Dear Allan, Simon, et al. Thanks so much for bringing your thoughts on this to the discussion of the MCN 2010 program. Although new to the position of MCN program chair, I am familiar with the tension between wanting to have as many great speakers and presentations as possible in conferences, but then feeling frustrated by parallel sessions that leave you feeling like you've somehow missed out. It's not an easy challenge, but we're proposing a couple of ways to try to achieve a good balance in this year's program.
First, just last night, I posted to the conference planning wiki a parallel structure for the program which was approved in the MCN board meeting today: http://mcn2010.pbworks.com 1. I/O: The Museum Inside-Out/Outside-In - This part of the conference would offer panels, case studies, roundtables and sessions in the manner we're used to. Here we'll limit the number of parallel sessions to respond to precisely your concern. http://mcn2010.pbworks.com/Conference-Sessions 2. A "slow un-conference" track which we're calling, "Seizing the Tiger by the Longtail." The aim is to support sessions on highly specialized or focused topics as well as less formal and more quickly planned and executed gatherings that will happen in parallel with the I/O sessions. A bit more info here: http://mcn2010.pbworks.com/Slow+Un-conference Secondly, for the benefit of the entire community, including those who miss a session or even the whole conference, we're looking into a number of ways we can capture the contributions and best practices of presenters: through publishing papers, abstracts and posters; through wikis; and through web and podcasts. Some ideas are being discussed here: http://mcn2010.pbworks.com/Other-ideas-and-innovations Your input as we try these new approaches will be invaluable. Thanks for joining the conversation and helping to bring others' views to the table as well! Nancy -- Nancy Proctor, PhD Head of New Media Initiatives Smithsonian American Art Museum MRC 970 PO Box 37012 Washington DC 20013-7012 USA t: +1-202-633-8439 c: +1-301-642-6257 f: +1-202-633-8455 http://www.americanart.si.edu http://eyelevel.si.edu/
