[TIP] PyCon 2011 TiP Open Space

[C. Titus Brown]

Note, I don't want this to blow up into a conversation on this list, so I'll
exercise admin powers if it goes on too long.  Please contact me or Terry
off-list if you have something to add.

On Wed, Jan 19, 2011 at 03:39:10PM -0500, Mark Sienkiewicz wrote:
> Terry Peppers wrote:
>
>> I think it
>> would be dumb to assume that we'll have as crazy turnout as we had in
>> 2010, but then again word gets around and really who doesn't like
>> seeing Titus mock every presenter?
>
> I don't.  I found that it interfered with the presentations (sometimes to the point that I couldn't hear the presenter speaking) but added no real value.  Maybe this is the norm that the community wants, but in my culture it is rude to ridicule people who have been invited to give a talk.

Who was invited?!  Everyone volunteered themselves.

(The A/V was horrible, which didn't help.)

> It could be that I am the only one who noticed or cared, but since the sentence quoted above sounds approving, I thought I should mention it.  Maybe others have the same view as I do but think they are the only one.

With no exceptions that I can remember, the people commenting on the talks were
known to (and friendly with) the people giving the talks. I'm sorry if that
wasn't apparent to you, but that was the atmosphere from my perspective.  It
did build off of the first TiP BoF which was much, much smaller, so perhaps
that was part of it.  And the level of interaction did vary significantly by
speaker.

If a speaker felt personally attacked by me or anyone else, that is a problem
that I would like to hear about and fix if possible.

Barring that, I personally don't think there was much that was inappropriate,
although I'm happy to both tone it down myself and help keep things under
control a bit more this year.  But I don't think the rowdy, friendly atmosphere
was problematic, and I certainly didn't get that vibe from any of the speakers.

If you want a serious, professional presentation of testing tools to a
non-interactive audience, that's what the conference and lightning talks are
for -- or, another BoF.  BoFs in general range from meet & greets to community
gatherings to ... whatever.  Witness the "teach me" presentations from Steve
Holden.  And the Snakebite and Testing Goat presentations at the TiP BoF.  So
it is very much roll-your-own.

So, I think the TiP BoF was fine, and I personally don't want things to change
much.

best,
--titus
-- 
C. Titus Brown, ctb at msu.edu