On Tue, Nov 17, 2009 at 12:15 PM, Brian E Carpenter
<brian.e.carpenter at gmail.com> wrote:
In fact, lightning talks are SOP at most operator group meetings.
I think that would be an excellent experiment.
Brian
I agree, and in fact I've suggested lightning talks too; I think it tilts community discussion towards identifying problems and solutions (or educating) rather than asking the "leadership" for solutions which they're not always able to provide unilaterally. I think where the IESG got hung up on actually planning lightning talks was on identifying a moderator who is familiar with the format enough to run the talks, plus personable and lively enough to keep things moving. Up 'til now I haven't volunteered to run such talks, but I do so now, still hoping somebody better than me can be found.
The format I liked from ApacheCon, with a very similar model used at DjangoCon, was to take names from those who wanted to talk for 5 minutes, up to the start of the talks, then pull those names out of a hat until the hour had been used up. The 5 minutes was very strictly enforced with a giant visible countdown, and there was <30sec allowed for the next speaker to come up (therefore no slides).
