[Board] Teach-in 2009

[Paul Ramsey]

So, some notes on other points:

> 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".

There has been an excessive focus in discussions of FOSS4G on the
matter of the attendance fee, and the idea that somehow there is a fee
threshold (higher than zero, but lower than the current fee) that is
anti-thetical to having a proper "meeting of the tribes".  This,
despite the fact that 80% of the current cost of attending this tribal
meeting is bound up in Getting There, and Staying There.

If we were so interested in having a low-cost "meeting of the tribes",
order of the day #1 would be locating it centrally in either Europe or
North America, full-stop-say-no-more. After that, discussions about
reducing the fee basis might be rationally worth listening to.

As it stands, the fee basis is still 50% of any other international
technology conference I have seen (Where, Geoweb, Geotec, ESRI, etc).

> A viable model used by FOSSGIS has been to charge for workshops and
> offer a free conference in the days following.

I'm not sure what makes FOSSGIS any more viable than FOSS4G, since
both have been raging successes thus far.

> 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.

I'll trade the rights to the Teach-In for the FOSS4G event any day of
the week. FOSS4G scales, there's lots of potential margin in there,
for an organization willing to trick it out properly.

> This "training" could be seen as a good chance to pilot a better model
> for FOSS4G.

Since the rights to the name "OSGeo Teach In" necessarily are going to
be controlled by the title organization, this is indeed a no risk
opportunity to test a new model.

P