On Thu, May 29, 2008 at 04:17:19PM +1000, Benjamin Herrenschmidt wrote:
We did have some technical topics last year. So I don't think the KS
will ever be purely for process.
I agree that sometimes face-to-face discussions are crucial to
resolving technical issues. The problem is that we try to nail down
the agenda a 3-4 weeks ahead of time, and realistically if a
particular topic requires certain stakeholders to be invited, we need
to decide that we're going to do that topic at least 8-9 weeks in
advance, maybe more, so those people can make travel plans and/or get
travel approvals. And there is always the chance the topic will
resolve itself via e-mail. So the trick is being able to identifying
the topics where a face-to-face discussion really will be useful.
First of all, if there is interest in holding some topic-area specific
mini-summits on Sunday before the Kernel Summit, we may be able to
scare up some space. So if there is interest, please let me know.
Secondly, one of the things which has been suggested in the past is
that we move the BOF's into an afternoon session slot, and maybe push
the last session to run until 7pm, perhaps. That might make it easier
for people to attend BOF's on the spur of the moment --- which might
be useful in some cases where there is only 10 or so people you need
to hash our some issue.
And, of course, we try to schedule plenty of break time so that some
of these discussions can happy in the hallway.
Do any of these possibilities sound particularly attractive or likely
to address your concerns? If so, which ones do you think we should
try this year, as an experiment?
- Ted
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