Just an opinion Angela.
While it is a good idea to try to redirect people asking questions to irc meetings, one would also realise that not everyone is available for these irc meetings.
Most of the discussions about wikimania are done essentially privately (semi privacy), on a specific irc channel, at specific times, on specific wiki, with specific mailing list.
The result of it is that it is essentially organised by a small group of people, who (it seems to me) regret a bit that there are no more people to help.
I think that in communication, it is important to maintain a link with mainstream channels of discussion, and welcome off-site chat on wikimania, so that people staying in the main stream channel are made aware of wikimania and the work around it. If they read something which raise their attention, they are more likely to follow you in the semi private areas. While if each time they try to raise the discussion in the main stream channel of communication, one tell them to keep these question for the semi-private area.... chance is that they NEVER go to the semi-private areas.
This is true for wikimania.
This is true for any work on grants which is conveniently secured on a closed wiki.
This could be true to a certain extent for local association work, if you keep it entirely off wiki.
And so on.
Just my opinion.
Multiplication of discussion place is cleaner, but less productive sometimes. Imho.
PS: never being available at irc times for wikimania discussions, I do not participate to its organisation, but for reminding people from time to time it exists.
Angela a écrit:
On Tue, 22 Mar 2005 18:38:48 -0700, Mark Williamson node.ue@gmail.com wrote:
Are there arrangements where a presentation can be given without being present, ie in the form of a brochure or other handout, or submitting a presentation for somebody else to give (I think the former options are more realistic)?
Yes. We're going to have posters up. Usually the person presenting the poster would be available to talk about it at a specific time, but I don't see why we couldn't also allow presenterless posters to be up as well. Perhaps they could be discussed on IRC rather than live?
There will be a package of stuff given to attendees, including the schedule, maps, and details on the sponsors. This could also include presentations etc from people not able to be present, as long as the printing costs aren't too prohibitive. A paid-for print on demand solution would be an alternative if we got too many of these.
Angela.