[sigcomm] another approach

[Scott Shenker]

Here's a somewhat different discussion we could be having, motivated  
by the following somewhat disjoint set of points:

1)  I see the policy decision confronting SIGCOMM as roughly whether  
or not SIGCOMM is willing to sponsor closed events and, if so,  
whether or not those closed events can have any discretionary  
attendance policies.  I think we are all in agreement that there  
shouldn't be many closed events nor many discretionary attendees, so  
the real question is whether SIGCOMM takes a stance that absolutely  
precludes either.  I think we should reach closure (not consensus) on  
this soon.

2)  However, I think another, and more important, problem facing  
SIGCOMM is the fact that our many of our conferences have so little  
industry involvement.  In the database community, for instance,  
conferences have very active and wide-ranging exchanges between  
industry and academia; in fact, you often can't tell the two apart.   
The same can't be said for Sigcomm (the conference) or Hotnets.

3)  Also, Hotnets was designed to with two goals in mind: (a)  
encouraging "idea" papers and (b) fostering discussion during/after  
the presentation.  These two goals need not be linked in other  
conferences, and perhaps we should try to develop a new conference  
with stresses (a) but not (b).

4)  These two observations lead to the proposal that SIGCOMM start a  
new multi-track conference that is open and invites 6-page papers  
that are either "idea" papers (in the sense of Hotnets) or "reality"  
papers (describing a current problem, or even just current practice  
in a relevant area).  This could become the main alternative to  
Sigcomm for the SIGCOMM community, providing a venue for the free  
exchange of early ideas and where academia and industry could have  
more fruitful interaction.

5)  In addition to benefitting the SIGCOMM community, this would also  
reduce the importance of the current controversy, in that if this new  
conference was successful it would relegate Hotnets to the role of an  
academic debating club (still available to those who enjoy that sort  
of thing).