Talks

Talk Properties

Talks have a title, an abstract / description and authors. These fields will be the publicly visible information about the talk once the talk is accepted.

In addition, talks have a notes field, which the submitters can use to provide additional private information about the talk, such as specialised equipment requirements.

The talks also have a private notes field that is only visible to organisers, which can be used to track any additional information on the talk, such as assigned reviewers and so forth.

Talk Types

Before opening up talk submissions, define the talk types available to talk submitters, such as Tutorial, Short Talks and so forth.

Each Talk Type can be opened or closed for submissions individually via the admin interface. Both the global WAFER_TALKS_OPEN setting and the individual Talk Type must be set to allow submissions for submissions of the given type to be accepted.

There is a Django view at /talks/types which displays the list of types and their descriptions. By default, this list isn’t linked to the menu, since it’s intended to be linked to by pages describing the talks and talk submission process.

Submitting Talks

Users can submit talks from their profile page using the Submit Talk Proposal option. The abstract can be formatted using Markdown.

The notes section is only visible to the talk author, talk mentors and admins. It is intended for providing extra information and recording developments that are useful to associate with the talk, but should not be public.

Talks can have multiple authors, but only one corresponding author. Only the corresponding author can edit the talk submission.

Talk Mentors

The “Talk Mentors” group has permission to do the following through the /talks/ (public) talk interface, and the detail pages of each talk:

  • View all talk submissions (not just accepted talks).

  • Edit submitted talks.

  • View and edit the notes submitted along with a talk, which are visible to the talk submitter.

  • View and edit the private notes which are only visible to the “Talk Mentors”, “Talk Reviewers”, and administrators by default.

Talk Reviewers

The “Talk Reviewers” group has permission to do the following through the /talks/ (public) talk interface, and the detail pages of each talk:

  • View all talk submissions (not just accepted talks).

  • View the notes submitted along with a talk, which are visible to the talk submitter.

  • View the private notes which are only visible to the “Talk Mentors”, “Talk Reviewers”, and administrators by default.

  • Leave reviews on talks. See Talk Reviews.

Managing talks from the admin interface

From the admin interface talks can be modified, and the status can be updated as required.

Talks can have following states:

  • Submitted

  • Under Consideration

  • Withdrawn

  • Provisionally Accepted

  • Accepted

  • Cancelled

  • Not Accepted

When a talk is first submitted, the state is set to Submitted.

Once the talk has received its first review, the state of the talk will change to Under Consideration. It can also be changed manually, if not using wafer’s review system.

While the talk is either Submitted or Under Consideration, the submitter can withdraw the talk from consideration, which sets the state of the talk to Withdrawn. The submitter can also edit and update the talk abstract while the talk is in these two states.

Once a decision one the talk has been made, the talk should be set to either Accepted or Not Accepted. For conferences where a submitter needs to confirm attendance before the decision is finalised, the status can be set to Provisionally Accepted for talks waiting for confirmation. Once a talk is in any of these states, it can no longer be edited by the submitter. Not Accepted and Provisionally Accepted talks are not publicly visible, while Accepted talks are public.

If for some reason, an Accepted talk cannot be given, it can be marked as Cancelled. Cancelled talks are still public, so that cancelled a scheduled talk does not invalidate the schedule.

If the talk has a type that has show_pending_submissions enabled, then it will be public immediately after submission, in any of the Submitted, Under Consideration, and Provisionally Accepted states.

Talk tracks

Wafer optionally supports multiple talk tracks. Create the tracks in the admin interface. If there are multiple tracks, submitters will be asked to choose a track for each submission. If there are no tracks specified, the option will be hidden from the submitter.

Currently, tracks merely provide extra information for talk reviewers and attendees.

There is a Django view at /talks/tracks which displays the list of tracks and their descriptions. As with talk types, this list isn’t linked to the menu, since it’s intended to be linked to by pages describing the talks and talk submission process.

Talk Reviews

Talk Mentors can review talks by metrics chosen by the administrators. Create the desired metrics in the admin interface.

Reviewers (“Talk Reviewers” team by default) see a “Review” button on talk pages, and will be prompted to review each talk by each defined metric. The reviews are a score for each metric (in the range of -2 to 2, by default, configurable via WAFER_TALK_REVIEW_SCORES). The reviewer can also leave a textual review, in Markdown.

If a reviewer re-reviews a talk, it just updates the previous review.

The aggregate reviews are visible in the talk admin.

In the public talk listing, reviewers will see a symbol next to talks they have reviewed. It will change to a clock symbol, if their review is out of date (someone has changed the talk, since the review was last updated).

Talk URLs

URLs can be associated with talks using the admin interface. This is intended for adding links to slides and videos of the talk after the conference.