First impressions

[George W. Leach]

In article <15898 at vail.ICO.ISC.COM> rcd at ico.ISC.COM (Dick Dunn) writes:
>In article <1815 at ucsd.EDU>, brian at ucsd.EDU (Brian Kantor) writes:

>> I remarked earlier this year that perhaps the Usenix conferences were
>> being held too often; the evidence at the time was the list of papers to
>> be presented at the Baltimore conference...

>There's a good case for that.  There are other reasons that people want two
>conferences a year, of course.

>> Twice-yearly Usenix conferences are traditional; I don't seriously
>> imagine that will be changed soon...

>I hope not.  For those of us in the technical hinterlands, it's a good way
>to find out pieces of what's going on--something which needs to be done
>more than once a year!

     What I don't get is that USENIX has been holding twice a year
conferences for quite some time now.  The attendance continues to
increase and the popularity of UNIX is as well.  There should be
a larger base from which to draw upon for submissions.  Over the
past several years the number of workshops has increased quite a
bit as well.  Is that activity draining off too many potential
submissions for the conferences?  Maybe, maybe not.

>>...Or perhaps there should be a series of half-day tutorials presented
>> throughout the week.

>I've heard people complaining that there were too many good tutorials on
>too few days.  Perhaps there would be some way to expand the tutorial part
>of the conference and shrink the tech sessions correspondingly?
[stuff deleted about tradeoffs and people issues]

     Remember there are three categories of people to deal with:

	(1) technical session-only attendees 
	(2) technical session and tutorial attendees
	(3) tutorial-only attendees

     The tutorials seem to be a phenomenal success at every conference.  I
know that many people do have a difficult time choosing between tutorials
scheduled on the same day.  Perhaps some of the more popular tutorials
could be presented more than once at a conference?  If there is a problem
with the number of available rooms, then perhaps certain less well attended
tutorials could be dropped in favor of repeating others?


     Back in 1986 at the Denver Conference the tutorials and technical
sessions were run concurrently.  This worked out well for some people
who were not interested in the UNIX on the BIG IRON or the UNIX and ADA
Technical Sessions.  However, the way in which technical sessions are
put together lately I doubt this would be workable.  I can not see missing
an entire days worth of presentations.  In fact, I hated the dual track
format of the Dallas Conference in 1988!!!  I was running back and forth
between sessions.  I've experienced the same problem at OOPSLA.  Yet, I
also know there has been an unusual number of people who go to USENIX
JUST FOR THE TUTORIALS!!!  I even knew someone who flew from New Jersey
out to San Diego just for two tutorials and then left before the conference
started!!!!


     If during the course of a days technical session there are some
presentations that are not of interest to an individual there are plenty
of activities to fill that time, eg. meeting colleagues, attending vendor
exhibitions, demos, suites, etc.....


George W. Leach					AT&T Paradyne 
(uunet|att)!pdn!reggie				Mail stop LG-133
Phone: 1-813-530-2376				P.O. Box 2826
FAX: 1-813-530-8224				Largo, FL  USA  34649-2826