve as a Track Chair by completing a questionnaire form before a set deadline (most likely June 24). In the future this nomination process will be built into the web tool - but for Barcelona it will be an external form. All of the folks who served as Track Chairs for the Austin Summit were previously asked to complete a survey and provide feedback on their fellow chairs and nominate those who did a stellar job who they think should be selected to serve again. The Austin Summit had a very actively engaged group of chairs and we'd like to maintain some consistency moving forward by asking several of them to again serve for Barcelona. Outside of the people who are nominated via the questionnaire form and the pool of previous Austin Summit chairs, the Foundation staff will also proactively reach out to subject matter experts in the ecosystem who we think will make great Track Chairs for Barcelona. The Foundation staff ultimately selects the group of Track Chairs for each Summit and strives to recruit them from a diverse set of companies, regions, roles in the community and areas of expertise. It is a qualitative selection process, and one that we take very seriously. Again, for reference, here's information on the Track Chairs from the Austin Summit, including the the volunteer role description and what is expected of them: https://etherpad.openstack.org/p/Austin_Summit_Track_Chairs <https://etherpad.openstack.org/p/Austin_Summit_Track_Chairs>. Our goal is to open the Call for Speakers for Barcelona in early June in order to run the selection process and announce selected speakers and the final agenda by the end of August. Thanks, Claire
On May 18, 2016, at 7:25 AM, Tim Bell <Tim.Bell@cern.ch> wrote:
Claire,
Could you clarify the selection and communication of the track chairs for the summit ? Given that the community voting is a suggestion to the chairs, this role is also key in finding an interesting and varied summit.
(BTW, I appreciate the debate on both this and the birthday celebrations which are also regular conversation topics)
Tim
From: Claire Massey <claire@openstack.org <mailto:claire@openstack.org>> Date: Tuesday 17 May 2016 at 21:40 To: "Community@lists.openstack.org <mailto:Community@lists.openstack.org>" <Community@lists.openstack.org <mailto:Community@lists.openstack.org>> Subject: [openstack-community] Proposal: remove voting on speaking proposals for Barcelona Summit
Hi everyone,
For the past few Summits, we've received mixed feedback about having the community vote on proposed sessions as part of the call for speakers process. Historically, after the call for speakers closes, we publish all submitted sessions for community voting before the track chairs review them. The track chairs then choose how much weight to put on the voting resuls, if any, because they make the ultimate decision about which sessions are selected. More info on Track Chairs can be found at the bottom of this email.
With the growing number of speaking submissions (we had 1,300 for Austin), some community members have expressed concerns about social media channels and email getting spammed during the week of voting. We also think many community members are unclear as to how much the votes weigh on the final decision. For example, some think that if someone campaigns for votes or asks their colleagues to vote, the session will likely be accepted (which may not be the case).
We would like to propose removing voting from the selection process for the October 2016 Barcelona Summit, but want to get your input before making a final decision. Our thinking is that by removing voting from the process, we will:
- Save valuable time during the overall Summit programming process, which should allow us to publish the final agenda and notify speakers sooner - Allow our development teams more time to focus on improving the mobile app and web schedule developed during the last Summit cycle - Reduce the spam and noise around voting, so we don't cause Twitter fatigue before we're promoting the final agenda and key themes - Level the playing field for speakers from startups, new community members, etc. who may not have an established network in the community for voting
We initially started the voting process for good reasons and we do think there's value, but we're reaching a point where the costs are starting to outweigh the benefits. We'd like to get your input before we open the call for speakers in early June for the Barcelona Summit.
Thanks, Claire
Track Chair Info Track Chairs are subject matter experts who review submissions to their particular track, for example "storage" or "cloud applications." There are typically 3-4 chairs per track who review and collaboratively decide which presentations are ultimately accepted for inclusion on the final agenda. The Foundation strives to recruit Track Chairs from a diverse set of companies, regions, roles in the community (i.e., contributing developers, users and business leaders) and areas of expertise. Information on how to nominate yourself or someone else to serve as a track chair for the Barcelona Summit will be published when the call for speakers goes live in early June. For reference, here's information on the Track Chairs from the Austin Summit: https://etherpad.openstack.org/p/Austin_Summit_Track_Chairs <https://etherpad.openstack.org/p/Austin_Summit_Track_Chairs> and https://www.openstack.org/summit/austin-2016/categories/selection-process <https://www.openstack.org/summit/austin-2016/categories/selection-process>.
participants (2)
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Claire Massey
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Tim Bell