So, Tim mentioned last night that Oracle Mix had launched this year’s iteration of Suggest a Session.
There are big changes from last year’s inaugural run. First off, it’s no longer called Suggest a Session, but rather Vote for Sessions.
From the name, you can get an inkling of the biggest change, i.e. you won’t be suggesting sessions this year. Instead, you’ll be voting on 150-plus sessions that didn’t make the cut during the open call for papers in April.
Other changes, you’ll need to vote for at least three sessions before your votes will be counted. According to the FAQ, metrics from last year show that the many of votes were cast by submitters for their own sessions. So, this change encourages people to vote for more than just their own sessions. There’s no mention of a limit on the number of votes.Also new, the total votes for a session won’t be displayed, even on the “Top Proposals” list, which says it’s ordered by popularity. This addresses one problem from last year, i.e. popular and new ideas dominated the lists, leaving many worthy sessions in limbo. They are also providing sessions ordered randomly and by title, as well as categorizing the sessions by stream and by track.
More new stuff, the session list itself is public, not behind the login wall as it was last year, although you have to login to Mix to cast a vote (or three).
Also, the UI has changed a bit from the standard Mix look and feel. At first, I thought the changes would be Mix-wide, but they are limited to the Vote for Sessions page only. Maybe they’re beta-testing a new interface, or maybe it’s just to delineate the voting from the rest of Mix.
I’m curious to see how these changes are received. Last year, Suggest a Session collected 281 talks and the top 25 made the cut. This year, there are 150-ish talks up for voting, and no mention of how many will be selected.
I haven’t been involved with Mix at all, since we handed the reins to Marketing back in January. So, I can’t provide any insight into why changes were made. I assume the Oracle Mix blog will have a post soon, and you can also ping them on Twitter (@oraclemix).
Head over to Vote for Sessions and make sure to vote at least three times to have your voice heard. Voting ends July 3. There’s no mention of when the winners will be announced.
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