SMWCon Fall 2013 retrospect

SMWCon Fall 2013 was surveyed by the organisers to allow attendees to provide feedback. This page aggregates the feedback provided by them. A document containing detailed individual feedback is available for organisers of future SMWCons. The organisers of themselves have additionally created a "Lessons learned" document available for future organisers of SMWCons.


 * 1) What did you like the most about the conference?
 * 1) Organisation
 * 2) * Well organised
 * 3) * Nice atmosphere
 * 4) Contents
 * 5) * Wide area of topics
 * 6) ** Applications / extensions / use cases talked about
 * 7) Participation/Networking
 * 8) * Wide range/good mix of people
 * 9) * Experts speaking and attending
 * 10) * Great interaction among participants


 * 2) How can we improve the conference next time?
 * 1) Format
 * 2) * more speakers
 * 3) ** more tutorials/demos
 * 4) ** more lightning talks
 * 5) * allow for more impromptu sessions (birds of feather)
 * 6) ** discussions about marketing
 * 7) ** discussions about business use
 * 8) ** discussions about programming issues
 * 9) * more time for single talks (20 min too rushed)
 * 10) * longer lunch breaks (1 ½ h)
 * 11) * more interaction between attendees (to be achieved by a mix of improvements: see points above)
 * 12) Location
 * 13) * Solid bandwidth required
 * 14) * More signs and pointers to the right spot
 * 15) * tables rather than chairs, especially for tutorials
 * 16) * More space per person
 * 17) * Sufficient power supply


 * 3) What group do you belong to?
 * Academia - 11
 * For-profit organization - 7
 * Non-profit organization - 3
 * Government or public organization - 5
 * Student - 4


 * 4) What best describes your job position?
 * business owner - 1
 * manager - 6
 * developer/programmer - 10
 * professor/researcher - 10
 * student - 4
 * other - consultant, employee


 * 5) Where did you learn about the conference?
 * poster - 0
 * LinkedIn - 2
 * mailing lists - 5
 * huge banner on semantic-mediawiki.org - 13
 * from friend - 7
 * other - internet research about wiki systems, google, GSoC mentor


 * 6) What topic interests you the most in the conference:
 * Business applications of semantic wikis - 12
 * Scientific applications of semantic wikis - 8
 * Technical talks - 15
 * Current status talks - 12
 * Other - roadmap


 * 7) Which conference sessions were the most interesting for you?
 * 1st day. Morning Session 2. Current status of SMW and new ideas - 9
 * 1st day. Morning Session 3. Consulting business - 5
 * 1st day. Afternoon Session 1. Science and SMW - 11
 * 2nd day. Morning Session 1. Semantic Tools - 9
 * 2nd day. Morning Session 2. Models and SMW - 11
 * 2nd day. Afternoon Session 1. SMW in Public Sector - 7
 * 2nd day. Afternoon Session 2. More SMW! - 4


 * 8) What was your main motivation for coming to the conference?
 * Networking: meeting with people interested in some topics - 15
 * Listening to the news about SMW - 14
 * Promoting my tool/project/idea - 3
 * I’m new to SMW and I wanted to learn about it - 7
 * Other - sharing experience/knowledge, tutorial/some talks


 * 9) What do you think about the review process of the conference (if applicable)?
 * I like it, let’s make it the same next time - 11
 * It’s too demanding - 0
 * It has to be more formal - 2
 * We don’t need a review process - 2
 * Other - call for talks with criteria


 * 10) How do you contribute to Semantic MediaWiki (check all that is applicable)?
 * I write the code of SMW or semantic extensions - 10
 * I write or translate the documentation - 0
 * I write scientific papers or media articles mentioning SMW - 11
 * I answer questions on mailing lists and community portal - 2
 * I promote SMW among my friends - 11
 * I promote SMW among my students\colleagues - 14
 * Other - offer SMW based services to customers


 * 11) How do you use SMW?
 * I use it for my business - 10
 * I use it for my non-profit activities - 13
 * I use it in learning process - 9
 * I don’t use SMW - 1
 * Other - research projects/personal knowledge management