Feature request: Smart system to decide talks time

[fotanus]

Hello,

For WordCamp Rio on Brazil, we have been talking that would be interesting to have a smart system to decide the talks order and organize the talks rooms. We think that this system could be integrated in camptix.

Description

The idea is allow through WPML set the number of rooms available and the maximum number of people on each one. On the moment or after buying a ticket, the user can then select from a list of talks the ones he wishes to see.

After this moment, the system decides where to alocate each talk for us. This is a combinatorial optimization problem, and thus can be solved some smart way risking a non-perfect solution (using some kind of heuristics like genetic algorithms or tabo search, for example) or by simply using a solver (like glpk). While the solver always give the optimal solution, it is a good idea to have both methods to scale for bigger events, and for when the talks are decided in the last minute.

The good

• A smart system means less work for us, more time to think on details and organize great events
• Can be a life saver on dire situations. Computers can decide better than people under pressure or time limit.
• The feature would be useful for every wordcamp out there.
• This is not actually a feature request - is more like a feature discussion, to see if is interesting, since we would be work on it with or without you :-)

  The bad

• More code, more bugs, more maintenance.

  What would be need by high?

• An interface and table to hold talks and talkers
• A system to show the talks to the user and allow him to pick the ones he like
• A back end with options of using a solver or a heuristic to solve the problem

[iandunn]

Hi Felipe, could you explain some more about the problem that this is trying to solve? Is the problem that it can be difficult to decide which session should be placed in which room, based on an estimate of how many people will be attending each session?

[iandunn]

There's was some discussion about this during the Community Team meeting today. It doesn't sound like it's a good fit for WordCamps right now. Details in the links below:

• http://make.wordpress.org/community/2014/08/21/team-chat-agenda-august-21-2014/#comment-11276
• http://irclogs.wordpress.org/chanlog.php?channel=wordpress-getinvolved&day=2014-08-21&sort=asc#m40169