[sigcomm] comments from the WWOS (HOTOS) founder

[Fred Douglis]

I pointed Joe Boykin, who started HOTOS when it was called WWOS, at the 
SIGCOMM discussion.  He replied as follows, and granted permission for 
me to forward to the list, as he's not a subscriber.  I'm ccing him here.

I thought his comments are very helpful:
---

I started WWOS and ran the first bunch of them and most definitely 
helped push others through, so I guess I'm not unbiased.


Personally, I think there are 3 different issues here:

1) What size?

A 'Workshop' is a small (50-75) person event designed with the goal of 
interaction.  Hence, attendees should not be looking for a lecture, but 
a discussion among colleagues.  Workshops are single-topic, indeed, a 
single topic pointed at a particular part of a larger topic.

A 'Conference' is a presentation/lecture type of setting, typically 
100+.  People attend from "all over".  They often are not experts in the 
particular material being discussed.  Topics are varied.

A 'Symposium' is a cross between a Workshop and a Conference. Mostly, 
that means a semi-narrowly focused conference, but not a lot of 
interaction.



2) Who gets to attend, and by what rules?  WWOS and HotOS ran by the 
following set of rules: 60 People max (well, we sometimes went over by a 
bit); Presenters of papers, Conference Organizers, PC members were all 
automatically in.  After that, people who wished to attend needed to 
submit a "position paper".  If we had more people who wanted to attend 
than slots, we chose "intelligently" to get a mixture of people from 
across the board.  Note that you said the CS required FCFS; memory says 
that was not true for Workshops (although it is true for Symposia and 
Conferences).  We were not allowed to discriminate for any reason, but 
we *could* 'balance' attendance.

3) Who sponsors it?
First, small events often lose money, so getting sponsorship is a 'good 
thing'.  Second, having a 'professional' organization behind it means 
you do get conference insurance -- a good thing these days. You also get 
things like credit card processing and the like.  You also get help (if 
needed) negotiating contracts -- let me tell you, hotels *will* try to 
rip off the uninitiated!.  And last, you (usually) get a technical 
conference, not a marketing event.  If you go the corporate only route, 
things often get muddy.  Of course, it all depends on the conference 
organizers, but as it *always* happens, different people come along wtih 
different agendas.

It sounds like the discussion is mixing the 3.