So let me summarize the points of contention in the discussion thus far:

- Are academic conferences are the right forums, as opposed to vendor user conferences or some other forum?

- Do CTOs and CIOs, who focus on applications rather than theory, have common ground with the academic research community?

I’ve expressed my strong feelings in favor of some kind of vendor-neutral forum and explained my partiality to academia.

In answer to the second concern, I think that many academics do care a lot about applications, both out of a desire to have real-world impact and to justify funding.

I also heard back from Carl Frappaolo at AIIM, who suggested that AIIM might be able to serve as a vendor-neutral forum. I’m certainly open to that possibility as well.

As someone who works in industry but has strong ties to academia, I see lots of room to both to bridge the gap between research and practice and to improve the state of understanding in the marketplace.

One of the reasons I proposed academic conferences as venues is that industry events at academic conferences are growing while commercially organized vendor-neutral conferences seem to be on the decline. Another is that I feel the research and practice communities have much to learn from one another.

That said, I do see a role for industry-oriented forums that don’t necessarily appeal much to the academic research community. But we do need trusted referees to keep everyone honest and push for a substantive conversation about technology.

This is a very good initiative.

I do hope to see more practitioners from Enterprise search companies engaging with the IR specialists in academia, and actively participating in relevant workshops and industry day events at the likes of sigir, cikm and ecir.

Iadh