On 11/27/2012 4:46 PM, Shaun Ellis wrote:
> I agree with Tom.  If you look at the links Andromeda sent earlier in
> this thread, both conference organizers reported dramatic increases in
> the number of under-represented presenters simply by 1) making the
> proposal authors anonymous during voting

Hmm, is the proposal author a legitimate (or illegitimate) criteria to 
judge proposals on?  I tend to think it's actually legitimate; there are 
some people I know will give a valuable presentation because of who they 
are, and others who's expertise I might trust on some topics but not 
others.

I don't think this is illegitimate, and wouldn't want to take this 
information away from voters. We are, after all, voting not just on a 
topic, but on a topic to be presented by a certain person or people.

(I would be quite fine with having some of the program decided upon by 
the program committee not by the voters at large though! Using a variety 
of criteria.  In addition to issues of diversity in presenters, I think 
it could also in general improve the quality of presentations and 
topical diversity as well).