Dear fellow code4libbers,

In conjunction with the upcoming code4lib conference, we are trying
to organize a one day pre-conference event around lucene and solr.
(See http://lucene.apache.org/java/docs/index.html and http://
incubator.apache.org/solr/ if you don't know what these words mean.)
Erik Hatcher, one of the authors of _Lucene in Action_  (http://
lucenebook.com/) has volunteered to lead it. This is an exciting
opportunity for anyone who works with (or who wants to learn how to
work with) lucene and/or solr, a webservices wrapper for lucene.

My questions for the code4lib ad-hocracy are:

1. How many participants would we have for such an event? Attending
would involve showing up for the conference a day early to
participate in a full-day event. Please email [log in to unmask] if
you would be interested in attending so we can gauge interest. The
number of people who want to attend will help to determine the answer
to question #2...

2. What kind of format would folks like to see for this event? If we
have 50 people or less, it has been suggested that we have a half day
lecture /  half day hands-on workshop, where people bring their own
laptops and data sets and we try to get people up and running in
their own context and with their own data. Think old-school linux
install-fest meets Access hack-fest. Alternatively, if we have much
more interest, we could either do just a lecture / discussion, or
else we could break into groups if we can get more people to
volunteer to be helpers. Erik, justifiably, doesn't feel he can serve
as a hands-on advisor for 100 people. For the hands-on portion to
work with a large group, we would need a significant number of people
with wi-fi enabled computers to bring their equipment and their data,
as well as enough people with lucene/solr experience to help Erik
answer questions and troubleshoot.

3. Some folks on #code4lib feel that we should charge a registration
fee, and some folks feel that we should not. The arguments in favor
of a reg fee (think around $20) are that without a financial
commitment people sometimes sign up for a workshop and then don't
attend. Also, with a reg fee we could provide coffee / donuts /
whatever. Arguments against a reg fee are that the conference
organizers might not want to deal with it, we like to keep things as
free and bureaucracy-free as possible, and since the room isn't
costing us $$ and Erik is volunteering his time (everyone remember to
buy Erik a drink when you see him) why charge $$ if we aren't paying $
$? For what it's worth I was originally in favor of charging
registration, but I have now changed my mind since Erik assures me he
does not expect to be compensated (with money, that is. I'm sure
he'll be getting lots of whuffie.)

Please respond to [log in to unmask] to be counted in the tally for
question #1, and please respond to the list to discuss questions #2
and #3.

Thank you!

Bess



Elizabeth (Bess) Sadler
Head, Technical and Metadata Services
Digital Scholarship Services
Box 400129
Alderman Library
University of Virginia
Charlottesville, VA 22904

[log in to unmask]
(434) 243-2305