[Board] ARDC conference?

[Rosy Wolfe]

Cool! Let's talk sometime soon. Please let me know when you have 
availability.

On my end, today is a bit nutty, I have availability, though, Tues-Thurs 
this week.

Looking forward,
Rosy

Rosy Wolfe - KJ7RYV
Executive Director
Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC)
ampr.org

On 5/3/21 8:56 AM, Michelle Thompson wrote:
> There's a lot going on with what you're asking for here.
> 
> "I would love to have a more guided discussion with people in
> our community about the future of amateur radio and digital
> communications, so that ARDC can best strategize around meeting goals
> that meet a more collective vision. We've done some of that with our
> survey, but this would be a more selected group of major players in the
> space.
> 
> I would love it if you and/or others at ORI would be interested in
> participating in such a visioning session, and curious whether you would
> be open to doing it online vs. in-person. (Consider it may be a 5-hour
> event, or a couple 2-3 hour events.)"
> 
> This needs a phone call to talk about.
> 
> -Michelle W5NYV
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On Tue, Apr 27, 2021 at 6:29 PM Rosy Wolfe <rosy at ampr.org 
> <mailto:rosy at ampr.org>> wrote:
> 
>     Hi all,
> 
>     Michelle, thanks for including me on this mail. I agree with many of
>     the
>     ideas that you've put forth - particularly that it's a TON of work to
>     put on a conference (much less one that happens multiple times a year),
>     that it would be helpful to gauge the interest of our grantees before
>     inviting them to such a thing, and that there could be a power
>     differential at play for the grantees. Additionally, I think we can
>     consider using Zulip (an open source version of Slack) for
>     communications with the community. There is already discussion of
>     setting one up.
> 
>     re: Phil's email, ARDC is in the *really* early stages of thinking
>     about
>     gatherings of any sort, given that we have a ways to go before we are
>     truly out of Pandemic Land (TM). One thing is we definitely need to do
>     an internal offsite. Additionally, and perhaps in conjunction with the
>     offsite, I would love to have a more guided discussion with people in
>     our community about the future of amateur radio and digital
>     communications, so that ARDC can best strategize around meeting goals
>     that meet a more collective vision. We've done some of that with our
>     survey, but this would be a more selected group of major players in the
>     space.
> 
>     I would love it if you and/or others at ORI would be interested in
>     participating in such a visioning session, and curious whether you
>     would
>     be open to doing it online vs. in-person. (Consider it may be a 5-hour
>     event, or a couple 2-3 hour events.)
> 
>     In terms of a networking event like the one Phil is describing, I could
>     see doing something like that in conjunction with an existing
>     conference, such as TAPR DCC or similar. I've organized similar events
>     when I was in the open source mapping world, holding Maptime gatherings
>     and karaoke along with State of the Map, for example. PS - one of my
>     favorite things is to get a bunch of nerds together for karaoke. You've
>     all been warned! And for when it happens - you're welcome ;)
> 
>     In any case, as this mail indicates, we have some thinking (and
>     hiring!)
>     to do before putting together any events. In the meantime, please do
>     let
>     me know if you'd have interest in participating in a visioning session,
>     online or IRL. Your insight there would be, as always, greatly
>     appreciated.
> 
>     All the best and 73,
>     Rosy
> 
>     Rosy Wolfe - KJ7RYV
>     Executive Director
>     Amateur Radio Digital Communications (ARDC)
>     ampr.org <http://ampr.org>
> 
>     On 4/26/21 1:51 PM, Michelle Thompson wrote:
>      > Phil,
>      >
>      > I agree that putting grantees in contact with each other is a great
>      > idea, but I think that there are ways to do this which are much more
>      > frictionless than a conference.
>      >
>      > Conferences are generally organized around a shared topic, and
>      > networking is a secondary effect. It sounds like you want
>     networking to
>      > be the primary reason that people attend, and this leaves me
>     wondering
>      > what the common interest is in presentations. What is the
>      > motivation/reward for people putting work into presentations?
>     What is
>      > the likely outcome?
>      >
>      > There's a similar ecosystem we can look to for guidance here on
>      > networking, and that's the venture capital (VC) community. VCs
>     like Y
>      > Combinator (and others) have set up mailing lists and forums (using
>      > discord, slack, and other tools) to allow free networking between
>     their
>      > 'alumni'. This is a much lower barrier for participation, and allows
>      > information exchange outside of a formal process (conferences)
>     that not
>      > everyone will have the time or inclination to participate in.
>      >
>      > Putting on a conference is a lot of work, as is answering the
>     questions
>      > in your email. I don't have time to address those for ARDC. You
>     should
>      > look to your own board members, who collectively have much more
>      > experience than I do.
>      >
>      > I'd suggest gauging interest among your grantees before planning any
>      > conferences. It's their interest that will make a successful
>      > conference. Since the power differential between ARDC and grant
>      > recipients is so large, any request from ARDC will probably be
>      > interpreted as a requirement, and that will complicate the
>     answers. That
>      > is one reason why VC firms do the things they do, in terms of alumni
>      > support.
>      >
>      > -Michelle W5NYV
>      >
>      >
>      >
>      >
>      > On Fri, Apr 23, 2021 at 1:18 AM Phil Karn <karn at ka9q.net
>     <mailto:karn at ka9q.net>
>      > <mailto:karn at ka9q.net <mailto:karn at ka9q.net>>> wrote:
>      >
>      >     Hi Michelle, we haven't chatted in quite some time. How are you?
>      >
>      >     At recent ARDC board meetings I've been talking up the idea of a
>      >     periodic conference to which all our grantees would be
>     invited. This
>      >     would not only help bring the ARDC Board and Grant Advisory
>     Committees
>      >     up to speed on what they've been doing, but let ARDC grantees
>     meet each
>      >     other. I personally think this is very important given our
>     focus on a
>      >     diverse set of projects and groups.
>      >
>      >     I will strongly insist on not overloading the schedule with
>     too much
>      >     formal time. I have always thought that ad-hoc dinners and
>     late nights
>      >     in hotel bars are often the most productive parts of any
>     technical
>      >     conference. You can always watch a video of a talk or read a
>     formal
>      >     paper at home whenever you want, and ask questions by email.
>     I want
>      >     people to come to do the things that are best done in person.
>     After a
>      >     whole year on Zoom I think we now have a better idea of what
>     those
>      >     things are.
>      >
>      >     There's solid support on the Board for this idea, but it's
>     still at a
>      >     VERY early stage of discussion. We have no idea where or even
>     when we
>      >     could hold such an event given Covid. (The first would
>     probably be in
>      >     the US but we'd definitely want to hold some elsewhere, probably
>      >     starting in Europe.) But since ORI is one of ARDC's biggest
>     grantees
>      >     (and you have a lot of personal experience in organizing
>     conferences)
>      >     I'd like your opinions.
>      >
>      >     How how big a block of time would ORI need to give *capsule*
>     overviews
>      >     of all its various projects? Note the emphasis on "capsule".
>     My thinking
>      >     here is to present in the general style of an article for QST,
>      >     Communications of the ACM or IEEE Spectrum, i.e., assume a
>     general
>      >     technical background in computers, space, electrical
>     engineering and/or
>      >     radio communications but NOT specialist knowledge in a particular
>      >     subfield, e.g., speech compression or digital satellite
>     communications.
>      >
>      >     I also don't think we'd have time for detailed formal
>     tutorials. The
>      >     talks should focus on YOUR work -- the specific problem
>     you're trying to
>      >     solve, what approaches you took, what you've done so far,
>     work yet to be
>      >     done, etc. What worked? More importantly, what did NOT work,
>     technically
>      >     or organizationally? Again, focus on what YOU have done or
>     plan to do,
>      >     as opposed to general overviews of a field. (Do provide links to
>      >     overviews, tutorials, deep technical details, etc, for those
>      >     interested.)
>      >
>      >     How many speakers from ORI would be involved? How many more
>     would come
>      >     who wouldn't give formal presentations but could benefit from
>     attending?
>      >     I'm thinking mainly of younger volunteers (especially
>     students) without
>      >     a lot of experience who could be motivated by an in-person
>     event like
>      >     this. ARDC could probably be persuaded to provide financial
>     assistance
>      >     for travel as needed. As you know, ARDC's very first grant
>     was for
>      >     travel scholarships to the 2019 ARRL/TAPR DCC in Detroit that
>     brought
>      >     some students with the HamSci project from Case Western.
>     Having talked
>      >     with many of them, I think it was money very well spent. (I'd
>     forgotten
>      >     how much energy I had at that age.)
>      >
>      >     Please forward this to anybody you know who could also
>     provide some
>      >     advice here.
>      >
>      >
>      >     --Phil
>      >
>      >
>      >
>