[TYPES] [EXT] Re: online conferences should be free

[Nicolai Kraus]

On Wed, Aug 26, 2020 at 7:02 AM Reuben Rowe <reuben.rowe at rhul.ac.uk> wrote:

> However, as Kristina has pointed out (and this is my experience as
> well), it is often difficult to fully commit to being present, and also
> to "do the homework". In particular, I am at home, I have not booked
> time off specifically for the conference, I have on-going other
> responsibilities, my colleagues contact me about this and that, etc.
>

I agree that this is true at the moment, but I don't see why it has to stay
true in the future. Why can we not book time off for an online conference?
Why do we feel free from other on-going commitments when we are at a
physical conference but not when we are at an online conference? Why can we
not "do the homework" when we expect our students to do ti? Whenever things
change, we have to adapt and change our attitudes. Maybe that's hard, but I
don't think it is as difficult as solving the issue of global warming.
There are many small and easily implementable things that could help us.
For example, some universities have "writing retreats" where one can go to
some other place (which can actually be very close) and write without being
distracted; I have never tried it, but I am very happy to believe that it
works. Similarly, a university could offer a bookable special room for
online conferences, so one would be "somewhere else," and the rule would be
that whenever one has booked the room, one should be treated as if one was
at a physical conference. If finding the time for watching talks is an
issue, one could simply let the virtual conference start two days earlier
and keep the first two days completely free so that everyone who hasn't
done it at that point can catch up with the talks. I know that everything
you said is a real issue (which I also know from my own experience), but I
don't believe that these things are unsolvable problems.


> The temptation is to assume that one can log on to the scheduled
> sessions, and get on with other stuff in the meantime. However, I think
> it is much harder to justify (perhaps both to one's employer and also to
> oneself) ignoring the non-conference commitments when there exists, at
> least ostensibly, the opportunity to fulfill them.
>

Yes, of course I know what you mean; but this "only" requires a general
attitude change, which I think is definitely possible.

Nicolai


>
> One clear advantage of having to travel to a conference and attend in
> person is that one is automatically, a priori, "available" to engage.
>
> I'm not sure what can be done to mitigate this. Perhaps it is just the
> latent cost of the virtual model, and if we want to attend a virtual
> conference we must just take responsibility to ensure that we engage.
>
> Reuben
>
> On 25/08/2020 13:47, Kristina Sojakova wrote:
> > [ The Types Forum,
> >
> https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Flists.seas.upenn.edu%2Fmailman%2Flistinfo%2Ftypes-list&data=02%7C01%7Creuben.rowe%40rhul.ac.uk%7C82c5414d38a845c4736f08d8492f927a%7C2efd699a19224e69b601108008d28a2e%7C0%7C0%7C637339815963836441&sdata=x30U4UNN1cRwRhsSo9XU42QlHvq1INlK8K%2F%2BhGb48Yo%3D&reserved=0
> > ]
> >
> > 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,
> >>
> https://eur03.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Flists.seas.upenn.edu%2Fmailman%2Flistinfo%2Ftypes-list&data=02%7C01%7Creuben.rowe%40rhul.ac.uk%7C82c5414d38a845c4736f08d8492f927a%7C2efd699a19224e69b601108008d28a2e%7C0%7C0%7C637339815963836441&sdata=x30U4UNN1cRwRhsSo9XU42QlHvq1INlK8K%2F%2BhGb48Yo%3D&reserved=0
> >> ]
> >>
> >> 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
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