Comments and Conference Feedback
Partnerships in Innovation II: From Vision to Reality and Beyond, October 7-8, 2008
Day 1, Archives II, College Park Maryland
Day 2, University of Maryland, Stamp Union, Colony Ballroom, College Park, MD
Conference Day 1, October 7, 2008, Archives II, College Park, MD
- Session 1 was on target. I left understanding more about the EA initiative. Session #2 seemed to be appropriate for the audience. A lot of information was new to me and I was a little lost.
- Good selection of panel topics and panel participants. Same basic issue from a variety of viewpoints and technical and conceptual levels.
- An excellent conference - good to know what a sizeable and diverse community of people is interested in and working on these project...
- Fabulous conference! It shows tremendous leadership by NARA and the University of Maryland to assemble a brilliant group of minds, to share expertise and lessons learned, and to carve out a path for the future of electronic records preservation and access. Congratulations to NARA and UMD for a very successful two days, indeed!
- So far the conference has been very beneficial to me. All this seems to be coming together and my understanding of ERA is greatly improved.
- Interesting Conferen...enjoyed it. But I would like to see two things: 1) Need to see an ERA timeline on deliveries, 2) Would be good to invite participants to do a "show-n-tell" of tools currently owned by the government.
- The conference is really informative. It's helping me obtain an overview of the latest in electronic records and understand what my institution needs to do to catch up within archiving electronic records. I appreciate the scope of all the sessions.
- Very good conference with good speakers!
- Sessions on institutional repositories was most relevant to my needs. Other sessions focused on system architecture and standards were less useful. Speakers were knowledgeable and fairly good presenters.
- The conference was well-organized and well-paced. Level of details of presentation was good and the contents are appropriate and informative.
- Very good conference. Excellent speakers! Archives II is a wonderful place to hold a conference.
- This is a wonderful gathering of people interested in a vitally important issue. One suggestion: all the techies (sic) in the audience expect wireless connections in all conferences these days. We don't just check email, but are commenting, discussing and sharing information real-time during events.
- Session #2 was really boring with almost no information of value, which was very disappointing, because that was an area I was hoping for a lot of information. Also, lunch was awful, the sandwiches inedible. Next time, have the condiments on the side for those of us (and there were three at my table alone) who don't like condiments.
- Day 1 of the conference was very informative. The only thing I would add would be more technical information on ERA and other NARA approved [Records Management] RM solutions.
- Very interesting topics covered. The time span is good. However, it would have good (sic) in one hour blocks followed by a break and I would have had a colder venue, cold air is good for attention span. The seating in the auditorium is problematic because people coming in late interrupt the speaker, and people listening and hey, if people want to drink a cup of coffee during the conference let them.
- The first part of the day was cold, but the afternoon was much better. I was impressed by the first panel, in particular, and the last one of the first day.
- More time for questions, please.
- History information was interesting. Standards topic is pretty dry. Breaks at good intervals. Good to stay on topic where involvement is max.
- Logistically, everything was very well done! The speakers, while I'm sure are knowledgeable in their areas, were boring to hear. Monotonous, etc.
- The morning sessions were very interesting and informative. The information on the new ERA system was helpful. But as an IT engineer and researcher, I was hankering for more internal details apart from the forms on the web. I suspect that this will be part of later talks. Also, the standards session was very interesting for highlighting NARA's role in the multiple standardization process was interesting.
- Interesting perspectives on the history and present status of ERA.
- Need more - much more - storage. Might want to consider multi-disciplinary nature of archived data across (seemingly) unrelated agencies - there are contextual relationships not necessarily obvious.
- Suggestion: Have in one location for future conferences. Condense the length of the conference - could be done in one day, easily. Consider [Video On Demand] VOD.
- This conference has provided, thus far, a great overview of the significance and challenges of electronic record system and other digital repositories. We were presented w/ a lot of useful, albeit very technical, information. Perhaps having conference attendees in a location other than the auditorium for the different sessions would have provided a good change of pace.
- This conference was very informative. Copies of the PowerPoint slides would be helpful for note taking. The presenters are well-versed in their fields. Facilities were very clean. Food/Snacks: ok. Thanks!
- I'm enjoying the conference so far. Program is well-organized. Speakers are interesting. Coffee is good . Registration was a pain. The NARA learning center was hard to use. We were left to fend for ourselves in getting directions to NARA and UMD.
- Everything was fine. I liked the box lunch. One recommendation: if not already considered, please post PowerPoint presentations on ERA web site. The information was very technical so it would be very helpful to review the presentations that we just saw and heard.
- Recycle Receptacles needed for drink containers. Copies of the PowerPoint presentations would have been helpful.
- The talks and exchanges were very good. But will the talks be available on the web?
- Announce the presenters power point slides go online at xyz so no one has to copy the links.
Our Note: Presenters were asked to submit their slides in advance of the conference, but were not received until the beginning of their sessions. Slides are now available online.
Conference Day 2, October 8, 2008, University of Maryland, Stamp Union, Colony Ballroom, College Park, MD
- This was a very useful day as well - It is so helpful to see that systems now are actually being built to "archive." Thanks to all involved.
- This would be perfect if the power points and notes were made accessible to the attendees. Such great information would be extremely useful after the conference. Thank you.
- Facilities were much better than day 1. Easy to get to, comfortable. Content was great. Why charge participants and not provide for transportation or parking allowance for your attendees? Shortsighted in the present and the future.
- Fascinating set of works in progress. Working on the outer limits of technology is leading us into a very interesting future.
- I'm happy to have attended part 2 of the conference. It has helped me obtain a better understanding of developing technology. The posters and demos were very interesting.
- Session 5 was fantastic - interesting, relevant, and interdisciplinary - great stuff for an archivist to hear. Several speakers were also very good as speakers - Regli and Oard and Ockerbloom all very good.
- Good content as far as I can understand it - however, (1) It should be clearer that this is a conference for tech folks, not records managers. I thought it would be a bridge between the two, but 80% of the time it was not. (2) Presenter slides should be made available. (3) There were too many speakers in too little time. Therefore, many of the presentations were rushed.
- The information from the first session was wonderful, nonetheless, I still see a lack of focus on how companies/governments get from where we are today to actually using these technologies. Where is the partnership with the business school, where is discussion of business process change and so I [comment card stops here].
- The technical presentations were interesting, but some of the presenters need to remember that the audience is not as versant in the technology and lingo. They need to define their terms and avoid unnecessary acronyms.
- Douglas Oard was a life saver. His presentation was the best and most comprehensive in a day and a half. UMCP did an excellent job; hot breakfast and great snacks for break. Conference very technical - unfortunately didn't "get" most of it. Thank you!
- The conference was good and informative. Overall organization was also good. Themes were appropriate and interesting. The speakers were very knowledgeable and energetic in their presentations.
- This conference has been great. Very informative and very helpful for learning about current projects. Please have this more often (maybe every 2 years?) to learn about progress on these and other projects.
- Thank you. Very informative.
- This part of the conference was great. Notable speaker was Doug Oard. His presentation was outstanding! Food and beverages were great! Thanks
- Douglas Oard was superb. I enjoyed his presentation very much. Food and refreshments were excellent!
- Add posters from more institutions than just UMD, esp. the speakers - gives more time for elaboration/questions.
- Excellent workshop - the speakers provided valuable information Copies of the presentations would have been helpful.
- Outstanding. Needed more time for presentations.
- Great conference! Maybe add a session from Day 1 to Day 2. More earth-friendly caterer at NARA Maybe have archivist on a panel?
- Interesting overall - very current and relevant to NARA's interest. Perhaps have those who speak, who happen to specialize in computer programming/information systems, speak more in lay language or maybe archivists/librarians now need backgrounds in information science.
- As a graduate student (Go Terps!) employee at Archives II, I found the information presented at the conference very applicable in my future responsibilities as an archivist. Thanks to all those that took part in planning the conference. Great job! [name redacted]
- For local participants two days that ended at 3 pm is far more comfortable than one really long day and one short day. Facilities and refreshments were excellent.
- The food was outstanding! It was difficult to understand some of the speakers - language barrier. Both days: Some of the speakers dove into their presentation with the assumption we had background and knowledge associated with their topic. It would have been helpful if a minute or two could have been spent on the opening before jumping in the middle. It was oftentimes difficult to catch up and connect the dots. Ex. What is multivalent?
- Great information and speakers. Very good conference.
- Great conference. Excellent speaker especially Douglas Oard session.
- It is nice to be in a location where cell phones work. It would be nicer to have WiFi and convenient power. Will the slides of the conference be available on the web? ADD perhaps? A video of the presentation would be even better. It would be nice if the shuttle went from UM to parking AND to Archives II.
- The conference was great! Would love it if they were more frequent, even if that means they cost a little more. A few suggestions:
- Participant list would be helpful, especially with room for a small bio or project description.
- Wish conference was a little longer - so much to talk about.
- The audience had so much knowledge, but this group tends to be a little shy. What about an icebreaker in the beginning? They feel stupid, but they work!
- Would love some tours!
- Breakout groups for lunch by topic or institution type.
- I wish there was more time for each speaker to talk. The conference was superb!
- Breakfast etc. was fantastic - thank you. I wasn't sure how relevant today's sessions would prove to be to my work, but the answer (based on the first session) is very! Perhaps would have been better to break this session up a little, to give the speakers more time. (particularly as I didn't find the last session very helpful).
- The sessions were engaging and informative. I especially appreciated the variety of projects presented in the first session. The food was great as well.
- More of my archival colleagues need to hear about these ideas and this research. Please disseminate this conference info/sessions as much as possible.
- Based on the conference description, I thought the program would be more practical. It was useful to learn about future visions and updates to ongoing projects, but it was most useful to me to hear about implementation and use, different approaches and lessons learned. Less research and more reality please, or change your conference description. Too high-level for me!
- Today's sessions have been very informative. I learned a lot about the implementation of the latest tools and sustainable preservation.
- It would be nice if the talks were a little longer. Useful to also get email addresses. Maybe have the meeting over more days.
- Good variety of currently applicable tools with theoretical work. Good facilities and UMD support. More use of microphones during questions and answers would allow more people to hear the questions and the answers.
- Great talks - overall great partnership of UMD and NARA. Appreciated the ease of getting here and the location overall.
- Interesting session 5, great breakfast and break food.
- Day 1 and Day 2 conference sessions were very informative. Session 1 offered insight into ERA development cycle of spiral development by Mr. Ken Thibodeau and David Kepley. Mr. Rick Rogers provided excellent discussions on the application of long-term preservation. Session 2 provided excellent information of Trusted Repositories, particularly on the TRAC process and consensus required on very highly Trusted Repository.
For Day 2, session 5 provided excellent perspectives on various Architectures (System Hierarchical/Faceted and Map-based) and on. - This was an excellent learning opportunity...Job Well Done!
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