In response to the recent call by Terence Tao to suggest how to best use a virtual format for a conference that was held in person in former times, I have some suggestions and some abbreviated reminiscences based on my experiences with the last nine ICMs.
I had occasion to talk with Patrick Ion about documenting and archiving various internet platforms. I think it should be decided and made clear to participants well in advance how much of this online venture is being preserved for posterity. If the people contributing content get this message about preservation deeply, it may encourage them to improve their content and regulate their participation.
I saw a comment by Timothy Gowers who suggested that this was an opportunity to try some experiments in virtual mathematics conferences. I concur with this, with the proviso that the experimental nature of each attempt be made clear, that the process for participation be opt-in, and that the participants take time to fill an exit survey or other formalized version of feedback at the conclusion. (There may be other ways of getting feedback during the experiment.)
I think that a virtual congress message board/profile page would be useful. Everyone who registers for the conference would be given an account with a user page and a mailbox for plain text messages and URLs: one can use other Internet platforms to exchange files or decorated text. This would allow one to have a conference presence to receive and post messages. Ideally participants would use them for conference matters, primarily questions and answers on talks given at the conference. Also, the participant would be limited to contacting groups of three or fewer: no mass messaging in this system by anyone not a system administrator. To keep certain individuals from being overwhelmed by messages, everybody’s inbox would be throttled to receiving fifty messages a day (or some figure that would be set by the participant). The participant would be given a month after the congress to clear out the user page and mailbox of any material they did not want preserved. (Variants of this like a group “signing” of a digital thank you card could be offered, but opportunities for mass participation in this particular system would be limited and managed by sysadmins.)
I would like to see a curated poster board session. This would be a session of web pages that would be archived as would a collection of abstracts and summaries. If the congress members wanted to participate in the selection (so that the best one thousand posters were chosen for preservation), then a process of voting or critiquing could occur for two weeks before the congress opened officially, and the selected posters would be available for the entirety of the congress.
I think the Short Communications should be limited to one such communication per member. (The reason for such a limit is to keep from saturating Congress participants.) Those who wish to share more material can use their user page to link to material off site. If the committee responsible finds the off-site material suitable and sufficiently desirable, they can request a copy of it to be included with the conference material to be archived. Although the message board system above can handle the traffic for questions about Short Communications, it may be reasonable to have a specialized Q/A/D (discussion) system for the communications.
I understand that some of these features need to be handled apart from the IMU and that authority and responsibility will be distributed in a fashion different from what was planned. It is my hope that the IMU will take the responsibility of archiving and curating some of the result, and making it part of the WDML.
== Some reminiscences ==
I am grateful to Rod Price, who suggested I take time off work to attend the Congress being held in Berkeley, an hour’s drive away. It encouraged me to attempt graduate study and research. I remember there being too much to see and visit, and had a dim memory of speakers deBranges and Shelah.
I spent a year learning Japanese for the Kyoto conference. I was glad that it was localized to the RIMS center, and that I had some time to visit a local temple. Again too much mathematics to see.
I really liked the complementary wine glasses served at the Zuerich ICM and have one of them on my bookshelf. Unfortunately, my poster session was scheduled at the same time as an invited lecture, so I abandoned my poster on my dissertation topic to attend the lecture. I could see ‘ICM merch’ being a thing, with proceeds going to the IMU or similar efforts to help the spread of mathematics education and research.
I enjoyed giving a Short Communication in Berlin, but had to choose visiting relatives over full conference attendance. I started shifting my focus to two or three of the main sections, rather than trying to take in all of them.
I was glad for the opportunity to give another SC in Beijing, but wish I had managed my time better. I liked being able to use their computer facilities, which almost tempted me away from the talks. I also was surprised at the amount of celebrity John Nash was given, and was glad that opportunities for conference feedback were proffered. (Regretfully, I did not speak up at the time.)
I was disappointed by not being offered a regular spot for a Short Communication or poster in Madrid. However, they offered special lecture opportunities (essentially a slot in a room and announcement in the daily newsletter) which I took up. The ICM museum exhibit was a lovely idea that I hope gets resurrected. (Also the guy with the jackhammer cutting a donut in half was novel.) I think I enjoyed the tapas the most out of all the ICM food offerings I experienced. I also enjoyed walking around that part of the city to look at the architecture.
(I will expand upon this list as memories continue to surface.)
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