[Axiom-math] Re: [Axiom-developer] Axiom Conference

[root]

Bill,

I'm copying the developer mailing list because I think you
have a good idea although I'm not sure how many might be interested.

>My first reaction is that one day is too short unless you
>intend this to be primarily a "local promotional affair".
>I think many people would find the cost and inconvenience of
>a trip for a one day meeting prohibitive except perhaps if
>this is connected with some other related conference at the
>same venue.

Actually, the axiom conference will follow on the heels of a
group theory conference which I'm also helping to organize.
However these are currently disjoint audiences (until I get
the group theory algebra moved into axiom).

>I think that at least two days is a minimum. And I have some
>suggestions about what to do on the 2nd day. I expect that
>there may be a number of specific topics of interest to only
>a sub-group of participants. So one thing that might be very
>useful would be to schedule (perhaps in parallel) several
>special interest sessions.

I ran this by the CAISS Director (Gilbert Baumslag, my boss)
and he thinks it is a good idea if there is sufficient interest.

>Another thing that I would really like to try is called a
>"sprint" by the developers of Plone. The idea of a sprint is
>to get as many active developers together in one place and
>with enough tools to solve as many known problems with the
>software in as short a time as possible. This often means
>working intensively sometimes late into the night - a mode
>in which open source developers are well known to enjoy :)
>This seems to have been very effective for Plone. The Plone
>developers currently schedule at least two of these sprint
>meetings per year, often just prior to a planned new release.
>See
>
>http://plone.org/events/sprints/whatis/view

The "sprint" is a very appealing idea. We have a lab with about 20
machines over which I have complete control. It would be very
productive (and from my point of view a huge amount of fun) to get a
group of developers together. I know we manage to make progress now
but it would be so much more productive to have many eyes on problems
at the same location. Plus we could have a good discussion of future
directions, additional algebra, etc.

So is there any interest in either or both of these ideas
(a two-day vs one-day conference, a 'sprint' meeting)?

t