[DRAFT] EmacsConf 2021 Call for Proposals

[Amin Bandali]

Hey folks,

Please see below for the first draft of the EmacsConf 2021 CFP.
It's also available on our site at <https://emacsconf.org/2021/cfp/>.

Please take some time to read through it as soon as possible and
let me know what you think.  Especially if you think there's anything
missing or something worthwhile to be mentioned.

I'm hoping to post the announcement this week -- either tonight or
tomorrow -- or if not, then on Monday next week.

Thanks,
amin

                                * * *

                         ___________________

                            EmacsConf 2021
                          Online Conference
                         ___________________


                       November 27 and 28, 2021


Table of Contents
_________________

1. Important dates
2. Talk formats
3. Office hours
4. Submitting your proposal
5. Getting involved
6. Commitment to freedom


[EmacsConf 2021] will be a virtual conference on *November 27 and 28,
2021 (Sat-Sun)*.  If you wold like to present at the conference,
please [submit your proposal] by *September 30, 2021*.

EmacsConf 2021 is about the joy of [Emacs] and Emacs Lisp.  Come share
your experiments and adventures with the Emacs text editor / operating
system / way of life!  We welcome speakers of *all backgrounds* and
*all levels of experience*, including newcomers giving their first
talk.  What have you found exciting about Emacs lately?  What do you
wish someone had told you when you were starting out or learning more?
What part of your workflow might inspire someone to get into Emacs
or go deeper?

A great way to get started with writing a proposal is to start by
exploring the programs from previous years: [2020], [2019], [2015],
[2013].  You might also find some neat ideas on the [ideas] page.
Feel free to add yours there too!  If you are still not sure, come by
our IRC channel `#emacsconf' on `irc.libera.chat' and say hi.  You can
join the chat using [your favourite IRC client], or by pointing your
web browser to [chat.emacsconf.org] which runs our self-hosted
instance of [The Lounge] free software web IRC client.

All kinds of people use Emacs for all kinds of things.  We would love
it if EmacsConf 2021 could highlight interesting perspectives and
reflect the diversity of our community.  If you know someone who might
have a good idea for a talk, please reach out to them and encourage
them to submit a proposal.  Many people (especially from
underrepresented groups such as women, people of colour, and
non-developers) might not consider themselves expert enough to share
their thoughts.  If you let them know that you value their knowledge
and maybe even suggest something that you think others would like to
hear more about, they may realize that they have something worth
sharing and that we would love to hear from them.


[EmacsConf 2021] <https://emacsconf.org/2021/>
[submit your proposal] <https://emacsconf.org/2021/cfp/>
[Emacs] <https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/>
[2020] <https://emacsconf.org/2020/schedule/>
[2019] <https://emacsconf.org/2019/schedule/>
[2015] <https://emacsconf.org/2015/schedule/>
[2013] <https://emacsconf.org/2013/#program>
[ideas] <https://emacsconf.org/2021/ideas/>
[your favourite IRC client] <ircs://irc.libera.chat:6697/emacsconf>
[chat.emacsconf.org] <https://chat.emacsconf.org>
[The Lounge] <https://thelounge.chat>


1 Important dates
=================

  For EmacsConf 2021, we are planning for 9am to 5pm Toronto/EST
  (2pm-10pm UTC) on November 27 and 28.  Depending on people's
  availability, it might be two half-days.

   CFP opens              August 4, 2021           
   CFP closes             September 30, 2021       
   Speaker notifications  October 15, 2021         
   Schedule published     October 31, 2021         
   EmacsConf 2021!        November 27 and 28, 2021 

  If you are not available during the conference itself but you have a
  neat idea that you would like to share, please propose it anyway!
  You can always handle questions after the conference, and we might
  even be able to coordinate with other Emacs meetups for regional
  events (if you're an Emacs meetup organizer and would like to make
  this happen please get in touch with us!).

  Please note that although we will try our best to stick to the above
  dates in the coming months, given the current state of the world, we
  may have to move things around a bit in case of unforeseen events.
  Thank you for your patience and understanding.


2 Talk formats
==============

  We would like EmacsConf 2021 to inspire lots of different people to
  explore lots of different things in Emacs.  We hope to put together
  a stream of quick ideas followed by lots of conversation over IRC
  and/or Q&A sessions, with occasional deep dives into topics that
  many people might find interesting or useful.

  As you think about your talk, consider what you can share in:

  - *Up to 10 minutes total:* What is the core idea?  What do you want
    people to do or remember?  You can show just enough to get people
    interested and then point them to where they can learn more
    afterwards.  You can answer questions over IRC, the pad, or the
    wiki, and there is no limit to how long that conversation can go.

  - *Up to 20 minutes total:* How would you flesh out some of the
    points from your 5-10 minute presentation?  How can you show the
    pieces working together?

  - *Up to 40 minutes total:* What would benefit from a deep dive?
    How do you keep it engaging?

  When you write your proposal, outline what you plan to talk about if
  you have 5-10 minutes.  If you would like to propose a longer talk,
  outline what you might include for a 5-10 minute talk, a 20-minute
  talk, and optionally a 40-minute talk.

  Example for a 40-minute talk:

  - 5-10 minutes: quick demo of the abc package working together with
    xyz package
  - 20 minutes: + some customization options to accommodate a
    different workflow
  - 40 minutes: + modifying the behaviour of the package in order to
    add something new

  Other session formats such as tutorials, workshops, and hangouts are
  welcome as well, especially considering all that is going on around
  the world, in case you would find those other formats preferable to
  a traditional talk format.  If you are interested in these or other
  session types, please get in touch with us publicly or privately.
  We will be happy to work something out with you.


3 Office hours
==============

  We are aware that it can be a bit intimidating to submit a proposal
  to a conference, so we thought we would try and help!  This year, we
  are opening up the doors of our virtual offices for you to come talk
  to us about your proposals with hopes of helping you with any
  hurdles you may be facing with preparing your proposal.

  We would like to publish a schedule of availabilities of volunteers
  for holding office hours.  Currently these volunteers consist of
  some of the EmacsConf organizers, but we would love to have the help
  of other members of the Emacs community as well for the office
  hours. If you are a more experienced Emacs user and would like to
  help with this, please get in touch!

  Our first office hour this year is planned for Saturday, August 14,
  from 3pm to 4pm UTC with zaeph (Leo Vivier) at the following
  BigBlueButton room: <https://bbb.emacsverse.org/b/ban-qye-fd1-5kw>.


4 Submitting your proposal
==========================

  Once you are ready to submit your proposal, the [submit] page has
  the instructions on how to submit your talk.

  We use an anonymized submission process to reduce bias and encourage
  contribution.  Identifying information will be removed from
  submissions by a conference organizer who will not participate in
  talk selection.  The anonymized submissions will then be reviewed by
  a selection committee.

  If your talk is approved, we would love it if you could help us make
  sure the conference runs smoothly.  After we email you with the time
  alloted for your talk, we will ask you to:

  - prepare a prerecording of your talk, or record it with our help if
    that would be easier for you; and
  - schedule a short tech-check if you would like to answer questions
    in a live session.

  Don't forget to subscribe to our mailing list, [emacsconf-discuss],
  for discussion and announcements about the EmacsConf conference.

  We look forward to your ideas and submissions!


[submit] <https://emacsconf.org/2021/submit/>

[emacsconf-discuss]
<https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/emacsconf-discuss>


5 Getting involved
==================

  If you would like to help with the conference (planning the
  sessions, reviewing proposals, helping with infrastructure, making
  sessions more accessible, editing video transcripts, etc), see our
  [planning] page and come say hi to us at `#emacsconf' on
  `irc.libera.chat'.

  Subscribe to our mailing list, [emacsconf-discuss], for discussions
  and announcements about the EmacsConf conference.

  We look forward to your ideas and submissions!


[planning] <https://emacsconf.org/2021/planning/>

[emacsconf-discuss]
<https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/emacsconf-discuss>


6 Commitment to freedom
=======================

  We remain fully committed to freedom, and we will continue using our
  infrastructure and streaming setup consisting entirely of [free
  software], much like previous EmacsConf conferences.


[free software] <https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html>

emacsconf-2021-cfp.org
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