RE: late incoming: Publishing@W3C Summit Theme

Hi Tzivya (and all),

 

Yes I didn’t put the latest draft theme text in the wiki yet specifically because it seemed like we were still (/back) in active brainstorming mode on that. So if you want to pour some theme ideas in the wiki that’d be great, I encourage Dave and others to do likewise, and hopefully the PBG-SC co-chairs can carve out time for the call Tues to move this forward.

 

While the PBG as a whole is not the entire audience by any means it could be that a logical next step would be to solicit input (along with volunteer help) from that group. But I would rather we come at them with at least some framing / options / ideas, not a blank slate (given it’s mid-May). 

And we have to lock the room configuration request by Tues (timing of plenary vs. N breakouts) as the hotel meeting space is about to be divvied up. That includes us implicitly being bought into the goals around attendees (at this point I have 200 paid, 30 speaker/comp = 230 total and it would be nice to ask for space that gives us some headroom to go even a bit higher). We can iterate/rethink around theme and program outline for a couple weeks as long as we stay within these constraints and stay on track to be able to make an impactful event announcement on June 12.

 

And perhaps we can divide and conquer, if we can decide on how many parallel tracks we could ask for idea/help for planning them and maybe identify some “track captains” to drive that.

 

BTW 200 attendees is not a magic number. But while I know we all feel some level of conference overdose if an EPUB Summit in the middle of winter in Brussels hosted by an obscure organization can draw 150 people I have to believe a broader conference about publishing and the Web hosted by W3C in San Francisco can draw 200+. So I just don’t think aiming to do a 50 person event or even a 100 person event is setting our sights high enough as far as reach and impact (even leaving aside revenue). But that is certainly open for discussion on Tues. I don’t know that we explicitly discussed this in London I think the 200 number was just a swag based on early thinking about space available.

 

--Bill

 

From: Siegman, Tzviya - Hoboken [mailto:tsiegman@wiley.com] 
Sent: Thursday, May 11, 2017 1:25 PM
To: Bill McCoy <bmccoy@w3.org>; 'Dave Cramer' <dauwhe@gmail.com>
Cc: 'Karen Myers' <karen@w3.org>; 'AUDRAIN LUC' <LAUDRAIN@hachette-livre.fr>; 'McCloy-Kelley, Liisa' <lmccloy-kelley@penguinrandomhouse.com>; 'Paul Belfanti' <Paul.Belfanti@ascendlearning.com>; 'Bill Kasdorf' <bkasdorf@apexcovantage.com>; 'PBG Steering Committee (Public)' <public-publishing-sc@w3.org>
Subject: RE: late incoming: Publishing@W3C Summit Theme

 

Hi Bill,

 

Apologies for coming late to the game. I love Dave’s idea of reaching out to our proposed audience to ask them what they want to hear. People who are included in the planning are a lot more likely to come and thus more likely to participate. I understand the time constraints though. I am also aware that the conferences we’ve discussed have had full-time staff and larger budgets. We are offering some of our time and experience.  

 

I do think it’s a good idea to focus the meeting. When I’m asked to speak, and the topic is “ebooks”, I don’t know where to start. If I am given a specific topic, I can usually come up with a good proposal. Here are a few ideas:

 

* Decentralizing publishing – working within and without the giants of digital publishing (renaming Dave’s David and Goliath)
* The making of a standard and why it matters to publishing (EPUB, (P)WP, ISO)
* OpenSource me – is OS relevant to your work? What does it mean to be opensource? Is that different from Open Standards (a personal favorite of mine, given some of the work I’ve been doing at Wiley).

Should I put these ideas on the wiki?

 

Best,

Tzviya

 

Tzviya Siegman

Information Standards Lead

Wiley

201-748-6884

 <mailto:tsiegman@wiley.com> tsiegman@wiley.com 

 

From: Bill McCoy [mailto:bmccoy@w3.org] 
Sent: Thursday, May 11, 2017 3:58 PM
To: 'Dave Cramer'; Siegman, Tzviya - Hoboken
Cc: 'Karen Myers'; 'AUDRAIN LUC'; 'McCloy-Kelley, Liisa'; 'Paul Belfanti'; 'Bill Kasdorf'; 'PBG Steering Committee (Public)'
Subject: RE: late incoming: Publishing@W3C Summit Theme

 

I should also add that if your issue is really that you think we need a significantly narrower/topical focus for theme than anything that’s been proposed so far, that is something the PBG SC can certainly discuss. That was not the direction we came to in March but IMO there is time to narrow focus if that is what is desired and assuming we think a tighter focus will better achieve our goals. But we would need to agree on a more specific focus ASAP (within 1-2 weeks).

 

--Bill

 

From: Bill McCoy [mailto:bmccoy@w3.org] 
Sent: Thursday, May 11, 2017 12:51 PM
To: 'Dave Cramer' <dauwhe@gmail.com <mailto:dauwhe@gmail.com> >; 'Siegman, Tzviya - Hoboken' <tsiegman@wiley.com <mailto:tsiegman@wiley.com> >
Cc: 'Karen Myers' <karen@w3.org <mailto:karen@w3.org> >; 'AUDRAIN LUC' <LAUDRAIN@hachette-livre.fr <mailto:LAUDRAIN@hachette-livre.fr> >; 'McCloy-Kelley, Liisa' <lmccloy-kelley@penguinrandomhouse.com <mailto:lmccloy-kelley@penguinrandomhouse.com> >; 'Paul Belfanti' <Paul.Belfanti@ascendlearning.com <mailto:Paul.Belfanti@ascendlearning.com> >; 'Bill Kasdorf' <bkasdorf@apexcovantage.com <mailto:bkasdorf@apexcovantage.com> >; 'PBG Steering Committee (Public)' <public-publishing-sc@w3.org <mailto:public-publishing-sc@w3.org> >
Subject: RE: late incoming: Publishing@W3C Summit Theme

 

HI Dave, well we’ve had a draft theme statement for many weeks and now we have an improved one. If we want to start over from scratch with an appeal to the public to help us devise a theme we can do it. But IMO the PBG SC should have decided to do that in March in London. At this late date, with need to announce that an event is happening and open it for registration by June 12, I think with your and Tzivya’s fresh thinking we should instead improve (/redo) the theme we already have been working on and move on to get the event announced and start working on program. I do think a public call for proposals does make sense.

 

--Bill

 

From: Dave Cramer [mailto:dauwhe@gmail.com] 
Sent: Thursday, May 11, 2017 12:37 PM
To: Siegman, Tzviya - Hoboken <tsiegman@wiley.com <mailto:tsiegman@wiley.com> >
Cc: Bill McCoy <bmccoy@w3.org <mailto:bmccoy@w3.org> >; Karen Myers <karen@w3.org <mailto:karen@w3.org> >; AUDRAIN LUC <LAUDRAIN@hachette-livre.fr <mailto:LAUDRAIN@hachette-livre.fr> >; McCloy-Kelley, Liisa <lmccloy-kelley@penguinrandomhouse.com <mailto:lmccloy-kelley@penguinrandomhouse.com> >; Paul Belfanti <Paul.Belfanti@ascendlearning.com <mailto:Paul.Belfanti@ascendlearning.com> >; Bill Kasdorf <bkasdorf@apexcovantage.com <mailto:bkasdorf@apexcovantage.com> >; PBG Steering Committee (Public) <public-publishing-sc@w3.org <mailto:public-publishing-sc@w3.org> >
Subject: Re: late incoming: Publishing@W3C Summit Theme

 

Publishing@W3C is new. We have been blessed with a fresh start. In the spirit of W3C, let's get the community involved in planning the conference. 

 

First, we need a theme, a topic, something more than "this is a digital publishing conference, y'all are interested in digital publishing, you should come." Heck, we could ask  Twitter (and BISG, and existing WG/CG/IGs) what people loved or hated about IDPF/BEA, and what they'd like to see from a P@W3 Summit. We could each send emails to our colleagues asking such questions. How do we find out what would bring Peter or Rena to California? Ask them!

 

Once we have a theme, let's put out a call for proposals. I'd love to see speakers and panelists I haven't heard before, but just asking the people we already know is guaranteed to result in the usual suspects. This way we get volunteers rather than draftees, and the level of response will give us some information on how much enthusiasm is out there for such a conference.

 

Dave