Fwd: [TechMeetup] rude speakers
Mark Sutherland
Forwarded for the 13 people who have so far (on a sunday evening)
subscribed to the discussion list.
Mark
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Anand Kumria <aku...@acm.org>
Date: 2009/10/18
Subject: [TechMeetup] rude speakers
To: techm...@googlegroups.com, techmeetup...@googlegroups.com
Hi,
[ it is unlikely that this actually goes to this discussion list,
since it is bouncing but anyway ]
There was recently a poll about Techmeetup and the majority of people
indicated that they really wanted Techmeetup to stick to a timetable
as close as possible.
That was largely achieved, despite some technical problems last Wednesday.
Unfortunately, amongst the speakers there was one or two, despite
being asked to keep the topic to only 5 minutes decided to be rude.
They kept talking until one or two of the crowd called for them to go.
I do not think there is much chance of rehabilitating that particular
rude speaker; and it is clear that both Hasan and Sam are 'too nice'
to actively get up and force someone off stage.
I was at 'This Happened' on Monday and they have a system to deal with
these kinds of problem.
They have a 'count down' mechanism (a laptop which just displays a
timer and in the last minute it goes orange and then red and beeps
once you are over time) and the person operating the A/V equipment
simply shuts off the camera once the time is up.
Does anyone know the program that the guys at the happened used?
Any other suggestions for dealing with rude speakers?
Regards,
Anand
Mark Sutherland
> There was recently a poll about Techmeetup and the majority of people
> indicated that they really wanted Techmeetup to stick to a timetable as
> close as possible.
>
> That was largely achieved, despite some technical problems last Wednesday.
>
> Unfortunately, amongst the speakers there was one or two, despite being
> asked to keep the topic to only 5 minutes decided to be rude.
>
> They kept talking until one or two of the crowd called for them to go.
>
> I do not think there is much chance of rehabilitating that particular rude
> speaker; and it is clear that both Hasan and Sam are 'too nice' to actively
> get up and force someone off stage.
>
> I was at 'This Happened' on Monday and they have a system to deal with these
> kinds of problem.
>
> They have a 'count down' mechanism (a laptop which just displays a timer and
> in the last minute it goes orange and then red and beeps once you are over
> time) and the person operating the A/V equipment simply shuts off the camera
> once the time is up.
>
> Does anyone know the program that the guys at the happened used?
>
> Any other suggestions for dealing with rude speakers?
Hi Anand,
That sounds like quite a good idea, maybe a little aggressive, but I
suppose if it's a piece of software doing the dirty work it allows
folk to save face. However a more common solution is for the
facilitator or compere of the evening to do this job and to be firm
about it. I can't help but wonder if having two folk running the
evening just confuses the matter as they partly expect each other to
do something.
However, it seems I may have been at a different tech meetup on
Wednesday. Tef spoke for about 5 minutes about wikileaks (maybe a
little over) and then there were several questions from the audience,
as it seemed to me the group had engaged with the topic. I certainly
had and found it very interesting. Due to the technical difficulties
you mentioned we were running late and given they'd made a big fuss
about not being late, I think that's why folk were asking about the
time. Certainly the questions seemed to be in good humour, and
appropriate given the situation.
Your e-mail, however, was not. It's completely out of order and
nothing more than bullying. I'm astounded that you thought that not
explicitly mentioning him would somehow make it any more appropriate.
Personally, I think he deserves an apology, but I'm not sure there's
much chance of rehabiliting such a rude heckler.
Clearly, this has gotten completely out of hand. This isn't the first
time I've seen such childish behavior, indeed it's more or less been
endorsed on the techmeetup twitter feed, and I'm disappointed those in
charge of organising the group haven't done something about it. I
believe we're better than this, and I ask that we try and keep
personal bias and dislike out of future discussion. We might not be a
professional organisation, but we can at least be decent to each
other.
Mark