brian@ucsd.EDU (Brian Kantor) (04/22/89)
I just KNOW I'm going to get flamed for this.... I wonder if perhaps the USENIX conferences are being held too often - it seems to me that what with the main conferences about 6 months apart, and all the special workshops, etc., doesn't it seem that there just aren't enough GOOD papers being written out there to ensure that each conference has a full worthwhile technical program. The people who reviewed the papers for the last conference mentioned how few good papers they finally received, and I'm told of similar problems in other professional societies. It seems to me that we might have better and more useful conferences if we had fewer of them. Despite the party-hearty attitude so deeply ingrained in my heart, I still find it irksome to fly somewhere and survive a hotel for a week and come back with little to show for it. Thank goodness for the tutorials, which are always quite good. Or maybe we should be re-presenting the best papers from the special-interest conferences and workshops as a second track at the main conferences. - Brian
arnold@mathcs.emory.edu (Arnold D. Robbins {EUCC}) (04/24/89)
In article <1648@ucsd.EDU> brian@ucsd.edu (Brian Kantor) writes: >I still find it irksome to fly somewhere and >survive a hotel for a week and come back with little to show for it. >Thank goodness for the tutorials, which are always quite good. Much as I hate to say it, I sort of agree. I would like to suggest that perhaps Usenix could sponsor a week of tutorials? Perhaps extended tutorials, i.e. 2 or 3 days long, mixed with the traditional 1 day tutorials. As much work as the tutorials are, I find it very frustrating that I can only take two at a time, when there are usually about four that I would like to go to. -- Unix is a Registered | Arnold Robbins -- Emory University Computing Center Bell of AT&T Trademark | DOMAIN: arnold@unix.cc.emory.edu Laboratories. | UUCP: gatech!emory!arnold PHONE: +1 404 727-7636 -- Donn Seeley | BITNET: arnold@emoryu1 FAX: +1 404 727-2599
dyer@spdcc.COM (Steve Dyer) (04/25/89)
In article <1648@ucsd.EDU> brian@ucsd.edu (Brian Kantor) writes: >I just KNOW I'm going to get flamed for this.... >I wonder if perhaps the USENIX conferences are being held too often - it >seems to me that what with the main conferences about 6 months apart, >and all the special workshops, etc., doesn't it seem that there just >aren't enough GOOD papers being written out there to ensure that each >conference has a full worthwhile technical program. No, you're just saying something which has needed to be said for a while. It's even been said before. I've come from the last two conferences quite disappointed in the overall content of the technical sessions. In contrast, the tutorials have been very good sources of specialized information. Of course, this is no reflection on the program committees, which can only use what is submitted. It seems to be that the original USENIX meetings (Cambridge 77, New York 78 Boulder and Toronto 1979) were very valuable forums for exchanging infor- mation you simply couldn't get anywhere else. These days, with the net, commercial UNIX periodicals (despite what you think of their quality), competition from UNIforum, and other sources, the semiannual USENIX conferences have become simply an excuse to party with other hackers. Even this loses a bit of its charm when you start paying for the privilege yourself. :-) I'm not sure what the "answer" is. For myself, it's deciding to only attend one (if that) per year. I would support a single general meeting, with frequent and ample notification for paper due dates. The special-purpose workshops are nonetheless a great idea; it's not clear to me how much they detract from the main submissions. -- Steve Dyer dyer@ursa-major.spdcc.com aka {ima,harvard,rayssd,linus,m2c}!spdcc!dyer dyer@arktouros.mit.edu