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Hey all,

I've gotten permission to use a German professor's academic conference
software as the basis for creating a system to automate future
MEFAwards. The base software is called ConfTool, and their website is:

http://vsys1.informatik.uni-hamburg.de//information/conftool.en.html

There's a demo conftool site there, but the MEFA system will have a
huge number of differences, including renaming all the parts to
something more appropriate to MEFA. I'm essentially ditching all the
'participation' stuff, and only using the paper submission/review
stuff. At academic conferences, you submit a paper to the program
committee, they assign it to a limited number of reviewers, it gets
reviewed and the program committee decides whether to accept it or not.
In this case, we're all the program committee, and have been assigned
to review them all!

There's even an 'upload paper' function that I hope to be able to use
to collect all the banner artwork.

I've still got a LOT of work to do, but so far, I have a system where
any user can submit a story, and any user can submit a review (except
the author!). I have lots of plans, including allowing the same system
to run for multiple years. In fact, I'm planning to use the 2004 awards
as the test for 2005. After entering all the reviews (I'll want
everyone to help) and testing the counting system, they will become an
archive for the 2004 awards, where anybody (even guests) can come look
at the reviews and see the story links and winners.

I'm reading the PM so I can try to get a feel for what the system needs
to do. A few policy decisions may need to be based whether or not I can
(or have time/energy to) do things a certain way. For example, once a
story has been nominated, even before it has been assigned to a
particular category, people can start writing their reviews and storing
them in the system. It's possible to limit this to voting season, but I
can't see any reason to do so. They will transfer with the story when
it is assigned. (We'll have to be sure to keep good backups of the
database!) Using the system also means there will only be one voting
season, but since the counting will be automated, and that's why the
multiple voting seasons were necessary, I'm guessing that'll be OK.

Elana (my wife) also suggested that I put three status types on the
review. Draft would be for a review that is just starting, and still
needs significant work. Tentative will be for one that is substantially
complete and could be submitted, but you're still wanting to wait.
Final would be for ones that are submitted. Final reviews cannot be
edited, and are posted for all to see. At the end of Voting Season, all
Tentative stories would be converted to Final, and Draft would not be
counted. This can be tweaked, and will be subject to final approval,
but I would like to use it.

Like I said, I still have a LOT of work to do. Once I have made some
significant progress, I'll post a demo site for all to test it out, and
make suggestions. After that stage, it will be a lot easier to figure
out what will/won't work, and how you all want me to change the system.

I'll probably mostly correspond with Ainae privately, but I thought you
all might like to hear what I'm trying to do. I probably won't post
again until I have the demo site to look at. That may be anywhere from
2-4 weeks, possibly more.

OK, I'll stop writing now, and go back to hacking on the code.

Later,
Anthony

Wow, that sounds so cool!! I'm psyched to be able to try it!!


--- Anthony Holder <aaholder@swbell.net> wrote:

> Hey all,
>
> I've gotten permission to use a German professor's academic conference
> software as the basis for creating a system to automate future
> MEFAwards. The base software is called ConfTool, and their website is:

=====
Larian
larian_elensar@yahoo.com
Live Journal: http://www.livejournal.com/users/larian
Keeper of the OEAM archive http://www.ofelvesandmen.com
Archive addy archive@ofelvesandmen.com

Anthony, that is just amazing! I don't understand How it will all work from a technical pov, but it sure sounds like however you and Ainae decide things that we are going to have a pretty convenient and usable system. Thank you so much for doing this!

Marigold

>
>Hey all,
>
>I've gotten permission to use a German professor's academic conference
>software as the basis for creating a system to automate future
>MEFAwards. The base software is called ConfTool, and their website is:
>
>http://vsys1.informatik.uni-hamburg.de//information/conftool.en.html
>
>There's a demo conftool site there, but the MEFA system will have a
>huge number of differences, including renaming all the parts to
>something more appropriate to MEFA. I'm essentially ditching all the
>'participation' stuff, and only using the paper submission/review
>stuff. At academic conferences, you submit a paper to the program
>committee, they assign it to a limited number of reviewers, it gets
>reviewed and the program committee decides whether to accept it or not.
>In this case, we're all the program committee, and have been assigned
>to review them all!
>
>There's even an 'upload paper' function that I hope to be able to use
>to collect all the banner artwork.
>
>I've still got a LOT of work to do, but so far, I have a system where
>any user can submit a story, and any user can submit a review (except
>the author!). I have lots of plans, including allowing the same system
>to run for multiple years. In fact, I'm planning to use the 2004 awards
>as the test for 2005. After entering all the reviews (I'll want
>everyone to help) and testing the counting system, they will become an
>archive for the 2004 awards, where anybody (even guests) can come look
>at the reviews and see the story links and winners.
>
>I'm reading the PM so I can try to get a feel for what the system needs
>to do. A few policy decisions may need to be based whether or not I can
>(or have time/energy to) do things a certain way. For example, once a
>story has been nominated, even before it has been assigned to a
>particular category, people can start writing their reviews and storing
>them in the system. It's possible to limit this to voting season, but I
>can't see any reason to do so. They will transfer with the story when
>it is assigned. (We'll have to be sure to keep good backups of the
>database!) Using the system also means there will only be one voting
>season, but since the counting will be automated, and that's why the
>multiple voting seasons were necessary, I'm guessing that'll be OK.
>
>Elana (my wife) also suggested that I put three status types on the
>review. Draft would be for a review that is just starting, and still
>needs significant work. Tentative will be for one that is substantially
>complete and could be submitted, but you're still wanting to wait.
>Final would be for ones that are submitted. Final reviews cannot be
>edited, and are posted for all to see. At the end of Voting Season, all
>Tentative stories would be converted to Final, and Draft would not be
>counted. This can be tweaked, and will be subject to final approval,
>but I would like to use it.
>
>Like I said, I still have a LOT of work to do. Once I have made some
>significant progress, I'll post a demo site for all to test it out, and
>make suggestions. After that stage, it will be a lot easier to figure
>out what will/won't work, and how you all want me to change the system.
>
>I'll probably mostly correspond with Ainae privately, but I thought you
>all might like to hear what I'm trying to do. I probably won't post
>again until I have the demo site to look at. That may be anywhere from
>2-4 weeks, possibly more.
>
>OK, I'll stop writing now, and go back to hacking on the code.
>
>Later,
>Anthony
>
>
>
>
>
>Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>

--
Marigold's Red Book
http://marigoldsredbook.crickhollow.net/

Marigold's Recommendations Page
http://www.geocities.com/marigoldsrecommendations/

Marigold's Live Journal
http://www.livejournal.com/users/marigoldg/

Tales of The Red Book
http://www.livejournal.com/users/talesofredbook/

There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for awhile. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.

Sam, in Mordor, RoTK

Yep, it does sound amazing! We've been going ahead with the PM with
this NOT in mind, just in case. Obviously, if we get this worked
out, some things will change. I can't remember what at this time, but
I remember saying things like "unless we get the electronic stuff
up". ;-) We'll revise the FAQ as necessary to account for all
this. It does sound great and will make a lot of the MEFAs easier
for all concerned. I still want reviews posted (after FINAL) only
during Voting Season, but you would have a convenient to place
to "vote early" and store those votes (and revise them, add to them,
rethink them, whatever) before they get posted.

And Anthony even thinks he can help with the banners by automatically
adding the right text on them if we leave bars on the bottom for it.
I think that's how I remember it.

In the meantime, keep on like we're doing it by hand. Today and
tomorrow are the last days for the regular PM. Starting Jan 1, we'll
take a look at our categories and see what we want to keep, change,
and add. I've created a database for categories and put all of the
2004 categories in there plus two suggested categories. You may go
ahead and add suggestions (they can't be edited but they can be
added). Save the discussion though, until January.

--Ainaechoiriel
Posting by Yahoo again. It looked like blowing all the accumulated
cat hair out of the computer and power supply would make Starbase
happy but alas, it seems I really shall have to replace the power
supply.

--- In MEFAwards@yahoogroups.com, MarigoldCotton@a... wrote:
> Anthony, that is just amazing! I don't understand How it will all
work from a technical pov, but it sure sounds like however you and
Ainae decide things that we are going to have a pretty convenient and
usable system. Thank you so much for doing this!
>
> Marigold
>
>
> >
> >Hey all,
> >
> >I've gotten permission to use a German professor's academic
conference
> >software as the basis for creating a system to automate future
> >MEFAwards. The base software is called ConfTool, and their website
is:
> >
> >http://vsys1.informatik.uni-
hamburg.de//information/conftool.en.html