[Board] Teach-in 2009

[jo at frot.org]

dear Paul, all,
On Mon, May 26, 2008 at 10:24:54AM -0700, Paul Ramsey wrote:
> Please see the attached prospectus regarding plans for a new event in
> early 2009.  We are very excited to continue the success of OSGeo
> events.    We would appreciate feedback from the board regarding this
> opportunity.

My concerns about pursuing this model fall into roughly 3 groups:
1. Risk of withdrawal of resources from main conference 
2. Implicit change of Foundation conference policy
3. Impression of North American "cabal" bias in OSGeo strengthened.

1. Some of the attendees at the proposed "teach-in" would otherwise have
attended the main FOSS4G. This event is aimed at those who have
organisational "training" budgets and priced similarly to a
proprietary training. To people in that situation, an extra few
hundred dollars for plane travel will not make much difference.

So a North-American workshop event *may* draw funding away from FOSS4G to an
extent that is not properly compensated by lesser of '10% of profits or 10K'.
10K USD is the equivalent of two basic conference sponsorships, or one
a dozen workshop attendees at a FOSS4G, which could easily be drawn away. 

2. In the past, especially at the Board F2F last year, there has been
discussion about changing the model for FOSS4G. Should it be viewed as
profit-making and thus a significant alternative income stream for
OSGeo (as opposed to sponsorships)? There has been a desire to keep
the conference as cheap as possible in recognition of its history and
its status as a "gathering of the tribes". 

A viable model used by FOSSGIS has been to charge for workshops and
offer a free conference in the days following. FOSS4G is somewhat stuck 
in a "sour spot" where it is too expensive to be considered "grassroots",
but too cheap to be used as profitable, while carrying the kinds of
expectations about scale that involve several-100K deposits and
professional conference management companies. 

Given the global economic uncertainty and increasing cost of travel
that Paul identifies as a motivator for putting on a "supplementary"
OSGeo event in North America in years when FOSS4G is not there; the
idea of high-attendance, high-gloss conference to which FOSS4G has
been heading looks less sustainable and desirable than it did. 

There'S not only the opportunity but the necessity to look again at
OSGeo's conference policy and encourage broader discussion of it. 
Given the possibility outlined above of a "teach-in" withdrawing
resources from FOSS4G. The paid-workshop-plus-loose-structured-free-event
model is a good one going forward.

This "training" could be seen as a good chance to pilot a better model
for FOSS4G, including a way to allow OSGeo community organisers like
Paul and Jeff to be paid for their time, and not lose so much
member-sourced money to specialist conference companies who will in
no way reinvest it in the common good. On the one hand this is
risk-free pilot project for the Foundation, on the other it is handing
the most successful model over to be cherrypicked by a commercial entity.

3. A workshop event being run as a commercial one-off in North America
gives the inadvertent impression that OSGeo resources and activities
are concentrated in North America and reinforced by a tightly-knit
social network there. The "free benefit" of cross-marketing will be
concentrated where a lot of marketing effort is already directed. 

The onus is on us as policymakers for the Foundation to counteract
that impression. If a "teach-in" provides a very good fit for the
Foundation's educational and outreach goals, as well as a means of
financial autonomy, then OSGeo should be considering trying to
replicate the success of the model worldwide in helping smaller
regional conferences come together. This would IMHO be a more
beneficial use of our Exec Director's time than sponsor schmoozing and
sponsor relationship management. 

Anyway i would like to hear more non-North-American reactions
especially on this last point and how to address it.

cheers,


jo
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