One example is the presence of staff that monitor all interactions in order to enforce certain norms. I’ve heard that they can seem a bit intimidating at times.
I agree that transparency to the public is really lacking. I happen to know there is an internal justification for this opaqueness, but still believe that there are a lot more details they could be making public without jeopardizing their objectives.
The content in this comment seem really false to me, both in the actual statement and the “color” this comment has. It seems like it could mislead others who are less familiar with actual EAG events and other EA activities.
Below is object level content pushing back on the above thoughts.
Basically, it’s almost physically impossible to monitor a large number of interactions, much less all interactions at EAG:
Most meetings are 1on1s that are privately arranged, and there’s many thousands of these meetings at every conference. Some meetings occur in scheduled events (e.g. speed meetings for people interested in a certain topic).
It’s not possible that CEA staff could physically hover over in all person meetings, I don’t think there’s enough staff to cover all centrally organized events (trained volunteers are used instead).
Also, if someone tried to eavesdrop in this way, it would be immediately obvious (and seem sort of clownishly absurd).
In all venues, there is “great diversity” of the physical environments people could meet.
This includes large, open standing areas, rooms of small or medium size, booths, courtyards.
This includes the ability to walk the streets surrounding the venue (which can be useful for sensitive conversations).
By the way, providing this diversity is intentionally done by the organizers.
CEA staff do not control/own the conference venue (they rent and deal with venue staff, who generally are present constantly).
It seems absurd to write this, but covert monitoring of private conversations is illegal, and there’s literally hundreds of technical people at EA conferences, and I don’t think this would go undetected for long.
While less direct, here are anecdotes about EAG or CEA that seems to suggest an open, normal culture, or something:
At one EAGx, the literal conference organizers and leader(s) of the country/city EA group were longtime EAs, who actively expressed dislike of CEA, due to its bad “pre-Dalton era” existence (before 2019)
The fact that they communicated their views openly and still lead a EAGx and enjoy large amounts of CEA funding/support, seems healthy and open.
Someone I know has been approached multiple times at EA conferences by people who are basically “intra-EA activists”, for example, who want different financing and organizing structures, and are trying to build momentum.
The way they approached seemed pretty open, e.g. the place they wanted to meet was public and they spoke reasonably loudly and directly
By the way, some of these people are employed by the canonical EA organizations or think tanks, e.g. they literally have physical offices not too far next to some of the major, major EA figures.
These people shared many details and anecdotes, some of which are hilarious.
Everything about these interactions and the existence of these people suggests openness in EA in general
On various matters, CEA staff don’t agree with other CEA staff, like all normal, healthy organizations with productive activities and capable staff. The fact these disputes exists sort of “interrogates the contours” of the culture at CEA and seems healthy.
The content in this comment seem really false to me, both in the actual statement and the “color” this comment has. It seems like it could mislead others who are less familiar with actual EAG events and other EA activities.
Below is object level content pushing back on the above thoughts.
Basically, it’s almost physically impossible to monitor a large number of interactions, much less all interactions at EAG:
Most meetings are 1on1s that are privately arranged, and there’s many thousands of these meetings at every conference. Some meetings occur in scheduled events (e.g. speed meetings for people interested in a certain topic).
It’s not possible that CEA staff could physically hover over in all person meetings, I don’t think there’s enough staff to cover all centrally organized events (trained volunteers are used instead).
Also, if someone tried to eavesdrop in this way, it would be immediately obvious (and seem sort of clownishly absurd).
In all venues, there is “great diversity” of the physical environments people could meet.
This includes large, open standing areas, rooms of small or medium size, booths, courtyards.
This includes the ability to walk the streets surrounding the venue (which can be useful for sensitive conversations).
By the way, providing this diversity is intentionally done by the organizers.
CEA staff do not control/own the conference venue (they rent and deal with venue staff, who generally are present constantly).
It seems absurd to write this, but covert monitoring of private conversations is illegal, and there’s literally hundreds of technical people at EA conferences, and I don’t think this would go undetected for long.
While less direct, here are anecdotes about EAG or CEA that seems to suggest an open, normal culture, or something:
At one EAGx, the literal conference organizers and leader(s) of the country/city EA group were longtime EAs, who actively expressed dislike of CEA, due to its bad “pre-Dalton era” existence (before 2019)
The fact that they communicated their views openly and still lead a EAGx and enjoy large amounts of CEA funding/support, seems healthy and open.
Someone I know has been approached multiple times at EA conferences by people who are basically “intra-EA activists”, for example, who want different financing and organizing structures, and are trying to build momentum.
The way they approached seemed pretty open, e.g. the place they wanted to meet was public and they spoke reasonably loudly and directly
By the way, some of these people are employed by the canonical EA organizations or think tanks, e.g. they literally have physical offices not too far next to some of the major, major EA figures.
These people shared many details and anecdotes, some of which are hilarious.
Everything about these interactions and the existence of these people suggests openness in EA in general
On various matters, CEA staff don’t agree with other CEA staff, like all normal, healthy organizations with productive activities and capable staff. The fact these disputes exists sort of “interrogates the contours” of the culture at CEA and seems healthy.