[sigcomm] attendance policies for SIGCOMM-affiliated events

[Larry Peterson]

I think you unfairly equate selected attendance with cliquish.
After making sure at least one author per paper got to attend,
I'd be surprised to learn that IMW didn't also reserve a slot
for the PC and organizers. After that, is it better to allocate
slots FCFS than, say, by preferentially inviting student co-authors,
students that submitted papers, and other co-authors of accepted
papers?

But I think the exact algorithm misses the point. We give PC's
the authority to put together the program. For small interactive
workshops, "the program" includes the set of people in the room
engaged in discussions over the presentations. In my view, the
PC should retain the right to define the criteria by which the
attendees are selected. They should be encouraged to be inclusive,
in the same way we hope they don't select papers from only their
friends, but whatever the outcome, the PC and its chair have to be
entrusted to do the right thing.

Larry

On Nov 5, 2005, at 8:40 AM, Christophe Diot wrote:

> 2 comments:
>
> - you might want to make a differenciation between limited  
> attendance and
> selected attendance. IMW was limited (FCFS with priority to  
> authors) and hotnet
> is selected (PC chairs chose the participants). I am in favor of  
> not allowing at
> all the selected attendance workshop.
>
> - writing the motivation will only convince those who want to be  
> convinced. can
> you imagine someone writting: the goal is to create a clickish  
> workshop ... :-)
> you can find the best politically correct writing, selected  
> attendance will
> always look clickish.
>
> - we need to mention if the exec committee can decide not to  
> support a closed
> attendance workshop.
>
> Jennifer Rexford wrote:
>
>> Hi folks,
>>
>> Discussion on the attendance-policy issues seems to have wound  
>> down.  Vern
>> and I compared notes and took a stab at formulating the SIG's  
>> stance on the
>> issue:
>>
>> "SIGCOMM strongly encourages workshops and conferences to have open
>> attendance but also recognizes that some events benefit from  
>> attendance
>> restrictions, particularly in the first year or two.  Although most
>> SIGCOMM-sponsored events will have open attendance, the SIG may  
>> also sponsor
>> a small number of limited-attendance workshops or conferences,  
>> though the
>> attendance policy should be transparent and fair.  Limited- 
>> attendance events
>> should state their attendance policy, and the motivations behind  
>> the policy,
>> in the conference materials (e.g., the conference Web site, the  
>> call for
>> papers, and ACM conference approval forms)."
>>
>> To start moving toward closure, let's have a last call for  
>> comments, in the
>> form of alternative wordings or directions for the *SIG's* stance  
>> on the
>> issue, where we want to strike a good balance between the desire  
>> to support
>> autonomy/flexibility for conference organizers and support the  
>> values of the
>> SIG as part of a professional society.
>>
>> Thanks much...
>>
>> -- Jen and Vern
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: sigcomm-bounces at postel.org [mailto:sigcomm- 
>> bounces at postel.org] On
>> Behalf Of Jennifer Rexford
>> Sent: Monday, October 31, 2005 12:49 PM
>> To: sigcomm at postel.org
>> Subject: Re: [sigcomm] attendance policies for SIGCOMM-affiliated  
>> events
>>
>> Hi folks,
>>
>> FYI, I checked with ACM SIG Services on ACM's policies about  
>> restricted
>> attendance events.  The policy is rather vague, though such events  
>> are
>> indeed permitted.  See below...  I've asked for some  
>> clarifications but
>> expect that the SIGs are permitted a fair amount of discretion to  
>> decide
>> whether to hold such meetings, and what policies (if any) to have  
>> on how
>> attendance is determined.
>>
>> -- Jen
>>
>> ACM Policy on Restricted-Attendance Meetings
>>
>> Restricted-Attendance Meetings, as an extension of ACM conferences or
>> workshops, and for circumstances in which it is clearly desirable to
>> hold attendance down to the number of people who will be expected to
>> contribute to the results of the session, shall have a place in ACM
>> activities. In all cases, plans for such meetings shall be publicized
>> and at least the opportunity to request permission to attend shall be
>> extended to all members of cognizant ACM subgroups (such as SIGs and
>> Chapters). For meetings of potentially broad general interest, such
>> opportunity shall be extended to the entire membership of the ACM.
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>>
>
> -- 
> Christophe Diot
> Thomson Paris Research Lab
> 46, quai A. Le Gallo
> 92648 Boulogne cedex
>
> +33-674-51-96-53
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