Brad Roberts wrote:
On Tue, 12 May 2009, Walter Bright wrote:
Jason House wrote:
I've also wondered a bit about the impression people have of Walter
ignoring the things most important to them. Obviously, everyone can't
talk to Walter directly. I wonder if it would be possible to have
official delegates on specific aspects of D... People hand picked by
Walter as expert proxies. For example, changes to std.algorithm (and
all of Phobos?) should go through Andrei. I have not tried to come
up with a list of categories. Having an exhaustive set of D-related
concerns ans officisl proxies would help focus discussion/efforts. It
also gives a way for a the most important concerns to be raised to
Walter directly through back channels such as coffee shop discussions
, phone calls, e-mail etc.
I've been wondering if it's time for another D conference.
I'm pretty sure I could offer the space again (I'd need to reserve the
rooms far in advance). Offering my time to schedule and gather speakers
and people is what caused the last attempt to fizzle. I'd be happy to
setup the same signup page (and even enhance it if there's desires for it
to do more) again. Really, getting speakers committed and organized is
the largest part of the work other than the actual event itself.
If there's sufficient interest, and a range of dates chosen, I'll be glad
to go see what I can arrange with our conferencing guys.
The stars are aligning themselves very nicely for a second D conference.
However, I would like to suggest a few changes this time around that are
aimed at improving the quality of the conference.
* All submissions will be reviewed by a committee. They must be
presented at least as abstract + slides for review. The committee will
reject weak submissions even though there might be "space" left. No more
"I think I can slap together something" this time around.
* The conference should not be free. This may seem odd, but I am
convinced that a non-free conference will end up being better than a
free one. There will be a cost that's reasonable but non-null. Speakers
will get appropriate discounts and transportation reimbursements, which
encourages competitiveness and also allows us to bring an outside
authority for e.g. a keynote talk.
* We should put together one or more panels. I personally don't care
much for panels/roundtables/etc., but somehow most people love them. For
the state of D in particular, I believe the panel format will be very
appropriate.
In short, I'd like to hold a real, good-quality conference.
Andrei
