On Wed, Aug 10, 2016 at 6:35 AM, Marc-Andre marc@uberbox.org wrote:
Hey Leila,
On 2016-08-10 01:08 AM, Leila Zia wrote:
Are we considering to not continue the support for the Discussion Rooms idea as suggested https://wikimania2014.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/Discussion_Room in Wikimania London and explored in London, Mexico City, and Esino Lario? If so, can you expand why? Quite a few of the Discussion sessions in Esino Lario were very well attended, the participants took active role in these sessions, and the general sentiment that I got from these sessions was that they were helpful.
I'm not sure how you get to that conclusion - BoF sessions are a more general concept that encompasses discussions neatly; I'm not sure why you feel that does not provide support?
Perhaps there is an aspect I didn't understand. What's missing?
From the point of view of an audience of these sessions, I see few differences: There is a specific structure to Discussion Room sessions that is described in, for example here https://wikimania2016.wikimedia.org/wiki/Discussions#Outline. There is also a process regarding call for proposals/abstracts, reviewing them, and accepting them. This level of freedom for a subset of people (Discussion Room organizers) to control the outline and processes around Discussion Room sessions may be in contrast with what you said earlier regarding the conditions that you would like to define for discussions happening under BoF: " They are generally more specialized or aimed towards a more precise public, and are not selected by the programme committee nor curated beyond a simple set of criteria[1] so they are more free-form." and "[1] They need to be directly related to the movement or an allied movement.". I want to specifically emphasize "nor curated beyond a simple set of criteria".
If you see a way for allowing/having the kind of structure and process that Discussion Rooms require under BoF, then I have no more questions. :) If not, I'd appreciate if you help me understand this better.
Thanks, Leila
-- Marc
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