LCA 2011: The main dish: how papers are selected

Sam Varghese
Thursday, 27 January 2011 08:07

Opinion and Analysis

For the average Australian national Linux conference to run its full course, one needs around 70 papers to be presented during the conference proper.

The first two days of the conference week are not counted in this number - the papers on those days are organised by the people who take on the duty of hosting the mini-conferences. Each mini-conference organiser decides on the papers for his or her little gig and one person oversees all the mini-conferences.

But Wednesday to Friday is the main meal. And the task of selecting who will present papers on these three days falls to the papers committee. This year the panel was chaired by Marco Ostini.

Discussing the mechanics of how the conference menu is developed, Ostini told iTWire yesterday that the papers team used a system called Zookeepr in which the details of all papers were stored.

"Each person sends us a description of their intended presentation in about 500 words. There are also details about the person, their experience, papers they have already presented and also details about projects in which they are involved." he explained.

The papers committee is spread around the country; Ostini said there were around a dozen people involved. From the organisers' side this time, he, along with Clinton Roy and Raymond Smith were the three who did the selection. "And, of course (chief conference organiser) Shaun (Nykvist)," he added.

They received around 180 submissions and, given that their requirements were about 70, more than half were rejected.

"The call for presentations was probably a little more compressed this time," Ostini said. "We issued the call a little later than I would have liked.

"There were reasons; bookings had to be cancelled both for the convention centre and accommodation as a large international organisation had already taken these places. That took up some of our time.

"But thereafter we went as per schedule. Everything was followed to the letter and Mary Gardiner and Michael Davies helped us no end with the entire process."