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Brendan Fong (Jul 14 2020 at 23:35):I thought I'd create a thread for anyone that wants to share their thoughts on ACT2020.
It's the first time we've run a fully virtual conference, and it'd be great to hear some thoughts on what worked and what didn't. For me, the talks were great, but the more informal parts of the conference lacked the richness of being in person together. Coordinating across timezones was a bit difficult too. But I think overall the upsides in terms of environmental and financial cost, time, and inclusivity for online conferences are huge, and I hope we'll be able to improve over time, and hold online events regularly.
James Fairbanks (Jul 14 2020 at 23:45):I think that that the biggest thing missing was the opportunity to meet strangers in the hallway. I made a lot of friends at ACT2019 and didn't make as many new friends this year. The 2d map app where you could hear people virtually standing next to you was a cool idea and I would appreciate having spent more time in there with the critical mass of participants also hanging out in there.
If we have ACT2021 in person, it would be cool to experiment with recording and watching the talks ahead of time and then using more of the time for meetings. Maybe the conference could be shorter and more like a workshop where the goal is interaction and collaboration rather than information broadcasting. I would rather spend 3 days collaborating than 5 days attending talks with a little collaboration in between.
Fabrizio Genovese (Jul 14 2020 at 23:54):Yes, workshops/symposiums are always nicer to meet people and do research. Talk-centric conferences always make me feel like I wanted more "free time" to exchange ideas in person. Sill, I don't know if there's much we can do about this when it comes to ACT. If ACT is the "main conference" in our research field then it's more than natural to have quite a lot of presentations...
Fabrizio Genovese (Jul 14 2020 at 23:55):There are a lot of satellite workshops like SYCO that are actually really nice, the problem is that not everyone can use something like SYCO to justify trip expenses with their university.
Brendan Fong (Jul 15 2020 at 00:06):Fabrizio Genovese said:
There are a lot of satellite workshops like SYCO that are actually really nice, the problem is that not everyone can use something like SYCO to justify trip expenses with their university.
Good point. Maybe we should try a virtual SYCO sometime. And as Chad says on the other thread, maybe we should try out using gather.town more frequently -- I may see if we can direct people there for "coffee time" after the MIT seminar this week.
Fabrizio Genovese (Jul 15 2020 at 00:09):I dream of a future where we'll be able to do decent virtual gatherings using oculus rifts and the like :grinning:
Cole Comfort (Jul 15 2020 at 02:43):Fabrizio Genovese said:
I dream of a future where we'll be able to do decent virtual gatherings using oculus rifts and the like :D
If only minecraft were free, then we could do conferences VR minecraft with custom mods :rolling_on_the_floor_laughing:
Jules Hedges (Jul 15 2020 at 08:39):My experience is, I find video talks quite tiring so I spent the time in between sessions doing stuff other than looking at a screen
Sophie El Agami (Jul 15 2020 at 12:41):Cole Comfort said:
Fabrizio Genovese said:
I dream of a future where we'll be able to do decent virtual gatherings using oculus rifts and the like :D
If only minecraft were free, then we could do conferences VR minecraft with custom mods :rolling_on_the_floor_laughing:
We thought about doing our graduation show in Roblox as an alternative to Minecraft
Tomáš Gonda (Jul 15 2020 at 14:07):Jules Hedges said:
My experience is, I find video talks quite tiring so I spent the time in between sessions doing stuff other than looking at a screen
Same, I generally didn't have energy to chat online after trying to pay attention to the online talks.
Daniel Geisler (Jul 15 2020 at 15:23):I found the experience wonderful. I have hyper acute senses due to being autistic, so I was able to participate when I couldn't have attended in person. Bless you. :heart:
Blake Pollard (Jul 15 2020 at 15:52):Brendan Fong said:
Fabrizio Genovese said:
There are a lot of satellite workshops like SYCO that are actually really nice, the problem is that not everyone can use something like SYCO to justify trip expenses with their university.
Good point. Maybe we should try a virtual SYCO sometime. And as Chad says on the other thread, maybe we should try out using gather.town more frequently -- I may see if we can direct people there for "coffee time" after the MIT seminar this week.
Love the idea of a (bi) weekly ACT coffee time in gathertown. See you all there!
John Baez (Jul 15 2020 at 16:02):I hope someone explains/publicizes the "ACT coffee time in gathertown". I have no idea how that works... but it sounds like a good idea.
Morgan Rogers (he/him) (Jul 15 2020 at 17:12):Personally I found the online conference format hard to engage with. The talks were generally of a high quality (at least those that I got around to watching) but I couldn't get into a mindset where it was gratifying to watch them in real time because I'm in exactly the same place physically as I would be when working, and so I inevitably turned back to my work after a very short time. The side-effect was that I also didn't engage socially, mostly due to the same restlessness that put me off the talks.
Morgan Rogers (he/him) (Jul 15 2020 at 17:15):Having talks which are recorded and available online I'm a big fan of (being able to watch things at 1.5x speed makes me feel like I'm making very efficient use of my time somehow), but I desperately miss the in-person experience of conferences. To be fair, I'm not sure there's a great deal that could be done on the part of the organisers to remedy my problems, given the variety of formats for socialising etc that were made available :shrug: It was a great conference under the circumstances!
Brendan Fong (Jul 16 2020 at 17:19):Blake Pollard said:
Brendan Fong said:
Fabrizio Genovese said:
There are a lot of satellite workshops like SYCO that are actually really nice, the problem is that not everyone can use something like SYCO to justify trip expenses with their university.
Good point. Maybe we should try a virtual SYCO sometime. And as Chad says on the other thread, maybe we should try out using gather.town more frequently -- I may see if we can direct people there for "coffee time" after the MIT seminar this week.
Love the idea of a (bi) weekly ACT coffee time in gathertown. See you all there!
It's that weekly time!
https://gather.town/8u0TXRzLpBsKwHjz/mit-categories-seminar
password: "yonedalemma"
xavier (mathematical artist) (Jul 18 2020 at 22:43):I thought the conference was well-run. The gathertown chats were wonderful. It felt about as close to meeting people in the hallway as you can get in a fully virtual environment and I had multiple in-depth conversations there, some lasting for over an hour! The pub idea in the jitsi meet room was also fun, though that setup really relies on one or two people talking and everyone else listening. Gathertown allowed for a more fluid real-life conversation.
Christian Williams (Jul 19 2020 at 17:20):So is the next hangout on July 30 @ 11am Pacific? Every other Thursday, correct?
Brendan Fong (Jul 23 2020 at 16:55):We're doing every Thursday at 10am Pacific (after the MIT seminar) here:
https://gather.town/8u0TXRzLpBsKwHjz/mit-categories-seminar
password: "yonedalemma"
Brendan Fong (Jul 23 2020 at 16:56):but maybe we should try to coordinate better. I think it'd be fun to build a good map, and just use that space for all ACT community hangouts
Chad Nester (Jul 23 2020 at 18:37):Ah I'm sorry I keep missing these. The NA seminars are at weird times for me so I haven't been keeping track :dizzy:
xavier (mathematical artist) (Jul 23 2020 at 20:17):Brendan Fong said:
but maybe we should try to coordinate better. I think it'd be fun to build a good map, and just use that space for all ACT community hangouts
I'd be interested in helping design a layout for this.