[Penguicon-Concom] Program book comments.

[Jer Lance]

On 4/17/07, Rob Landley <rob at landley.net> wrote:
> On Sunday 15 April 2007 8:35 pm, john guest wrote:
> > So, does anyone have ideas on how to create sufficient critical mass
> > to get people fired up about doing panels at Penguicon in, say,
> > January?   Then we would have weeks, lo unto months to do the fine
> > tune on the program book.
>
> Easy, start allocating final panel slots with rooms and times in January, and
> post the schedule on the web.  (And not a google spreadsheet that nobody can
> actually read, but something real and final looking.)
>
People had trouble reading a Google Spreadsheet?  Did they use a
browser?  Did the use a browser created post-2004?

> Until you post a schedule people can actually plan their attendance based on,
> it's not real, and if there are no consequences of missing the February
> deadline ("sorry, we're out of rooms to put that panel in") nobody will take
> it seriously.  So make the room slots a scarce resource early (which they
> eventually will be), and make it clear that changes after you run out of room
> slots will only be made to replace panelists who can't do their presentation.

This, of course, makes the implicit assumption that enough people
initially snatch up "prime" slots to make this a useful method.
That's a lot like saying that the easiest way to make money fast is to
invest a lot of money.  Where does the first batch of money come from.
 Likewise, from whence does the scarcity arise?  What is really needed
is a method for making people want to start planning their panels and
slots in January which will then coerce others into doing the same
through scarcity.

In other words, a scarcity driven approach only works if you can
induce scarcity.  Saying "we cut off the assignment of rooms in
February" to create scarcity is worthless, because it is an empty
threat.  If we want programming, we will take any good programming
that is offered in February or March.

A better method would be to find some way to reward early-schedulers
in such a way as to make early scheduling desirable.  THEN, a scarcity
approach can be employed.

-jer