Communications Plan for Penguicon

[nemorathwald]

For all the benefit of the communications plan I devised last year for Penguicon 3.0, it has one drawback. With the four or five different versions I'm maintaining, it's difficult to track all the changes in multiple places.
1. programming's original spreadsheet,
2. website programming page,
3. program book PDF from InDesign,
4. pocket program PDF from InDesign,
5. kiosk html documents,
6. Master Wall Schedule document,
7. signs on the door of each room listing the events there,
8. Palm OS schedule doc
(edited to add: It seems that this list gave the impression that the attendees will only get a PDF of the program book and pocket program. No, they get them in paper, the PDF/InDesign is merely what I've got to deal with. This convention will have paper galore; in fact, more so than normal. The only thing we are not having is the newsletter. Also, I know that hardly anybody carries or uses PDAs, but the PalmOS schedule is a nice frill for the few of us who do.)
It's a lot of work but it's still worth it. Next year I would like there to be a way to synchronize all the versions together just by updating one place.
This communications plan imitates the organic nature of the world wide web, or as Vernor Vinge would put it, "The Net of a Thousand Lies." In any one given instance, at any one time or place, it does not have the reliability we expect from brick and mortar. But it is flexible and responsive in a way that no paper program book can ever be. It's redundantly distributed and has what seems like a million participants sharing the work. I was reminded of this while reading an editorial about the internet by Cory Doctorow's on O'Reilly: link

Comments

[jeffreyab.livejournal.com]

I am a big fan of signs on the door and the paper pocket program.

[matt-arnold.livejournal.com]

Yes, I know. We should talk; I'd like to hear your reasons.

[jeffreyab.livejournal.com]

Its hard to lose signs on the door and while you can lose a pocket program there are usually more around and everyone has the hardware to read them.

[tlatoani.livejournal.com]

I have two comments, one of which may be off target:

1. If you're maintaining and updating all of these separately, there is no way you're going to be able to propagate corrections and changes reliably. You have set yourself up to fail.

2. I have a Treo, but I won't be bothering to download electronic copies of the schedule. If I can't find a paper one onsite, it's a problem. Many attendees won't even have a PDA. (My wife doesn't, and she's an IT professional. She just doesn't like them. This is less unusual than your communications plan assumes.)

3. Isn't the function space in that hotel pretty spread out, which would make hunting for stuff on the door schedules a major pain in the butt unless you already know approximately where the event is?

4. People who attend a lot of programming don't want an innovative communications plan -- they want to be able to find their next event, accurately and reliably, with a minimum of fuss.

[tlatoani.livejournal.com]

Okay, I have four comments, two of which weren't included in the count. Doh!

[matt-arnold.livejournal.com]

I'm curious, who are you? Do I know you?

You don't have to have a electronic schedule or hunt for stuff on the door schedules. Note on my list numbers two and three where there is a paper program book and a pocket schedule.

You have your choice between a program book at the typical convention (such as no less a world-class event than the last Toronto Worldcon) that deserves to be nominated for best fiction; or the ability to fix on the fly and communicate corrections. In a way, the plan is deliberately set up to fail: if you're looking for reliability the first time around, it could be because you trust the volunteers of fandom to do their jobs. My plan is designed as almost 100% fallback because from experience it expects them not to, and prepares. This is also why Stilyagi needs an online content management system. Welcome to the real world; that's called coping with life. One can go on failing with an old way-- on the principle that the people you work with ought not to fail-- or you can adapt to the fact that unpaid volunteers will fail and make the best of it. I choose the latter.

[jeffreyab.livejournal.com]

Yes you do know him.

Pocket program is traditionally done as late as possible to have any corrections.

You could have a brief newsletter as well.

Also fans expect last minute changes this will be harder on the computer geeks.

Most of the panels are in the same hallway so it avoids confusion and tells people they are where they want to be.

[matt-arnold.livejournal.com]

Our pocket program printed yesterday and caught a lot of corrections, which are listed in an errata list.

If someone who I trust were to offer to do the research, typing and software work for a newsletter and let me proofread it against the Master Wall Schedule before printing it, I would not be automatically opposed to it.

[jeffreyab.livejournal.com]

We used to have Dr. Paul Estin for that, we did not this year although I think someone did a Firday issue ask Krysta who did it.

[tlatoani.livejournal.com]

You do know me; my first name is Joe, but I don't use my full name on LJ.

Matt, I do live and work in the real world, but admittedly in an environment where it's more critical to have correct and consistent information available. I also agree that Stilyagi needs to have its information online, in a more usable form, and with the ability for individuals to at least post something directly. I am not a fan of the current website.

You've addressed my main concern with your plan by explaining that yes, the material will be available in paper form. I guess I'm still wondering, though, why you aren't working with one canonical source for schedule information instead of manually propagating it out to so many places. That's what I meant by setting yourself up to fail.

[matt-arnold.livejournal.com]

Sorry, my snide remarks about the real world are addressed to a fan of the current Stilyagi website, who is not present. While discussing the website last year I literally heard the idea that it's preferable to put all our eggs in the basket of one gatekeeper who fails, than rely on a little effort from a hundred people, some of whom fail. Just on principle!

There will definitely be a Canonical document. The hallway outside DaVinci's will be papered with 8.5"x11" sheets, each containing a section of the grid with four grid cells. So it will stretch about 6 or 7 feet high and go all the way down the hall to show the whole weekend. It will reflect the absolute-no-kidding definitive state of the schedule from hour to hour as inevitable changes happen. I'll sit and look at it every hour while updating the html on the website and kiosks from my laptop. So I'll be spending a lot of time there. I agree that we desperately need software that will propogate a single change to all locations, and next year we'll have that.

[jeffreyab.livejournal.com]

The pocket program should be derived from a pdf, and the door lists extracted from the master document though I am not sure how.

We can change the lists with sharpies or new print outs which ever is easier.

There is a fan of the current stilyagi website?

[matt-arnold.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Last year, there was one person who would not even listen to suggestions that we change the current way of doing the ConFusion website. They just wanted to leave one gatekeeper in charge of it and hope that he would start devoting the necessary time to respond to all of the concom's petitions for site updates. I wanted a system where, when he was busy, we could access it without him.

[jeffreyab.livejournal.com]

Yes I think all of the executive should have access, esp. the social and membership people.

[thefile.livejournal.com]

It sounds like you need a database that will contain the content, and on demand, output the reqired eight appropriately formatted documents using the database as the central data source.

To a person sufficiently versed in PHP and/or Python and/or perl and/or {insert your own preference for a script language here}, it would not be an insignificant task, yet well within reach.

Mind you, *I'm NOT* volunteering for this, my programming skills are in the "hit the mosquito with the sledgehammer" range.