On Jan 20, 2005, at 13:55, M.-A. Lemburg wrote:
BTW, I've always wondered why people at a conference use IRC to talk to each other... isn't the whole purpose of a conference to meet each other face to face ? ;-)
Sure. Next time I have a question during a talk, I should get up, walk over to wherever the person I want to ask is sitting, and ask them the question. Or walk out to the next room where they're attending a different talk, ask the question, then return. Right? Or do you think that maybe IRC would be a quieter, less disruptive route... Or should I just go along in the dark because I didn't understand something the speaker was talking about? I've had a couple of situations where, with one simple IM, I was able to clear up some minor confusion that made a major difference in how well I understood the rest of the talk.
Personally, I'd rather everyone be able to get the most out of the talks - after all, people paid to attend this conference, and presumably would like to use their laptops for just the kinds of things Harald mentioned. Yeah. Keyboards click. I have a hard time believing that at a *TECHNICAL* conference, that anyone is seriously put out by the sound of laptop keyboards. If it's an interactive, experiential-based session (such as a roleplay), then the speaker is welcome to tell folks that taking notes (regardless of method!) is not appropriate for the session. But there are very darn few of those at EuroPython. Anything else, I really consider laptops to be far less obtrusive than folks chatting (even quietly), tapping their feet or fingers or pens, flipping through the program or a book, etc etc (all of which I've seen and consider far more inconsiderate than someone simply using their laptop).
Personally, I think the complaints about people using their laptops are based (consciously or subconsciously) on "moral" grounds - after all, the original comment was about it being "disrespectful", and the complaint was about checking email or doing irc, not about people taking notes. (BTW - how did they know whether I was checking email or taking notes unless they were reading over my shoulder?)
Mind you - I absolutely agree with making sure mobile phones and laptops are set to "silent" mode. But, are you really proposing to forbid folks from taking notes? (remember that many folks have severe difficulty with taking notes by hand.) Just curious...
Anna
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