Frab – free and open conference management system • Hacker News Board

Is this more geared towards educational/business conferences (where the primary motivation is speakers disseminating information to large groups of people) can it do more entertainment conferences or fan cons with booths and a show floor and the like?

Edit: I just realized that I meant to say "conventions" for the second part, and also that there's a lot more crossover than I would have originally thought.

Re: Frab – free and open conference management system

#7

Post by artemist » Thu, Oct 31, 2019, 9:56 PM UTC

jedimastert wrote: post #6

Is this more geared towards educational/business conferences (where the primary motivation is speakers disseminating information to large groups of people) can it do more entertainment conferences or fan cons with booths and a show floor and the like? Edit: I just realized that I meant to say "conventions" for the second part, and also that there's a lot more crossover than I would have originally thought.

I believe it is more focused on educational conferences. the CCC uses this for all its conferences, including Congress and Camp.

Re: Frab – free and open conference management system

#8

Post by hirundo » Thu, Oct 31, 2019, 10:04 PM UTC

From Frab's schema.rb:

  create_table "people", force: :cascade do |t|
    # ...
    t.string "first_name", limit: 255, default: ""
    t.string "last_name", limit: 255, default: ""
    t.string "gender", limit: 255
    # ...
  end

Our schema has a similar table, but with "prefix" instead of "gender", where on the front end a list pops down with Mr., Ms., etc. We just use the prefix to form the full name.

I wonder where the need to track gender comes from in such an app. We manage events and conferences too, but gender hasn't come up beyond the salutation. Since they do care about gender maybe they will soon also want pronoun and possessive_pronoun columns.

Re: Frab – free and open conference management system

#9

Post by dbrgn » Thu, Oct 31, 2019, 10:07 PM UTC

hirundo wrote: post #8

From Frab's schema.rb: create_table "people", force: :cascade do |t| # ... t.string "first_name", limit: 255, default: "" t.string "last_name", limit: 255, default: "" t.string "gender", limit: 255 # ... end Our schema has a similar table, but with "prefix" instead of "gender", where on the front end a list pops down with Mr., Ms., etc. We just use the prefix to form the full name. I wonder where the need to track ge…

The gender _might_ be used to ensure diverse speaker selection.

Re: Frab – free and open conference management system

#10

Post by nisuni » Thu, Oct 31, 2019, 10:09 PM UTC

hirundo wrote: post #8

From Frab's schema.rb: create_table "people", force: :cascade do |t| # ... t.string "first_name", limit: 255, default: "" t.string "last_name", limit: 255, default: "" t.string "gender", limit: 255 # ... end Our schema has a similar table, but with "prefix" instead of "gender", where on the front end a list pops down with Mr., Ms., etc. We just use the prefix to form the full name. I wonder where the need to track ge…

Some conferences are in locations with restricted accommodation facilities, and if you don’t specify a roommate, you are paired with someone of your gender.

So that’s why the gender might be needed.

As far as the preferred pronouns are concerned, I see them as something with heavy political connotations. No one who is not hard left believes in the necessity of the xir pronoun, and of course there are trans people also among the right!

So, to me it’s completely acceptable that something so controversial is not included.