JS Debate

[jjgonecrypto]

JS Debate

Two teams, Affirmative and Negative. Three speakers on each team, alternating turns. Each speaker has five minutes to present their argument & rebuttals.

Potential topics include:

• that an asynchronous non-blocking language is needed for web development
• that the MVC pattern is the correct paradigm for web applications
• that every developer should learn computer science

Judging criteria is based on quality of argument, how well rebuttals were handled, addressing the topic and clarity of presentation.

Judging is performed by either audience (via Twitter, say) or guest judges.

[ZeeJab]

I really like this! Do you have an idea of who the speakers? We can get Tom Dale and Jeremy Ashkenas for the MVC debate.

[jjgonecrypto]

Personally, I think it's best if you do a call for debaters - I've run one internally at my company and it worked best that way. Get speakers who are passionate and will spend time putting together an argument and work with their team, rather than going it alone. The topics are open-ended enough that anyone with skin in the JS game should be able to represent either side sufficiently.

It's preferable if they don't choose a side and are allocated to one (balancing team dynamics), that way it becomes less about an "I am right, you are wrong" panel style, and more an interesting way to see both viewpoints. Indeed, having Jeremy and/or Tom on the negative side - if they were open to it - would make for an interesting event.

Candidates that would be good to debate just need to have had ample experience working with (and without) MVC frameworks, and be open to spending some prep time with their team an hour or so before the event.

If you're looking for specifics, I would imagine charlie (@indexzero) would make a good debater, but based on what I saw from your community last month, there are plenty of contenders that would enjoy the chance to get involved.