[fr] Ma proposition de conférence pour BlogTalk 2008 a été rejetée. Du coup, il est possible que je n'aille pas en Irlande, pour finir.
So, bummer. My talk proposal for BlogTalk 2008 was rejected. As it is a peer-reviewed process, I got the detail of the reasons for being rejected.
Here’s what the first reviewer said, rating me 1 (weak accept):
The proposal touches on an interesting issue influencing individual blogging practices as well as structural aspects of blogospheres (linguistic boundaries).
I have no beef with that. Reviewer number two, however, rates me 0 (borderline paper) with the following comment:
This appears to be an interesting topic .. however I cant find anyone
actually doing this on a large scale with respect to blogging. Its
implementation would be complex for bloggers(and probably expensive).
More importantly, there is an attempt now towards localization as
opposed to translation i.e. there is a move toward local social
networking as opposed to trnslating one experinece in many languages.
What bothers me here is the person reviewing my proposal doesn’t seem to have understood what it was about. “Multilingual blogging”, in the sense I’m interested in, has nothing to do with “translation” — quite the opposite. Granted, “nothing to do” is maybe a little strong, but I don’t view multilingual blogging as “translation blogging”.
I’ll admit I’m disappointed. Colour me naive, but I honestly didn’t expect a rejection. Did the fact I didn’t provide an academic-like 2-page proposal have an influence, here? If it did, I think it’s a shame. Blogtalk aims to bridge the academic and social media worlds (at least, this is my understanding after some discussions with the organisers about the proposal format). It seems to me to be pretty skewed towards the academic.
Following the rejection of my talk, I’m actually wondering how much sense it makes for me to take the trip to Blogtalk. Not in a spirit of retaliation, of course, but from a basic business point of view. It’s an expensive trip for me (compute flights, bed-and-breakfast or hotel for 4 nights, eating out, registration fees). If I’m not talking, I don’t gain much in terms of exposure. I was looking forward to seeing a couple of friends there, but it turns out they won’t be coming. I signed up to give a presentation at the social network portability workshop — but really, this is turning out to be a really expensive investment to go and give a talk at a workshop. (And this, even though I really do care about the topic and welcome the opportunity to express myself on it.)
Now, I’ve got a couple of hours to decide if I’m going to Cork or not, finally. Ironically, the e-mail announcing that my talk was rejected came in literally minutes after I’d finally managed to secure the long-suffering booking for my Cork-Texas flight. Damn.
I’m sorry you got rejected. I still think the whole multilingual blogging thing is highly interessting. The second reviewer really didn’t seem to understand what it is about though. meh.
Ditto. Though I wouldn’t have been attending, I am very interested in getting into the discussion on- and off-line with you. Hope to see you soon!
Paula: yeah, that’s what really disappoints me. I can take rejection if the reasons seem valid (though it’s not necessarily pleasant, of course) but here, it seems to have been turned down for “bad reasons”.
That is a great pity. I have been thinking of going to Cork (not very far from Dublin where I am), and was looking forward to your presentation. Multilingual blogging is a very interesting subject, and like your other commenters, I feel that the second reviewer didn’t quite get it.
Rejection for good reasons is one thing, but those are rather pathetic reasons. My respect for Blogtalk just went down a notch. I wonder what they did accept, and why. I’m not going because I’ll only have just got back from honeymoon, but I have no time for this “two page proposal” bullshit.
Personally though, I don’t find these sorts of conferences good for business at all. Never picked up a new client at one – better conferences for that are more sector-focused, e.g. HR or marketing or IT. So I would save your money, frankly.
So, after deciding not to go and getting a refund for my trip to the US from Cork (not simple) and also for half my journey to Cork, one of the BlogTalk organisers pinged me offering to invite me on a panel and cover part of my expenses (conference fee waived, too).
That changes things. I’d be able to speak at the Social Network Portability workshop too, which is tied to my coming with BlogTalk (to be honest, it was the main reason I would have still gone there if I had decided to).
So, I’ve un-cancelled the flight to Cork that I’d cancelled.
I’ll sleep on it before I take a final decision, and either re-cancel that bit and make arrangements for DFW without going through Cork, or re-book the ORK-DFW flight arrangements I had made (and cancelled),
(Yeah, it’s as fun as it sounds.)
If you have tips on cheap accommodation in Cork (even somebody’s couch), let me know. I’d be there for four nights, 1-5th March.
[EN]
I really don’t get it… If there is something that needs attention in the global blog-scenario is the rising number of blogs from different countries that often face multilingualism issues… and if I think about this topic the number one blogger on my list is this ‘Stephanie Booth’…Anybody knows her?
Now I’m curious to see if there will be someone else talking about this topic at BlogTalk because in a conference like this it would make probably more sense than anywhere else.
With all the respect for BlogTalk, I don’t think it make sense a two page proposal, and I link back to all the good reasons about “why isn’t necessary” posted and commented previously on this blog (also because is not my intention to write a two page long comment)
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[IT]
Andrea
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