Complaint about Uniforum plenary sessions

[Henry Spencer]

I wasn't at the Uniforum plenary sessions, but I can well believe that
much of the material was thinly-disguised plugs for the speakers'
products.  What else did you expect at /vendor/show, er excuse me
/usr/group?  The whole Dallas Uniforum program reeked of utter and
total domination by marketing people, and you know what *that* means.

I don't think it is physically impossible to combine a business
orientation with significant content, which is what you were seeking.
I speculate that it could be done, if the program organizers had
loud voices, strong opinions, and a firm determination to do things
that way.  In other words, deliberate intent to give the attendees
their money's worth.  So far, Uniforum seems weak on this.

One useful criterion would be the rule Usenix was pushing a few years
ago:  "real content" means the sort of information that your closest
competitor would love to have.  There is a certain amount of this at
Usenix, but very little at Uniforum as yet.
-- 
				Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
				{allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henry