Ingomar's Comment

Following is the comment by Ingomar Otter =

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Here are my 0.02EUR about how my ORF2009 dream looks like:

Duration: Three days for the core conference. Maybe some extra days if someone comes up with something like the "Bootcamp" the Drools people had this year.
But not as a part of the core conference. If it's "next to a weekend" (starting Monday or ending Friday) would help me personally with the travel.
Maybe if it does not end on a friday we may see less people running away at noon. (just a guess)

Location: No real preference, US/Dallas is fine. Please make sure it's somewhere warm (also on the inside)

Contents/Subjects:
* "How to do it" sounds like a good concept to me. Please make this shorter (max 60 minutes, preferably 45) and allow more time for questions and casual exchange.
* I really think ORF2009 should try the OpenSpace format. We have been using this for a few years now and I think it's perfect for the type of exchange I found most valuable at ORF2008.
In a nutshell it turns a conference into a never ending coffee break.
Coffe break = the most valuable moments in a conference when you (by accident) found a peer that shares your intrest/problems etc. It jsut removes the "accident" :-)
See for some more details Anatomy of an Open Space event
So I propose a mixed mode of traditional and OpenSpace sessions, with OpenSpace in the afternoon. Depending of where ORF2009 takes place we could help with organisation/facilitators (we have been doing this on an "ORF" like scale)
* If there are intresting (!) demos/tutorials by vendors then let's have them. Keep them short and sweet so that the presenters have to make a choice what they _really_ want to tell us.
* The Ontology bit was quite intresting to me, I would like to see more of this. I also would like to see more out of the "real" reasearch area and I would not lomit this to "stricly rules".
Everything that makes sense in application areas where rule based systems are applied is welcome.

Others:
* For the coffee price we ORF2008 was charged, I will personally prepare it for you ;-)
* We need the cane!
* I was and still am looking forward to the pub nights. It's ORF! :-)
What would help is to have some limited suggestions on the agenda where to go so that it does not become to random. What I mean: "Pub night at X which is located at Y".

ingomar dot otter at valtech dot de

December 2, 2008 9:33 AM