[ros-users] [Discourse.ros.org] [General] ROSCon 2018 Program Published

[Ryan Gariepy]

Hi @v4hn , everyone,

Speaking frankly, the ROSCon Organizing Committee (OC) is disappointed in the misalignment between the proposal for the talk in question and the presented content, especially given the concerns which members of the community expressed publicly and privately in advance. We expect that all presenters keep in mind that the ROS community is a global and diverse community, and that certain topics, motivations, and even phrases are going to be received very differently when presenters leave their home countries and their local professional communities.

We will be making some changes to our review process, but we will _not_ be putting in place a blanket ban on any topics at this point in time. We believe that such a policy would be tantamount to ignoring the potential impact ROS may have on the world outside of our labs and workshops. Furthermore, it would be insufficient. Considering the rapidly changing pace of robotics development and deployment, it is all but certain that there will be equally controversial topics proposed in the near future which are unrelated to the military.

The nuances present in these sensitive topics also mean that face-to-face discussions are more important, not less. Speaking for myself, I had several hours of discussions with community members afterwards, none of which would have happened if I was limited to Discourse. It should also be noted that many of the people whom I spoke with were not objecting to the _topic_ of the talk, but instead were more concerned with how it was presented. That also suggests to us that our focus should be on helping presenters improve how to express topics which are now far more controversial than the "rosbuild vs. catkin" debates found at the first ROSCons.

The OC will reserve the right to request a substantially complete draft _before_ the conference of any presentation which has at its foundation a controversial topic. This includes _but is not limited to_ talks which focus on military initiatives. If you would like an opinion in advance of submission, feel free to contact the ROSCon 2019 OC at the to-be-announced email address.





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