[ The Types Forum, http://lists.seas.upenn.edu/mailman/listinfo/types-list ]
On 12/14/23 6:52 AM, Gabriel Scherer wrote:
1. Ensure that an online attendance option remains available in the future for cheap. ICFP'23 had free online attendance through Youtube, will this option remain available in the future? Will it possible to follow the POPL'24 talks remotely for free and ask questions? Will speakers be allowed to talk remotely if necessary, at no cost? (This is important for our colleagues that cannot afford the plane in the first place, and for people who wish to reduce travel.)
I don't know if I'm the odd one out, but I just want to add a dissenting voice here: I think it's far from clear that "online attendance" is valuable enough to justify the cost of complex technical flows. I'm used to telling my students that the point of the conference is the hallway track, not watching talks. I'd suggest to people who can't make the conference to read papers (or prefixes thereof) instead of watching videos. Videos produced by authors on their own time could also work a lot better than conflating the physical conference with the opportunity to record videos.
In other words, suggesting that people watch more online videos, in a world where online videos are already providing so much distraction from "real work" or just going for a walk outside, may make a net negative impact on the world, at the same as our conferences are applying significant financial cost and volunteer effort to provide what may actually be a net negative. The cost-benefit analysis could work out if we really fine-tune the technical flow and don't spend (almost?) hours per conference delaying sessions to fix AV issues, but at least until we get there....
