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Morgan Rogers (he/him) (Jan 26 2021 at 10:46):PSSL 106 was postponed indefinitely as of last March.
CT 2020 has become CT 2021.
The MIT Categories Seminar has become the Topos Colloquium, which seems more focussed on applied CT.
Where are the 'pure CT' conferences? Is there any plan to move the above big ones online? I need an outlet for the work I'm finally coming towards finishing, and right now I can't find it! I'm hoping there are events I'm simply unaware of?
David Michael Roberts (Jan 26 2021 at 11:33):Do you mean an outlet in the sense of a publishing venue? (Like comp sci conferences publish papers) Or just to give a talk?
Morgan Rogers (he/him) (Jan 26 2021 at 11:45):To give a talk :blush: I've done plenty of writing, but topos theory doesn't have a big audience on paper, so I want a way to at least get the most interesting bits out there.
Tim Hosgood (Jan 26 2021 at 12:00):the Topos Institute Colloquium is definitely not just for applied category theory! i, for one, am very keen to get some more pure CT in it :)
Morgan Rogers (he/him) (Jan 26 2021 at 12:46):Given how involved you are, that's some relief. The 'About' section reads:
The Topos Institute Colloquium is an expository talk series highlighting mathematical research in the sciences of connection and integration, with a particular focus on applications of category theory,
so you can see why I was concerned! Still, more is better, if anyone's aware of anything else?
Emily Roff (Jan 26 2021 at 14:05):Morgan Rogers (he/him) said:
PSSL 106 was postponed indefinitely as of last March.
CT 2020 has become CT 2021.
The MIT Categories Seminar has become the Topos Colloquium, which seems more focussed on applied CT.
Where are the 'pure CT' conferences? Is there any plan to move the above big ones online? I need an outlet for the work I'm finally coming towards finishing, and right now I can't find it! I'm hoping there are events I'm simply unaware of?
Thanks for asking this, Morgan - I've been wondering the same thing!
Morgan Rogers (he/him) (Jan 26 2021 at 14:08):I'll wait a while longer for responses, but if it turns out there isn't anything scheduled I'll have to start looking into organising one..!
Matteo Capucci (he/him) (Jan 26 2021 at 14:15):Toposes in Como: the series
Fawzi Hreiki (Jan 26 2021 at 14:24):So long as there isn't a prequel.
Paolo Perrone (Jan 26 2021 at 15:17):I don't know about conferences per se (apart from CT and the Oktoberfest, even before Corona there were not that many conferences in the first place). However, there are some pure category theory research seminars, such as the one at Masaryk and the one at Coimbra.
Morgan Rogers (he/him) (Jan 26 2021 at 16:23):I'm a little ashamed to say that I was almost completely ignorant of these. I guess I'll have to contact organisers and see how people end up presenting in them...
John Baez (Jan 26 2021 at 16:27):Don't forget the Yorkshire and Midlands Category Theory Seminar (YaMCATS). I'm speaking there next week Friday.
John Baez (Jan 26 2021 at 16:27):They do a lot of "pure" category theory.
Morgan Rogers (he/him) (Jan 26 2021 at 17:30):Fab! If I had ended up going to Sheffield, I'm sure that would have been my main outlet. Although based on that website, the meetings haven't been very frequent of late...
Mike Shulman (Jan 26 2021 at 17:33):Maybe there should be a list of such things kept somewhere. An nlab page maybe?
Morgan Rogers (he/him) (Jan 26 2021 at 17:42):I would certainly appreciate that! Now that you mention it, there is an nLab page for "networks of category theorists", which seems to at least list several of the groups hosting seminar series mentioned above, although not all of them.
Morgan Rogers (he/him) (Jan 26 2021 at 17:45):Paolo Perrone said:
However, there are some pure category theory research seminars, such as the one at Masaryk and the one at Coimbra.
It's frustrating that I never saw these seminars posted/advertised on researchseminars.org (a quick search suggests they might never have been), nor are they regularly mentioned on the CT mailing list. I've missed a lot of interesting talks.
Mike Shulman (Jan 26 2021 at 17:50):Well, in the pre-pandemic world, research seminars were generally held in person, so there was not much point in advertising them except to people who could attend physically. I think even now that all seminars are online, some organizers have chosen not to "invite the whole world" explicitly (even if they do post zoom links or videos on a public web site) to keep a smaller more personal feel. There's a place for giant seminars that the whole world attends, but there's also a place for more intimate conversations.
Morgan Rogers (he/him) (Jan 26 2021 at 18:02):Mike Shulman said:
There's a place for giant seminars that the whole world attends, but there's also a place for more intimate conversations.
Since none of the former are happening, the only option is to intrude on events that are more or less private, is that what you're saying? :grimacing: I feel like there should be some middle ground in there somewhere, no?
It's been almost a year since I had a face-to-face conversation with another category theorist that isn't at the same university as me, and since I apparently wasn't in range of any of these small seminar series while they were happening in person, it's no wonder I'm only hearing about them now.
Valeria de Paiva (Jan 26 2021 at 20:58):Mike Shulman said:
Well, in the pre-pandemic world, research seminars were generally held in person, so there was not much point in advertising them except to people who could attend physically. I think even now that all seminars are online, some organizers have chosen not to "invite the whole world" explicitly (even if they do post zoom links or videos on a public web site) to keep a smaller more personal feel. There's a place for giant seminars that the whole world attends, but there's also a place for more intimate conversations.
Also during the pandemic, some people have had many problems with zoom bombings/invasions which are difficult to recover
from.
Mike Shulman (Jan 26 2021 at 21:50):Morgan Rogers (he/him) said:
Since none of the former are happening, the only option is to intrude on events that are more or less private, is that what you're saying? :grimacing: I feel like there should be some middle ground in there somewhere, no?
Well, "the whole world" was of course an exaggeration. But I was thinking of events like HoTTEST that are explicitly designed as online events that invite people from everywhere to join, versus seminars that used to be a local in-person thing but just went online because of the pandemic.
David Michael Roberts (Jan 27 2021 at 02:02):There is of course the category theory seminar at Macquarie University, here in Australia. Paul Lessard in the current organiser and he was looking for speakers.
Joe Moeller (Jan 27 2021 at 02:11):This is the one that's not open to the public, right? Kinda sad, the abstracts always look so cool.
Bryce Clarke (Jan 27 2021 at 08:22):It hasn't been announced yet, but a bunch of us at Macquarie are organising a 5-day online category theory symposium for PhD students which will happen in June. Watch this space!
Bryce Clarke (Jan 27 2021 at 08:29):Joe Moeller said:
This is the one that's not open to the public, right? Kinda sad, the abstracts always look so cool.
This may not be commonly known, but there are some good reasons why it isn't open to the public. One of these reasons is that having a closed seminar provides space for PhD and Masters students to share their progress and get feedback without having to worry about the whole world watching in :)
Ivan Di Liberti (Jan 27 2021 at 10:03):Morgan Rogers (he/him) said:
PSSL 106 was postponed indefinitely as of last March.
CT 2020 has become CT 2021.
The MIT Categories Seminar has become the Topos Colloquium, which seems more focussed on applied CT.
Where are the 'pure CT' conferences? Is there any plan to move the above big ones online? I need an outlet for the work I'm finally coming towards finishing, and right now I can't find it! I'm hoping there are events I'm simply unaware of?
Squeezed between ItaCa and the Bohemian Café, I am too busy to organize such a conference, but I must say that an online PSSL106 looks like a doable thing to me. During my stay at MUNI we have organized PSSL103, it's quite some work, but it is a relatively humble concept and thus doable.
I challenge you, Morgan! :upside_down: .
I belong to the old fashioned, and maybe toxic, school of thought: if something you love is not happening, maybe you are not doing enough :heart_kiss: .
Morgan Rogers (he/him) (Jan 27 2021 at 10:14):Valeria de Paiva said:
Also during the pandemic, some people have had many problems with zoom bombings/invasions which are difficult to recover from.
Doesn't having a publicly visible zoom ID and password make that more of a risk than having a simple registration procedure or youtube stream? This is not a good excuse for not taking advantage of the ample ways in which an event can be advertised. But if an event was never intended to be for the broader CT community, that does explain the set-up...
Morgan Rogers (he/him) (Jan 27 2021 at 10:15):Ivan Di Liberti said:
I must say that an online PSSL106 looks like a doable thing to me.
I challenge you, Morgan! :upside_down: .
Alright, time for me to get the ball rolling with my advisor. It's more likely to be a follow-up edition of Toposes in Como, but I'll also see what the situation is regarding the planned PSSL in Leeds.
Valeria de Paiva (Jan 29 2021 at 02:20):Morgan Rogers (he/him) said:
Valeria de Paiva said:
Also during the pandemic, some people have had many problems with zoom bombings/invasions which are difficult to recover from.
Doesn't having a publicly visible zoom ID and password make that more of a risk than having a simple registration procedure or youtube stream? This is not a good excuse for not taking advantage of the ample ways in which an event can be advertised. But if an event was never intended to be for the broader CT community, that does explain the set-up...
Well, people are not giving zoom IDs and passwords anymore, because some decided that it's a sport to surf for conferences and disrupt them for the heck of it. We had our YouTube streaming of "Women in Logic" taken down--apparently by an anonymous member of the public. (apparently the same happen to POPL2019). The Logic SuperGroup had to resort to two levels of protection as they had too many zoom bombings. I guess, as usual, you have to weigh the worries of security vs the wish to be open to many.
I'm sure you'll be OK with a PSSL. (possibly not exactly how we use to do them, deciding on the Friday night who was going to talk on Sat/Sunday, but on the spirit of work in the process of being done.)