Thursday, April 16, 2009

This is not cool...

I am very excited about the upcoming conference on Ethics of Information Organization; the program looks promising -- but it is not cool that you can only register for the conference if you have a US address... Notice that the drop-down list of states only gives US states... no Canadian provinces or territories; not to mention that many countries don't have the equivalence of American/Canadian states/provinces/territories... they also ask for a zip code (not a postal code) which has to consist of five characters... geez...

If it wasn't because this was for a conference about ethics... I assume that some of the speakers will talk about the challenges of creating systems that aren't exclusive... then one could go into a rant about the stupidity and ignorance of systems designers... but in this case, I assume it is a trick to get us thinking and blogging before the start of conference. Mission accomplished.

6 comments:

  1. Too weird when another U of T professor as a keynote speaker

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  2. Have you written the organizers yet to ask that they change the registration form?

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  3. Yes, I have contacted them. No response.

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  4. Update: I am being allowed to register on-site and get the early bird discount... that's good... but it doesn't make it cool.

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  5. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  6. You're right, it isn't cool, and as the conference organizer, I apologize for the frustration this has caused.

    This design flaw has been brought to the attention of the system developers, and I will work hard to ensure future attendees won't be subjected to this kind of limitation

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