In accordance with our code of conduct and privacy policy, please do not share this unlinked page with anyone outside of the conference.
The Pre-Recorded Talks
The pre-recorded talks from the first week are now available on our YouTube channel as unlisted videos which can be accessed via the conference schedule (see your welcome email) and the respective Mattermost channels. You should watch the talks you are interested in and discuss them on Mattermost before their scheduled live discussion. We suggest choosing which parallel sessions you will attend, and then, as a minimum, watching the talks from those sessions as well as all the plenary talks.
All the scheduled live discussions will be recorded and shared with the participants. Therefore, do not worry if you miss a session, you can still catch what was discussed later. These recordings will not be made publicly available after the conference. In addition, you should be able to find the speakers in the Welo virtual conference space and be able to talk to them in person.
We strongly advise deliberately setting time aside to watch the talks and not leaving it to the last minute!
The Mattermost Workspace
The invitation link to the conference Mattermost workspace is included in your welcome email. Mattermost will be the main source of communication during the conference: we will post all announcements, instructions and guidelines there.
The Mattermost workspace will also host asynchronous discussions of all talks. Each scheduled discussion session has its own Mattermost channel. We encourage you to begin discussing the talks as soon as you have watched them. These asynchronous discussions complement and improve the scheduled live discussions: Speakers will have time to carefully think about the questions asked; and all participants will be able to inform themselves of the likely points of interest in the live discussions.
Mattermost will also be where the themed discussions are suggested, planned and scheduled – as well as where asynchronous discussion of the chosen themes happens beforehand.
Mattermost Etiquette
- When using Mattermost, please adhere to our code of conduct. It is OK to have scientific disagreements with other participants, but keep them constructive and kind.
- Try to follow the rule of one thread per discussion topic. For example, do not reply to someone with a new top-level post in the channel, but do start a new thread if you have a new, unrelated question. This allows other participants to navigate and join in the many ongoing discussions more easily.
- If your question (or discussion point) is to someone in particular, e.g. the speaker of a pre-recorded talk, you should @their-name so that they know you have asked the question.
- To facilitate this, please sign in with your full name (optionally, pronouns can be provided in your profile).
The Welo Virtual Conference Space
All scheduled live talk and themed discussions will take place in appropriately named rooms in our Welo virtual conference space. Participants can gather at all other times in these and the other available rooms to discuss and collaborate. Each Welo room has a Zoom meeting associated with it which can be opened by clicking the “click here” link in the welcome message of that room.
Welo Etiquette
Treat the Welo space as you would treat the conference venue at an in-person event. Wherever possible, when you have a discussion with other conference participants, do it through Welo. The purpose of using Welo is to allow participants to see what conversations are taking place at any point of the conference and to freely move between them. If your discussion is pre-planned, let others know about your plans on Mattermost.
As a general rule, whenever you are online during these two weeks, log in to Welo and put yourself in one of the rooms, or the outdoor patio. Doing this allows other participants, who might want to talk with you, to see you and strike up a conversation. You can grab each other’s attention using the native Welo text chat. Make sure to use the Zoom meeting linked to the room for any video discussion so that other participants who see that you are talking can join you. (Before moving to another room, make sure to also leave the Zoom meeting.)
We have dedicated social rooms in the Welo space, so even if you are online but taking a break from discussing physics, make use of these rooms to meet and interact with other conference participants, who have joined Cosmology from Home from countries in all corners of the world. There is also a library without an associated Zoom meeting in case you want to make yourself available for other participants to find, without actively joining an ongoing discussion right away.
Themed Discussions
On days between scheduled live discussions of the talks we will also be having scheduled themed discussions. These will be chosen by participants during the conference. You can suggest a topic, and discuss others’ suggestions in the ~themed-suggestions channel on Mattermost. This is also where we will organize the scheduling of the themed discussions.
Feel free to suggest any topic you are interested in!
There is no prescribed format for the themed discussions. Some might be a tutorial by an expert on a difficult topic of interest. Others might be a lively debate of a contentious issue within cosmology. Still others might be working groups getting together to begin tackling a scientific, or social, topic of interest to participants.
Each themed discussion will be assigned an official chair to moderate the discussion on the day.
Social Events
Beyond the use of the social rooms in Welo, there will also be scheduled social events throughout the conference. This will include regular online games and a pub quiz.
Final Comments
Take advantage of the Mattermost and Welo spaces to get the most out of the conference. The officially scheduled discussion hours are not the whole conference. We warmly encourage participants to schedule their own informal discussions (and social interactions) in the Welo space and to inform other participants of these plans in Mattermost.
If you think of something that could be added to make the conference even better, let us know in Mattermost, and we can all bring it about together.