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MiniConf: A Virtual Conference in a Box

mini-conf.github.io

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Re: MiniConf: A Virtual Conference in a Box

#21

Post by zoomablemind »

srush wrote: post #12
walterbell wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is both usable and has a unique "vibe", in a time when many virtual events have struggled to capture the character and human essence of their F2F events. Congratulations and thank you for releasing the code! A few production questions. 1. Sync/playback is relatively fast. Are you using a streaming server or web-hosted video files? 2. On pages with video & slides, how are the two frames synchronized, e.g. are tho…

Thanks! If you are interested more about the event here was a podcast https://www.thetalkingmachines.com/episodes/iclr-accessible-... and blog post https://medium.com/@iclr_conf/gone-virtual-lessons-from-iclr... Answers: 1 + 2. We used https://slideslive.com/ an external conference provider. They do a lot of optimizing behind the scenes, and have that cool sync. 3. Python is the de facto standard language in ML. We u…

So MiniConf is effectively a framework for maintaining a conference/event website. It takes care of presenting the program, schedule and ties together the presentations content (video, slides) which are hosted and served by third-party providers.

The result is a static website where the participants meet at time, but all interactions are handled by the third-party providers.

The main features are ease of configuration (CSV files) and templatability (with Flask).

Is my understanding correct?

I was wondering if it offered similar features to EasyChair, like participant registration, review process, notifications etc.

Re: MiniConf: A Virtual Conference in a Box

#22

Post by srush »

zoomablemind wrote: post #21
srush wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks! If you are interested more about the event here was a podcast https://www.thetalkingmachines.com/episodes/iclr-accessible-... and blog post https://medium.com/@iclr_conf/gone-virtual-lessons-from-iclr... Answers: 1 + 2. We used https://slideslive.com/ an external conference provider. They do a lot of optimizing behind the scenes, and have that cool sync. 3. Python is the de facto standard language in ML. We u…

So MiniConf is effectively a framework for maintaining a conference/event website. It takes care of presenting the program, schedule and ties together the presentations content (video, slides) which are hosted and served by third-party providers. The result is a static website where the participants meet at time, but all interactions are handled by the third-party providers. The main features are ease of configuratio…

Yup that's right. Although I would add front-end search and visualization (with d3) to the features.

As you mentioned there are a lot of good solutions for review, notification, and reg. Common choices are OpenReview/CMT/HotCRP/EasyChair/softconf... They're all pretty mature and complex.

The thing that people suddenly need is ways to easily customize their own pages for hosting virtual conferences and workshops. That's the problem miniconf targets.

Re: MiniConf: A Virtual Conference in a Box

#24

Post by shuhari »

chrisseaton wrote: post #14
formalsystem wrote: post #2

I love this. Conferences and the publishing business are extremely scammy IMO. There's no reason you need to pay anyone $500 to host a pdf. What researchers want is discoverability and credit. Some researchers are already famous and own their own distribution via arxiv or Twitter but for new researchers publishing a paper at a prestigious conference is a way to bootstrap a reputation. If you really wanna get rid of l…

> I don't see how that's different from peer review A lot of people think they're subject-matter experts and may comment on your article, but may be mistaken. In all the peer review processes I've been involved in reviewers review each others reviews before they go out. Other reviewers will challenge a bad or misleading review. If there aren't people who know enough about the subject they'll go out and find someone w…

We’re building a platform for crowdsourcing the research process, from ideation to peer review at https://asone.ai.

It’s kind of like arXiv with voting and comments, but also supports collaboration for research in progress.

> You could literally do this process in a web interface that looked like Hacker News, but they already pretty much do.

I would love to hear your thoughts about how the current systems might be improved and if we’re on the right track.

Re: MiniConf: A Virtual Conference in a Box

#25

Post by zvr »

srush wrote: post #22
zoomablemind wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So MiniConf is effectively a framework for maintaining a conference/event website. It takes care of presenting the program, schedule and ties together the presentations content (video, slides) which are hosted and served by third-party providers. The result is a static website where the participants meet at time, but all interactions are handled by the third-party providers. The main features are ease of configuratio…

Yup that's right. Although I would add front-end search and visualization (with d3) to the features. As you mentioned there are a lot of good solutions for review, notification, and reg. Common choices are OpenReview/CMT/HotCRP/EasyChair/softconf... They're all pretty mature and complex. The thing that people suddenly need is ways to easily customize their own pages for hosting virtual conferences and workshops. That…

For people looking for a Free Software solution for running a (traditional) conference, there is also PreTalx https://pretalx.com/p/about/ and https://github.com/pretalx/pretalx

But your simple solution for virtual events is very much welcome and appreciated! Many thanks!

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