post workshop report

Due to Covid-19, TWCR 2020 was run in an experimental online format, inspired by the Nearly Carbon-Neutral Conference model.

Now TWCR is over, what did we do, what worked, and what didn't?

• Blog
• The NCN conference suggests using Wordpress to host the blog, but we had to organise TWCR at very short notice, with no institutional support (they were busy implmenting new lockdown support processes), and so instead used Google Blogger, with which we had some prior experience. 
• The blog format was easy to set up, use and navigate.  We chose a particularly sparse design.
• Each speaker was given a post, containing a link to their home page and their presentation; this was where commenting on their work happened.
• The commenting mostly worked well.  In particular, it seemed to allowed long, more thoughtful, conversations.
• Presentations
• All presentations were pre-recorded by the speakers, in a variety of formats, and uploaded to a shared Google Drive directory before the opening of the event.  These could be watched at any time.
• We also asked presenters to provide some "further reading", and provided links from their post.
• Administration
• Due to the short timescale we had to set this up, we decided not to require a formal registration to participate.  Anyone could view presentations, and comment.

Lessons learned.

• Commenting had a couple of issues, both due to the use of Blogger.
• We asked participants to sign in with real names, so we knew who was conversing.  Everyone tried to do this, but we nevertheless got a few "anonymous" comments; we are not sure why.
• Only the "owner" of the blog was notified of comments, and emailed speaker/commenter to alert them to comment/replies.  Wordpress appears to have a facility to automate this, which would be essential for a larger event.
• Registration.
• We believe that a registration process (and even possibly a small registration fee) would provide a greater commitment from participants.  The material could be opened up later for wider participation.

Overall, the completely asynchronous format worked surprisingly well.  There was mostly good engagement, despite some participants being unavailable due to Covid-19 lockdown issues.  For a larger event, a more sophisticated blogging tool would help.  Also, a more formal registration process might help to focus the participants' engagement.