[sigcomm] attendance policies for SIGCOMM-affiliated events

[Jennifer Rexford]

Vern,

Thanks for launching the discussion.  I have a few thoughts to add, with the
goal of encouraging more discussion.  First, I think that, realistically,
some events need limited attendance in their first couple of years, if for
no other reason than the fact that it is hard to organize a venue when you
don't know how big the audience will be.  In addition, limited-attendance
events help build the energy necessary for a sub-community to come together
by facilitating more discussion, though frankly the size limits for really
achieving this goal are pretty tight, like 30-40 people I would guess.  

I think many small "start up" events could easily forego SIG sponsorship if
they have a natural way to contain cost -- having basically no fixed costs
(e.g., a university meeting room, if a free one is available) and having all
variable costs covered by registration fees -- and aren't worried that
someone will sue them after a slip-and-fall accident... ;)  That said,
having the SIG be able to sponsor such start-up events might lower the
barrier to starting new and exciting workshops and conferences by carrying
the financial risk, arranging publication of proceedings (if needed),
advertising the call for papers and the program, branding the event, etc.
Creating new events is yeoman service to the community, and we should do
what we can to make it easier for dedicated volunteers to do their jobs,
which includes sponsoring new events that are trying to gauge community
interest or fill a previously-overlooked need.

So, personally, I think it would be nice for the SIG to support limited
attendance events, at least for the first year or two.  That said, I think a
transparent attendance policy would be crucial, given the goals the SIG has
for fairness and openness.  (As someone mentioned at the business meeting,
event organizers always have an option of foregoing SIG sponsorship if they
want complete autonomy in determining attendance policies.)  The word
"transparent" might not be strong enough, but I hesitate to suggest exactly
what the policy should be, as it may depend on the event.  Clearly, you want
at least one author for each paper, and the program and steering committees,
to be able to attend.  Beyond that, do you favor other authors of accepted
papers?  FIFO?  Random?  I don't know.  Given that restricted attendance is
motivated by the desire to encourage discussion, having many more people
than authors, PC, and SC might too many anyway.  Beyond a certain size, why
not have open attendance anyway?

However, once an event is successful enough to have a large community
interest, and to sustain itself, I personally think it makes sense to have
open attendance go hand in hand with SIG sponsorship.  In some cases, this
might argue for some changes in the nature of the event.  For example, the
Internet Meaurement Workshop (which had closed attendance the first couple
of years, due to venue size constraints the first year and a desire to keep
the event a "workshop" with lots of discussion) ultimately became an
open-attenance Conference once it became clear that we had a large
subcommunity with lots of mature work on our hands.  Once an event is off
the ground, I think it should take on a life of its own, and adapt to the
community needs as best it can.  After the initial "burn in" period, I
believe that the goal of the SIG to serve its larger community trumps the
goals achieved by limited attendance.

Anyway, that's my 0.02 Euro... 

-- Jen

-----Original Message-----
From: sigcomm-bounces at postel.org [mailto:sigcomm-bounces at postel.org] On
Behalf Of Vern Paxson
Sent: Tuesday, October 25, 2005 1:22 AM
To: sigcomm at postel.org
Subject: [sigcomm] attendance policies for SIGCOMM-affiliated events

At the last SIGCOMM business meeting, one of the issues we framed for
discussion by the SIGCOMM community concerns attendance policies at
SIGCOMM-affiliated events such as HotNets.  The main question is to what
degree should such events be given latitude to limit their attendance
along dimensions such as the following:

	- limiting size in order to facilitate discussion
	- given limited attendance, imposing criteria on who can attend,
	  such as paper presenters / PC members / paper authors / paper
	  submitters
	- filling some limited-attendance slots by invitation

There was considerable discussion at the meeting of this topic, which
I imperfectly summarize as:

	(1) A view by quite a few who commented at the microphone that
	    limited attendance has utility for some events and that
	    SIGCOMM should find ways to facilitate this.

	(2) A view by others (not as many at the microphone) that any
	    policy other than first-come-first-serve is counter to the
	    principles of fairness (both to individuals and in terms of
	    how the SIG uses its resources) by which the SIG should abide.

	(3) A question as to whether smaller venues that benefit from
	    closed attendance need SIG sponsorship anyway.  Benefits of
	    sponsorship include raising awareness of the event and providing
	    a means/imprimatur for publishing proceedings for the event.
	    Some questioned whether small events need proceedings; others
	    view this as desirable as it makes publicly available the
	    research ideas that went into the event.

	(4) The view that if attendance is closed, the invitation policy 
	    needs to be made clear.

	(5) Notions of pursuing hybrids in which some slots are left open
	    to first-come-first-serve, and more generally with experimenting
	    with different forms to see what works best.

	(6) Thoughts on how to "mitigate" the impact of an event being
	    closed, such as by recording some of the discussion to make
	    it available to those who were not able to attend (which on the
	    other hand some viewed as likely to dampen the nature of the
	    exchanges).

We'd like to solicit further views from the community to get a sense of
whether there's rough agreement on the best policy for the SIG to adopt.
Please let us know your thoughts.

- Vern, speaking as SIGCOMM vi-chair
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