[TYPES] online conferences should be free

[Kristina Sojakova]

Dear all,

Since Nicolai's post brought up pre-recorded talks:I found it extremely 
difficult to allocate enough time *prior* to the actual conference to 
watch almost any of the talks I was interested in - and there were about 
10 I really wanted to see. Attending live talks (whether in person or 
online) during the conference days when the participation is the sole 
focus is very different from having to watch the talks beforehand; the 
latter essentially amounts to having a bunch of homework assigned.

In the weeks prior to LICS I was relocating between continents and did 
not have time to watch any talks except one. This meant I was playing 
catch-up the entire time and was not able to get anything meaningful out 
of the conference itself. Hence I would most likely choose not to 
participate in this format again, regardless of how much it cost (or 
didn't). It is entirely possible however that I am in the minority and 
most participants were much better prepared.

Best,

Kristina



On 8/24/2020 6:18 PM, Nicolai Kraus wrote:
> [ The Types Forum, http://lists.seas.upenn.edu/mailman/listinfo/types-list ]
>
> On Mon, Aug 24, 2020 at 2:25 PM Henning Basold <h.basold at liacs.leidenuniv.nl>
> wrote:
>
>> All I objected to is that this investment has to come
>> in form of monetary contributions and that this was presented as
>> unavoidable reality. Instead, an investment can come, as you rightly
>> say, in the form of time or community ties.
>>
> If one watches all pre-recorded talks (assuming something like at LICS -
> pre-recorded talks instead of live talks), one is more likely to
> participate actively. But this just shifts the problem, so I'm not sure if
> it helps in any way. At the same time, one can maybe from anonymous
> questionnaires or even simple view counts predict how well-prepared
> participants are and how seriously they will take the conference. I don't
> know whether that information could be used to improve the conference.
> Nicolai