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Why aren't conference proposals blind anyway? Seems to have worked for orchestras.
by kogir 11y ago
Why aren't conference proposals blind anyway? Seems to have worked for orchestras.
- Domenic_S 11y agoBecause individual speakers draw crowds; individual orchestra members do not. Could you see Linus Torvalds' speaker application getting denied because it was a blind proposal from "some hothead"? Edit: missed the meaning of "blind".
- vezzy-fnord 11y agoI actually could, if only for the fact that Linus Torvalds strikes quite a nerve in many people. Not that I myself consider him anywhere close to the nastiest hothead in free software.
- kaitai 11y agoIf applications were blind they wouldn't have gender & race/ethnicity. That's the point of blind orchestra auditions.
- Domenic_S 11y agoHa, good point. Edited.
- danharaj 11y agoIf it were a blind proposal, you wouldn't know it was from "yet another white male". Individual speakers draw crowds, yes. But conferences are also a way for people to share their ideas and establish their names in the first place. A conference that optimizes for crowd draw is enforcing a preexisting hierarchy to the detriment of the community. A solution is to use the keynote address and invited speakers to draw crowds, while taking blind proposals for most of the actual content. "What is the goal of X?" is a good question to ask in any social endeavor.
- Domenic_S 11y agoWhoops, edited. > A solution is to use the keynote address and invited speakers to draw crowds Ok, but nothing's solved, just pushed up a level.
- metasean 11y agoIt gives women, along with other frequently disadvantaged groups, such as minorities, the obese, seniors, and physically challenged persons, a more equitable chance to be heard in the first place. It means that the speakers who are chosen have met a minimum professional relevance level. This is a good short term win. Will it mean those people have equitable chances to do keynotes today - no more so than the current systems. Will it mean they have a chance to build a professional reputation that may result in invitations to do keynotes tomorrow - yes. This is a good long term win.
- justizin 11y agoILM and Pixar are routinely rejected from the SIGGRAPH Electronic Theater, while 30 second shorts from students often make it. Noone cares that your computer graphics made a billion dollars, people care that they are cool. SIGGRAPH also had, last I checked, the best gender balance of any tech community. One year our Wiki was vandalized claiming that the Archdiocese of Los Angeles was canceling a reception we were having on their property because the organization was supportive of the LGBT community and had strong LGBT membership. So, yeah, Linus freakin' Torvalds can get rejected once in a while. I think his ego would survive. ;)
- 100k 11y agoSometimes they are. I really like it. I was selected to speak at a Ruby conference with a blind submission process. I remember feeling pretty good when one of the people who was a frequent speaker at Ruby conferences was whining on Twitter that their talk wasn't selected.
- omginternets 11y agoMany of them are, and they still get accused of sexism.
- alukima 11y agoCan you show an example of this?