Satisfaction with talks

[bascule]

Let me just say there's an awful lot of personal bias behind this poll, but I'll just throw it out there without any editorial for the time being.

How many talks did you attend, and were you satisfied with them?

[shrdlu]

Re: Satisfaction with talks

Let me just say there's an awful lot of personal bias behind this poll, but I'll just throw it out there without any editorial for the time being.

How many talks did you attend, and were you satisfied with them?

You left out several options, and yes, your bias is showing.

- I attended zero talks because I couldn't get in to any talks that I wanted to see.
- I attended zero talks because for me, Defcon is for hallway meetings where I see friends and acquaintances.
- I attended zero talks because I was working on [fill in the blank] contest

I'm sure that there's more, but that's a start.

[Schuyler]

Re: Satisfaction with talks

2 & loved them. But I was really picky this year, didn't take time out of my con to attend ones I might have liked but wasn't sure about.

[Neophile]

Re: Satisfaction with talks

Can I have an option for "half of the talks were good"? That's the box I would check. There were many great, really informative talks, but it was fairly evenly split. I went to about 16 talks (they all had such interesting descriptions!). I felt there were some that seemed to be grabbing on to buzzwords without delivering. On the other hand, others were still about hot topics (like "Clobbering the Cloud") that were very interesting. On the whole I enjoyed the talks and definitely hope to come again next year.

[Rhetorical]

Re: Satisfaction with talks

I went to... I'd have to dig through the program and count them out, but it was probably around half a dozen. There was only one that I didn't enjoy. A few were sort of borderline in that the material was interesting, but the presenters were not. It was my first DC so I sort of felt obligated to attend a lot of talks. I will definitely attend fewer next year, mainly because there was so much else to do, and while the talks can be downloaded later, the rest can't.

[krux]

Re: Satisfaction with talks

I went to... I'd have to dig through the program and count them out, but it was probably around half a dozen. There was only one that I didn't enjoy. A few were sort of borderline in that the material was interesting, but the presenters were not. It was my first DC so I sort of felt obligated to attend a lot of talks. I will definitely attend fewer next year, mainly because there was so much else to do, and while the talks can be downloaded later, the rest can't.

Talks? Defcon consisted of Mystery Challenge and a little of the hardware hacking village for me. I didn't even see the vendor area. I look forward to seeing the talks online when they're up.

[nous]

Re: Satisfaction with talks

I made it to one talk. I attempted to go to more but the mess in the hallways and the line "issues" turned me off. I'm pretty bummed about that. I had at least a dozen talks I wanted to attend.

[bascule]

Re: Satisfaction with talks

My general take on this is that the forum.defcon.org sample of talk satisfaction is much higher than my own. Perhaps I should be more judicious in my talk selection in the future.

[theprez98]

Re: Satisfaction with talks

My general take on this is that the forum.defcon.org sample of talk satisfaction is much higher than my own. Perhaps I should be more judicious in my talk selection in the future.

What talks did you like or not like?

[bascule]

Re: Satisfaction with talks

What talks did you like or not like?

Jason Scott's was awesome and the talk I went to on the Metasploit track was pretty interesting. The talk I went to on Flash remoting exploits not so much.

My general problem isn't so much the content of the talks I attended as the lack of talks on topics I find particularly interesting, such as early hacker culture / cyberculture. The "Retro Room" with the vaxen was fucking awesome, however why isn't there a talk on that sort of thing.

My inspiration for this thread was that certain people seemed adamantly opposed to recruiting speakers to talk about early hacker culture, which is a topic I'd find far more interesting than any of the talks I attended (no offense Sketchcow, hearing about crazies trying to sue you was awesome, but... perhaps you could give a talk on early cyberculture too!)

Personally I find opposition to this fucking retarded. I wonder how many Defcon attendees actually know what the WELL was and why Kevin Mitnick was a fucking asshole to hack it. There's a lot of history to the culture that Defcon is an outgrowth of that I think most people don't even know about. Maybe I'm just a bit too meta, but I'd rather attend talks on the history of hacker culture than hearing the latest in CSRF vulnerabilities. But hey, if that's your thing, who am I to argue except to say it isn't my thing.

[theprez98]

Re: Satisfaction with talks

Personally I find opposition to this fucking retarded. I wonder how many Defcon attendees actually know what the WELL was and why Kevin Mitnick was a fucking asshole to hack it. There's a lot of history to the culture that Defcon is an outgrowth of that I think most people don't even know about. Maybe I'm just a bit too meta, but I'd rather attend talks on the history of hacker culture than hearing the latest in CSRF vulnerabilities. But hey, if that's your thing, who am I to argue except to say it isn't my thing.

I don't have any problem with talks about the early hacker culture, I think that is a good thing. On the flip side, I've been to some of these historical talks, and they tend to be tinged with politics...something I care not for at DEFCON. HOPE, well that's another story.

If by recruiting you mean: "hey, DEFCON CFP is opening on xx, there is a lot of interest in what you could talk about, how about submitting something?" then sure, I'm all for it. However, I am opposed to recruiting people under the circumstances you previously mentioned--they have never been to DEFCON (or its been a long time), but they might consider coming if we paid for them. Honestly? F*ck that. If we have to resort to paying for someone's travel to convince them to come talk, I don't want them there in the first place. Many of us work hard all year long to come to DEFCON, and even as speakers, we're doing it on own dime (minus the registration fee). If you start paying the way for one person, why not another. Would it be fair to the other 100+ speakers?

If you think there is interest in this subject, why not set up interviews with some of these folks and make it into a talk of your own?

[Thorn]

Re: Satisfaction with talks

Bascule, you might be interested in reading "II Cybernetic Frontiers" by Stewart Brand (he of "The Whole Earth Catalog"), if you can find a used copy. It was published in 1974. The first half is about the anthropologist Gregory Bateson, and is IMO only mildly interesting. The second part however, is a inside look at hacker culture and roots circa 1973. It was originally written as a couple of Rolling Stone articles by Brand, who was looking at all these people doing 'weird stuff' with computers, back in the day when computers were only mainframes, and were mainly corporate billing devices. It stuffs a huge amount of early hacker and tech culture in the story, from the Well's origin, to PARC's inventions before Jobs figured out how to make money with them, to the earliest computer gaming parties (held in machine rooms to play the original Spacewar).

[noid]

Re: Satisfaction with talks

My inspiration for this thread was that certain people seemed adamantly opposed to recruiting speakers to talk about early hacker culture

Wow, passive aggressive much?

PM me an address, I'll get some Vagisil out your way.

[sintax_error]

Re: Satisfaction with talks

I think I hit at least 4-6 talks throughout the 4 days. The content of a good chunk of that was great. Others I had to walk out on for one reason or another (phone call, other engagements, etc.) There were others I would have liked to attend, but didn't, hellish lines, ran into someone I only see once a year, etc.

As for Talks on the history of the culture, etc. Bascule, I'd probably sit in the lines, snag a seat on the floor, whatever. It's an interesting subject, and brings us all back to the olden days, those kinds of talks are a good thing. It's when specific speakers get compensated more than others because of who they are or the nature of their talk that I start to get negative vibes about it. If you have to be paid or compensated for the trip (other than how some get sent by their employer/agency or the usual speaker accommodations), then what the hell are you doing at DEFCON in the first place? I'm sorry, but if someone's not passionate enough about it to do it on their own, or needs to be coaxed into speaking, then I for one have no interest in what they have to say.

[bascule]

Re: Satisfaction with talks

What if they're too poor to attend otherwise?