[HPSG-L] HPSG 2020 Conference -- Call for online organizers

Wed May 20 03:43:37 UTC 2020

Hi,

I think there is a lot to be gained from face-to-face meetings, but moving
to virtual once every four years sounds like a good idea.

On Tue, May 19, 2020 at 10:29 PM Alexandre Rademaker <arademaker at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I am a newcomer in the HPSG community, but I would like to express my 100%
> agreement with Stefan’s message. For the next years, many companies will
> probably start questioning the costs vs. benefits of traveling to
> conferences. This is one more argument in favor of exploring virtual
> meetings more.
>
> Best,
>
> Alexandre Rademaker, PhD
> Researcher, Natural Resources Software Technology Group
> IBM Research - Brazil
> http://researcher.ibm.com/person/br-alexrad <
> http://researcher.ibm.com/person/br-alexrad>
>
>
> > On 19 May 2020, at 10:37, Asudeh, Ash <ash.asudeh at rochester.edu> wrote:
> >
> > Hi everyone
> >
> > I haven’t been involved in the HPSG community for a while, so I hope
> this is not an unwelcome case of interloping, but I want to endorse what
> Stefan said below. It is time to re-evaluate us academics flying all over
> the world, especially for a small and already relatively well-connected
> community such as this one.
> >
> > The climate question is a very important aspect of this, probably the
> most important, but there’s also a basic equity question, too, as Stefan
> points out.
> >
> > An in-person conference that ping pongs all over the world can only be
> regularly attended by academics from well-resourced universities, in
> wealthy countries (and whatever locals turn up, but my experience from the
> LFG conference is that this is hugely variable and not a major factor).
> >
> > An online conference is not only kinder to the planet, it is also
> fairer. Even if technology is not fairly distributed either, it is more
> fairly distributed than the ability to pay for international airfare and
> hotel accommodation for several days and the ability to take all that time
> away from other duties.
> >
> > Ash
> >
> > Sent from a thing that makes typing difficult
> >
> >> On May 19, 2020, at 9:11 AM, Stefan Müller <St.Mueller at hu-berlin.de
> <mailto:St.Mueller at hu-berlin.de>> wrote:
> >>
> >> Hi everybody,
> >>
> >> I think I can do this. I am heavily involved in environmental issues and
> >> I think I have to do it. I think it is easy but I guess I will learn
> >> about the difficulties on the job.
> >>
> >> If you (pl) think that I could do this, I would happily take on the
> task.
> >>
> >> I would also like to take the opportunity to make a suggestion to a
> >> wider circle of people: We could extend the rotation between Asia,
> >> Europe and the US to include a virtual meeting every four years.
> >>
> >> We have a big issue in academics: half of our CO2 impact is coming from
> >> traveling (at least in Europe). We have to get to zero, so this means
> >> flying has to go down. Zero emission planes will be available in 2050
> >> (according to the industry, so who knows when they will be there in
> >> reality).
> >>
> >> Having a virtual conference every fourth year seems to be a step in the
> >> right direction.
> >>
> >> This would enable participation of those who cannot travel (for
> >> political, economical, ecological, or social reasons). Also think of
> >> families with young kids. (women)
> >>
> >> I know that we are human beings and that social contact is very
> >> important. Who do you sit next to during the conference dinner? Who do
> >> you have a Apfelsaftschorle with? Some comments are given two days after
> >> the talk and so on. So it is not easy.
> >>
> >> But we will have to change. There is now way around this. If we do not
> >> do this reorganization ourselves, our university administrations will
> >> impose it on us in some years.
> >>
> >> So, let's see, how the virtual meeting in Leuven will work out and we
> >> could then think about having virtual meetings every four or seven
> years.
> >>
> >> Best
> >>
> >>    Stefan
> >>
> >> PS: I also keep up my offer of hosting a non-virtual conference in
> >> Berlin once the turn is in Europe again, but if Leuven did it with ICCG
> >> next year this would be great. Then the next time for Europe would be in
> >> 2024 or 2025.
> >>
> >>    St.
> >>
> >>> Am 19.05.20 um 13:53 schrieb Rui Chaves:
> >>> Greetings,
> >>> I am writing to you on behalf of the Standing Committee for the
> >>> International HPSG Conference. We hope you and your
> >>> families are safe and well.
> >>>
> >>> As you know, the 27th International Conference on Head-driven Phrase
> >>> Structure Grammar was scheduled to take place at
> >>> the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgium. Out of respect for the
> >>> safety of everyone given the current pandemic, the Standing
> >>> Committee has decided that the conference cannot take place as
> >>> planned. This is a disappointing and painful decision to everyone,
> >>> but it is simply impossible to predict when international travel and
> >>> academic life will return to normal. we thank Frank Van Eynde and
> >>> Liesbeth Augustinus, the local organizers, for all the hard work that
> >>> they put into the conference.
> >>>
> >>> Nevertheless, we plan to still hold a conference remotely, and to have
> >>> the papers that were accepted for this year's conference to
> >>> appear in the proceedings, as usual. We are therefore making a call
> >>> for volunteers from the HPSG community to organize a virtual
> >>> conference, to be held perhaps around the same time as originally
> scheduled
> >>> (17-19 August 2020). Those who are interested and able to
> >>> do this, please let me know as soon as possible.
> >>>
> >>> An online conference is not ideal, of course, but it does have certain
> >>> important positives: it is more inclusive, more environmentally
> >>> friendly, and naturally much better than no conference at all. This is
> >>> an opportunity for us to rise to the occasion.
> >>>
> >>> Rui Chaves
>
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-- 
Francis Bond <http://www3.ntu.edu.sg/home/fcbond/>
Division of Linguistics and Multilingual Studies
Nanyang Technological University