An easier talk selection process

For events with hundreds of talks, the selection process is a daunting task. The commitment of some communities can sometimes bring content by the truckload, and having to evaluate hundreds or thousands of proposals is not easy. At three minutes per talk, five hundred proposals can consume 25 hours, pauses not included – that's a lot. We want to make things better.

Starting this week, we are reusing the same system where we collect feedback after the talk, only this time to rate the talk during the selection process. This is the interface that members of the selection committee will see for each talk:

Each talk accumulates the reviews from everyone in the selection committee, and the event organizer can then sort and prepare the final agenda. To make the process more agile, it pays to use the following keyboard shortcuts (adapted from what folks use at JSConf, introduced to us by Jan Lehnardt):

• k,j    Move to the previous/next talk proposal.
• 1-5    Assign the corresponding rating, and move to the next proposal.

Does it make sense? Do you know better alternatives? Check out our documentation and share your thoughts on Twitter!