WARNING: May Contain Excessive Whimsy.
'Twas the week before Christmas, when all through DPC,
not a keyboard was silent, mice glid furiously.
With vacation looming, much still to be done,
TODO lists to tame; once short, growing long.
But the break also beckoned, to pause, to take stock.
Soon work will rest, for the wicked and not.
But what's this in the stocking you hung with such care?
It's surely too soon to arrive by Reindeer?
A strange little note, some words and some links.
Was the author derailed by a party of drinks?
You continue to wonder, as you wade through the prose.
A September message, in December robes.
"The conference is over, our tasks almost done,"
"The committee, committed to both hard work and fun,"
"Has sought out the data, whether meta or primary,"
"To rescue what passed, and make safe the memory."
"To pool what was shared, we've now brought together,"
"The papers and posters, the birds of a feather,"
"The games and the workshops, the tutorials and panels,"
"Talks keynote and lightning, and those Bake Off demos."
"The files have been found, streams moved and transcoded,"
"The slides alongside the posters uploaded."
"A digital gift, a conference treasure,"
"Wrapped neatly, and bowed with a DOI for good measure."
An Excel spreadsheet! With cells filled to brimming!
Facts, facets and dates, URLs hyperlinking.
What more could you want? The note answers your wish:
"Alongside the main course, more morsels to relish."
"The data's so clean, so rich and so neat,"
"So easy to read, and use to complete,"
"The DigiPres index which now contains more,"
"Because it includes iPRES 2024."
"You can search through it there, or browse at your leisure."
"Or explore the statistics, should such things bring you pleasure."
"Or try and fly through, in all three dimensions,"
"the constellation of stars that the dataset mentions."
"We built this with care and with love, all for you!"
"Signed, Dries and Andy and the whole iPRES crew."
"The present presented! One thing's left to recite:"
"Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night!"
(with apologies to Clement Clarke Moore.)
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