EuroPython Conference Software Requirements
This page is derived from ["PyConPlanning/SoftwareRequirements"] but focuses on things that have proven more relevant to EuroPython. The requirements here do not directly address general conference Web site issues, such as http://www.europython.org/ which focuses on the publishing of general information about the conference.
Essentials
These are things which have been central to the organisation of EuroPython and which have already been managed using conference software:
- Account management
- Registration
- Paper/talk submissions
- Scheduling
Extras
These are things which could have been managed using conference software or which could have been made easier using such software:
- Feedback
- Sponsor management
Luxuries
These are things which people seem to find interesting but which haven't been the focus of the EuroPython organisers:
- Mapping of attendee locations
Account Management
It is not generally a good idea to allow unauthenticated users to register for a conference - this tends to attract speculative registrations from people who seem not to be serious about attending. However, a few use-cases need to be supported for people logging in to...
- Register themselves
- Register other people
- Submit/edit materials created by themselves or collaborators
- Review paper/talk submissions
- Manage aspects of the conference
One limitation of the Indico instance hosted at CERN was the insistence that registrants must have their own account. Creative workarounds include using distinct e-mail aliases belonging to one person.
Registration
This combines some of the PyCon requirements for "users" with more general requirements:
- Identify registrants/users by e-mail
- Support registrant status information: participant, speaker, volunteer, session chair
Collect geographic information (this is more relevant for EuroPython given the number of countries)
- Export/reports of registrant information including e-mail address, name, T-shirt size, food preferences (if any), include in delegate listing Y/N, permission to e-mail about the conference (Y/N), paid/unpaid (Y/N), registrant status (see above)
- Support e-payment and later payment (bank transfer being the norm in Europe)
- Must support different prices for students, non-students (and other classes of registrant)
- Keeps or can generate the total revenue for the conference
- Badges must be able to show name, class/status, organisation, origin and must obviously be exportable (as PDF, for example)
- Support tutorial registration and extra events
- Support capacity limits for tutorials and extra events
- Optional donations and/or extra items
- Support non-paying registrants (guests, invitees)
- Export conference materials for proceedings
Paper/Talk Submissions
- Users can submit proposals (see "Account Management")
- Some users have 'reviewer' status and can look at other people's proposals
- Some users have 'organizer' status and can mark proposals as 'accepted' or 'declined', and can set a scheduled time/location
- Proposals have: title, summary/abstract, description, category, length (30/45 min), difficulty level (beginner/intermediate/advanced), a list of 3 assigned reviewers, an accepted boolean, a list of reviewer comments, and a list of uploaded documents
A mechanism must exist for reviewers to choose or be assigned submissions; PyCon requirements involve assigning 3 reviewers at random (excluding the author)
- Reviewer voting or the mechanisms to form a consensus
- Exports/reports showing the status of submissions and their scores
- Reviewers and users can comment, but some reviewer comments can be withheld from the user until a decision is made
- Notifications via e-mail about comments and decisions
Scheduling
- Produce online schedules with talk information, track/theme membership for each room
- Produce printable schedules for the entire conference, and for individual rooms for a given day
- Track session chairs for each session
- It can be nice to be able to edit the schedule interactively
Sponsors
- Sponsors can fill in a form with contact information that gets stored in a list and also e-mailed to the sponsorship coordinator
- The coordinator can enter sponsors who've committed: contact info, sponsorship level (platinum/gold/silver), invoice number, paid (Y/N), Web graphic, banner provided (Y/N), banner received (Y/N), comments on where the banner should be displayed
Feedback
- Forms for the entire conference, and for specific talks and tutorials (but not sprints since they're separate things)
- Report: feedback summary for the conference, summaries for individual talks
- E-mail authors with the results from their talk's feedback