[ANN] RubyConf 2008 call for talk proposals

[Richard Kilmer]

Ruby Central is pleased to announce that we are accepting
talk proposals for the 2008 RubyConf to be held in Orlando
Florida November 6-8 (Thursday - Saturday).

This proposal process will stay open until August 21. Please
feel free to submit your talk proposals at:

http://www.rubyconf.org/

Soon after we close the talk proposal process, evaluate the talks,
and set the agenda we will be opening general registration for the
conference.

We are very excited about this year's venue and look forward
to seeing your talk proposals. We are planning for the same
size event as last year (500+ attendees).

Best regards,

The Ruby Central Team

 

[James Britt]

Ruby Central is pleased to announce that we are accepting
talk proposals for the 2008 RubyConf to be held in Orlando
Florida November 6-8 (Thursday - Saturday).

So the cycling of east coast, west coast, and middle-state location is
no longer?

Too bad if true.

--
James Britt

www.happycamperstudios.com - Wicked Cool Coding
www.jamesbritt.com - Playing with Better Toys
www.ruby-doc.org - Ruby Help & Documentation
www.rubystuff.com - The Ruby Store for Ruby Stuff

 

[M. Edward (Ed) Borasky]

So the cycling of east coast, west coast, and middle-state location is
no longer?

Too bad if true.

Yes ... I was hoping for Seattle again. I probably won't be going in any
case, since I'm going to be giving a paper at the Computer Measurement
Group conference in December in Las Vegas, and riding *two* airplanes to
*two* resorts in a space of a month doesn't appeal to me.

But I'm curious ... why Orlando? Is there a big Ruby brigade there? I
hear the rodents there are *huge*.
--
M. Edward (Ed) Borasky
ruby-perspectives.blogspot.com

"A mathematician is a machine for turning coffee into theorems." --
Alfréd Rényi via Paul Erdős

 

[Richard Kilmer]

Yes ... I was hoping for Seattle again. I probably won't be going in =20=

any
case, since I'm going to be giving a paper at the Computer Measurement
Group conference in December in Las Vegas, and riding *two* =20
airplanes to
*two* resorts in a space of a month doesn't appeal to me.

But I'm curious ... why Orlando? Is there a big Ruby brigade there? I
hear the rodents there are *huge*.

We are at a size such that its hard to find hotels that can fit us and =20=

we are
too small for a convention center type thing (and we like the hotel =20
thing for
hanging out, etc). We checked with well over 40 hotels all across the =20=

US
and believe it or not, this was the best one for us within the =20
constraints of
dates we had.

That, and this Omni freaking rocks! It will be awesome for hanging =20
out which
I think is one of the best things about conferences.

Best,

Rich

 

[Richard Kilmer]

So the cycling of east coast, west coast, and middle-state location
is no longer?

We are going to go where we can. We still plan to mix it up and head
back and
forth but this year we were very limited because size and dates.

Best,

Rich

 

[David A. Black]

Hi --

So the cycling of east coast, west coast, and middle-state location is no
longer?

We've softened the algorithm a bit, largely because as the event has
grown in size, it's gotten a lot harder to find venues that fit all
of our major requirements: a meeting room that can hold 500 people,
proximity to a major airport, reasonable catering rates, and
reasonable hotel room rates. Most hotels that have meetings rooms that
big also cost a lot for the other stuff. We want to keep the event
affordable, so we're kind of threading a needle when it comes to
venues and even entire cities. This year's venue looks like a really
good fit.


David

 

[James Britt]

We are going to go where we can. We still plan to mix it up and head
back and
forth but this year we were very limited because size and dates.

Very cool, thanks for the update.


We're at that awkward age where nothing fits.


--
James Britt

www.happycamperstudios.com - Wicked Cool Coding
www.jamesbritt.com - Playing with Better Toys
www.ruby-doc.org - Ruby Help & Documentation
www.rubystuff.com - The Ruby Store for Ruby Stuff

 

[James Britt]

We've softened the algorithm a bit, largely because as the event has
grown in size, it's gotten a lot harder to find venues that fit all
of our major requirements: a meeting room that can hold 500 people,
proximity to a major airport, reasonable catering rates, and
reasonable hotel room rates. Most hotels that have meetings rooms that
big also cost a lot for the other stuff. We want to keep the event
affordable, so we're kind of threading a needle when it comes to
venues and even entire cities. This year's venue looks like a really
good fit.

Thanks for the info.


Can I make a plea regarding the selection of talks?


Please do not accept talks that have already been given at other Ruby or
Rails conferences, especially if there are videos for those talks.

Given the competition to get a talk in, and what I expect will be a
wealth for really good talk proposals, more people are better served if
new topics/talks are granted stage time.


Thanks, and thanks for the time effort each year in making RubyConf real.


--
James Britt

www.happycamperstudios.com - Wicked Cool Coding
www.jamesbritt.com - Playing with Better Toys
www.ruby-doc.org - Ruby Help & Documentation
www.rubystuff.com - The Ruby Store for Ruby Stuff

 

[Gregory Brown]

Can I make a plea regarding the selection of talks?


Please do not accept talks that have already been given at other Ruby or
Rails conferences, especially if there are videos for those talks.

Given the competition to get a talk in, and what I expect will be a wealth
for really good talk proposals, more people are better served if new
topics/talks are granted stage time.

I strongly support this idea. I'd go a step father and encourage
speakers to stop recycling talks. Please tell the world about your
projects, and even tell many different groups about the same project,
but create a new talk each time. If you can't do this, it means your
topic is either not deep enough, or that you'd be better off making a
screencast and posting it on the web somewhere.

I have to make one exception though. Giles Bowkett. Let him give his
talk on Archeopteryx twice a day, if you wish

-greg

 

[M. Edward (Ed) Borasky]

I strongly support this idea. I'd go a step father and encourage
speakers to stop recycling talks. Please tell the world about your
projects, and even tell many different groups about the same project,
but create a new talk each time. If you can't do this, it means your
topic is either not deep enough, or that you'd be better off making a
screencast and posting it on the web somewhere.

I second or third or whatever this idea. In other
conferences/forums/publications, "self-plagiarism" is frowned upon. I
was a referee for another conference a while back, and I bounced a paper
by an extremely well-known person in the field because it wasn't
substantially different from last year's paper.

It's easy for me to say that, since I'm not going to be able to make
RubyConf this year.

I have to make one exception though. Giles Bowkett. Let him give his
talk on Archeopteryx twice a day, if you wish

Is this on video somewhere? I haven't seen it.

--
M. Edward (Ed) Borasky
ruby-perspectives.blogspot.com

"A mathematician is a machine for turning coffee into theorems." --
Alfréd Rényi via Paul Erdős

 

[Gregory Brown]

Is this on video somewhere? I haven't seen it.

http://goruco2008.confreaks.com/02_bowkett.html

-greg