Topic on Talk:Wikimedia Developer Summit/2016

Tutorials to be proposed as Tech Talks supporting discussions at the Summit, but not as Summit sessions.

> Presentations and tutorials are explicitly discouraged during the Summit. These types of sessions are welcomed as Tech Talks or Lightning Talks organized before the event, especially when they can provide background materials to Summit participants.

Why is this? I get that the thing is aimed for discussions, but discussions need something to stand on in order to happen. So for volunteers and third-party folks wanting to share relevant knowledge and experiences (such as how to do blah, or what happened when we did blah, which is probably relevant to anyone else doing blah), and then go from there, what options do we have?

For my part I'd have liked to do a skin workshop running folks through the process so that maybe they could be less afraid of the entire thing and have something to go on when discussing how to make it better and crap, but it's very technical and not really good for general conferences, and I'm not sure volunteers can do tech talks? Also how useful would that sort of talk even be just presenting at people when I can't see what they're doing or have actually got?

Of course volunteers can do tech talks, and I encourage you to run an online tutorial to start with. At the Summit you could check whether there is enough interest for such workshop, and run it on Wednesday if needed. Nothing against your tutorial session or any specific tutorial session. We are just concerned that opening the gates to tutorials (and presentations, since someone else can also argue that the Summit is a potentially good venue for them) will dilute the Summit's core objective.

Okay, how?

Bear in mind that I don't actually have a fast enough internet connection to watch them online, myself, so I'm also not really sure what they're supposed to look like.

Check Tech talks. @Rfarrand (WMF) can find a slot for you. About the connection, we can run a test whenever works for you. Sharing your screen requires less bandwidth. For what is worth, many times I connect with my mobile phone on the go, and that works as well.

Well, if it's in december I'll hopefully have a better connection by then...

Aiight, though. That's scary, but cool, thanks.