General talk about software patterns

["Joseph W. Yoder" <joe AT joeyoder.com>]

I'm hoping some of you consider submitting Panel Ideas to OOPSLA. 
It would be great to have some patterns or related ideas submitted as an
OOPSLA panel.

Could you forward this to anyone you think should consider this?

thanks...joe


Overview
OOPSLA panels have consistently been among the best-attended and
well-received attractions at the conference. The best panels offer an
engaging, entertaining, and informative examination of a timely topic
from a variety of viewpoints. OOPSLA panels offer a unique forum to
spotlight emerging issues. They also give the OOPSLA community a way to
tackle controversial and divisive topics head-on in a fun, interactive
way that can shed welcome light on the issues we all must deal with.

Format
Panels come in many shapes and sizes. Some formats that have worked
well in the past include:

• The traditional panel format, featuring the presentation of positions, followed by a moderated discussion among the panelists and questions from the floor.
• Formal debates permit an informed presentation of starkly opposing positions. This format may be particularly suitable for more narrow, highly technical topics.
• More exotic formats, which have included courtroom simulations, game shows, reality television shows, and fishbowls, have worked in the past. Audiences appreciate being entertained as well as informed.

While we will continue to accept proposals based on traditional formats,
we encourage you to be creative and innovative as well. 

Part of the enduring appeal of OOPSLA panels is that they showcase the
opinions of leading researchers and industry leaders. This is a tradition
we will continue to uphold. We also hope, however, to move beyond the
usual gurus and gadflies, and feature a broader cross-section of the
OOPSLA community in this year's panel program. Panelists need not be
experts; dispatches from the trenches are at least as enlightening as the
latest sound bites from the usual suspects. 

Panels that have the potential for audience interaction can be
particularly effective. For example, an extensive audience question and
answer period, a fishbowl, a roaming microphone for soliciting audience
feedback and questions, audience submitted questions that the moderator
poses to the panelists, or any other format that engages the audience in
an active way. 

Topics
OOPSLA panels can address topics that cover any theme that could be
of interest to the OOPSLA community, which includes software researchers
and practitioners. 

Panel topic must have some element of controversy and/or novelty.
OOPSLA audiences prefer a certain degree of discordance among the
positions of the panelists. Hence, you are encouraged to seek out
panelists with contrasting opinions. Panels where all the panelists agree
are generally not interesting. All panelists need not, however, have
starkly contrasting opinions; a panel where everyone agrees on an idea,
but for different reasons, can be successful. 

If there is an issue that periodically generates lots of discussion and
controversy in your workplace or on a (computing-related) discussion
list, you may be able to shape that issue into a panel discussion topic.
(Be sure that you can find panelists who will take different sides of the
argument!) 

Some areas that are possible candidates for a panel include (but are
certainly not limited to):

• processes, methods and teams
• tools and languages
• design approaches and techniques
• collaboration tools and techniques: wikis, agile techniques, traditional techniques
• the form and content of OOPSLA and related conferences

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Joseph W. Yoder       joe AT joeyoder.com   http://www.joeyoder.com
The Refactory Inc & Joe Yoder Enterprises        Phone: (217) 344-4847
7 Florida Drive, Urbana, IL  61801 USA           Fax: (217) 384-4458