FOSS4G 2009 Workshop Selection Criteria

Criteria used for ranking workshops and tutorials

The following criteria will be scored:

1.		Basic themes
	1.1	Meets the conference theme, "User Driven"
	1.2	Makes use of FOSS software
	1.3	Promotes FOSS software
2.		Workshop
	2.1	Demonstrates practical application
	2.2	Feedback / evaluations from previous conferences for similar workshop topic
3.		Instructor(s)
	3.1	Expertise in the topics discussed
	3.2	Previous presentation experience
	3.3	Feedback / evaluations from previous conferences
4.		Booleans
	4.1	Beginner User
	4.2	Technical requirements can be met by the conference facilities

Scoring

Each criteria above will be rated on a scale from 0 to 5 as follows:

0 = does not meet the criteria
1 = pays lip-service to the criteria
3 = fundamentally meets the criteria
5 = exceeds all of the criteria

Section 4 (Boolean) are ranked simply as satisfying (1) or not satisfying (0) the criteria.

Weighting

Here's where things get tricky. The criteria points do not hold even weight, nor do they hold the same weight in workshops as tutorials.

For example, it has been observed during past conferences that beginner workshops are much more important than advanced or developer oriented workshops. As such, beginner workshops should be rated higher. This is not the case with tutorials, which would benefit from a more balanced distribution.

Process

As we have not defined a separate Workshops committee, the selection of workshops will fall to the Local Organising Committee. All members that are not submitting workshops or tutorials of their own will be encouraged to rank the workshops and someone will coalate the rankings and report the selections. The LOC will have the opportunity to alter the selection at that stage in order to ensure we are presenting the kind of program we want, but will need to do so in a public forum.