[SGVLUG] Speaker evaluation (was ... plus some SCALE notes..)

[Emerson, Tom (*IC)]

-----Original Message----- Of Miguel Hernandez

There were 2 things I thought of as "nice to haves:"
1) Some way to push folks to use the evaluation forms. From my past
experiences when asked to speak in public, those were always invaluable.
I kept forgetting about 'em as I left a talk & most others seemed to as
well.
2) A web feature where participants can share comments on a particular
speaker (maybe on the speaker's bio/abstract page). So let's say, for
example, Stormy Peters presents again next year, it'd be nice for folks
thinking of hearing her presentation to see comments from folks who
already saw her this year, at another conference or even at a place
where she gave a different presentation altogether.

Yea, I know I'm just adding more work for poor old 'foo' but, hey, what
are friends for!!! =P
============

I don't have much to suggest for #1 -- something about horses, water,
and drinking come to mind -- but for item #2, I have run across a
website that might just suffice (meaning no "work" for Foo other than
adding these people to the site)

The site is called "Eventful.com", and those of you paying attention
know I've used it in the past to help promote our own group.
"theoretically", the site is intended to let musicians or other stage
performers know where people /really/ want them to perform, however the
definition of "performer" can be rather wide -- I've actually created
one for myself (though, admittedly, a little short on the description)
posing as a "Linux Advocate":

http://eventful.com/performers/tom-emerson/linux-advocate-/P0-001-000081
539-5

There is an area for people to leave comments, the "performer" can add
events as to where they will be, etc.  Updates, I've noticed, tend to be
immediate for the /first/ change made, then about "a day" for the second
or subsequent changes (perhaps there is some caching going on?)

It looks like you can create a "performer" page for anyone -- it is up
to the "performer" themselves to "claim" their page and manage it from
that point.  So like I said, the only work that the SCALE organizers
need to do is create the initial page for each "performer", then of
course refer to those pages wherever/whenever you want to link in a
discussion.

For example, Richard Stallman has a page there:

http://eventful.com/performers/richard-stallman/founder-of-the-gnu-proje
ct-president-of-the-free-software-foundation-/P0-001-000000374-1

Which lists a few events (in Germany) where he will be speaking 

(the one guy wanting Richard to appear, User "Hober"
http://eventful.com/users/hober, is also planning on attending the "End
of the Unix Epoch"
http://eventful.com/events/technology-end-of-the-unix-epoch-/E0-001-0042
87236-3 -- I found a few of the other "events" he is watching to be,
umm, rather unique...)

As bad as it may seem that Richard only has "one" request, he's lagging
behind good ol' Billy:

http://eventful.com/performers/bill-gates/chairman-of-microsoft-/P0-001-
000000008-1

With TWO requests ;)

(though nobody wants Ballmer...
http://eventful.com/performers/steve-ballmer/ceo-microsoft-/P0-001-00004
0388-0 -- that's a good thing, right? :) )