[cap-talk] "ACLs don't" paper rejected from Oakland 09

[David Wagner]

zooko  wrote:
> I really hope that Tyler presses on with this.

I do, too.  I think Tyler is on to something important.

> It turns out that the  
> top conferences such as Oakland are not reliable showcases of the  
> best and most important ideas.  Bad ideas sometimes slip in.  Good  
> ideas are often left out.  That may be disappointing if you thought  
> otherwise.  But nonetheless getting these ideas peer-reviewed and  
> published in a widely recognized scientific forum is vitally important.
>
> Without that step, the ideas are just completely invisible to a large  
> population of good thinkers.  They're just off the radar.

Amen.

> The papers of Mark Miller, Jonathan Shapiro, Ping Yee, et al. from  
> the early 2000's allowed capability access control to become part of  
> the conversation.  For example, it was after those papers were  
> published that David Wagner started including those ideas in his  
> courses at Berkeley.  Please tell me, David, if there's any truth to  
> my assumption that the publication of those papers in peer-reviewed  
> conferences was necessary for you to teach the ideas at Berkeley!

Actually, in that particular case, I don't think it mattered -- but that
was just dumb luck.  (I think I have started teaching capabilities before
those papers got published.)  What mattered was (a) hearing about the
ideas, and (b) having Mark Miller walk me through the details.  I doubt
I would have heard of the ideas if not for the good luck of meeting Mark,
Jonathan, etc.  And I would never have understood if not for Mark taking
the time to sit down and explain some stuff to me.  The thing is, that
doesn't scale.  Not everyone is lucky enough to happen to hear about the
ideas and meet these folks.  And not everyone has access to a MarkM (or
someone else from this list) to sit down and explain patiently to them.
That's why publication in a prestigious conference can help: it gets
attention to the ideas, and writing the ideas clearly down in a paper
is something that everyone can learn from, whether or not they have
access to a Mark, Jonathan, Ping, etc.