[Board] [OSGeo-Conf] FOSS4GUK Online Lessons Learnt

[Martin Isenburg]

Hello,

I suggest that any planning for international (FOSS4G or other) conferences
(2021, 2022, and onwards) always considers moving to a pure virtual format.
I do not think international air-travel will resume to "normal" (how some
people refer to the rather "abnormal" burning of fossil fuels) in the next
few years and maybe never. Some of you may think "no way, Martin" but that
is exactly what people told me when back in mid-February, I predicted all
2020 events to be cancelled.

https://twitter.com/LAStools/status/1229749264537931776

I formulated it "gently" as bold predictions about the future "spook" even
the smartest minds, as my rather vivid experiences in 2010 had taught me.

===
OT: What happened in 2010? I suggested that we - as a species - had become
too fast and really needed to slow down (http://thefarmparty.org). That
made only sense to a select few in 2010 as people back then  (the iPad had
just been launched and Foursquare was hip) wanted more, higher and faster.
Back then my idea how to realize this slow down was by "seducing" people
into slower lifestyles (which I termed "slow bombing" due to my inspiration
by the slow food movement and my employment at a nuclear laboratory) as all
intellectual approaches had failed. I failed to launch that "3D reality
show" that would "slow bomb" people into healthier lifestyles (
http://laserchickens.com). But the need for slowness did not go away. Today
- 10 years later - the exact same idea of needing to slow down as a species
makes sense to a lot more people. When I say the exact same things now it
is no longer considered "crazy". It did not need a "3D reality show". It
needed a plague. Will it be the only one? Or is this just the first of ten
plagues?
======

I am slightly hung over from attending the gala dinner of the 41st Canadian
Symposium on Remote Sensing. It was fun. They served some mean box wine
there. (-: It kind of worked. We need to replicate the experience of
wandering from one small group to another, taking someone on the side for
an in depth discussion, or making out with someone after the after party.
(-;  The virtual conference software needs to get better. It will get
better quickly.

Don't get me wrong. I LOVED the travelling and mingling with like-minded
people. But the scale at which we did it was exorbitant. We were not saving
the planet with our activities ... quite the opposite.

TL;DR: International in-person events won't return to pre-Covid scale
(maybe not at all) for many years. Let's plan for that.

Regards from Costa Rica,

Martin

On Wed, Jul 15, 2020 at 12:40 PM Steven Feldman <shfeldman at gmail.com> wrote:

> I think the Board needs to discuss and then decide on the way we will
> organise and potentially underwrite future global FOSS4Gs before we issue a
> call for proposals for 2022 (assuming that we do).
>
> Dependent on what the board decides we should then consider whether that
> may be applicable to BALOC e.g. if the board decides on a new financial
> relationship with future LOCs it would seem reasonable to offer those same
> terms to BALOC
>
> Cheers
> ______
> Steven
>
> Unusual maps in strange places -  mappery.org
>
> Subscribe to my weekly “Maps in the Wild <http://eepurl.com/dKStT-/>”
> newsletter
>
> On 15 Jul 2020, at 10:59, María Arias de Reyna <delawen at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> Would it make sense that BALOC21 attends too? Or would that be too crowded?
>
> We will read carefully any outputs from these meetings and leading
> conclusions. We have already developed a backup plan in case we have to
> move to an online form  (which we hopefully won't have to) but we are
> focusing on the onsite version at this moment.
>
> Cheers,
> María.
>
> On Wed, Jul 15, 2020 at 10:03 AM Angelos Tzotsos <gcpp.kalxas at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> So far we have 9 participants for the video meeting with best dates so
>> far: 27,28,29 July and today 15 July the next option.
>> Please vote, I will keep this poll open for another day.
>>
>> Best,
>> Angelos
>>
>> On 7/6/20 4:51 PM, Angelos Tzotsos wrote:
>> > Dear Board and Conference Committee,
>> >
>> > During the last board meeting we discussed about planning a specific
>> > video call to discuss the feedback we got from Calgary and FOSS4G UK
>> > teams.
>> >
>> > I have created this Doodle to help organize the meeting.
>> > https://doodle.com/poll/m5ath37tgfh8kn4e
>> >
>> > Best regards,
>> > Angelos
>> >
>> > On 7/4/20 3:36 PM, Steven Feldman wrote:
>> >> Hi
>> >>
>> >> The OSGeo:UK have posted a first draft of their lessons learnt from
>> >> FOSS4GUK Online at
>> >> https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/FOSS4GUK_2020_Online_-_Lessons_Learnt
>> >> <https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/FOSS4GUK_2020_Online_-_Lessons_Learnt>.
>> >> It may evolve a little bit as other team members add in their 2¢
>> >> ______
>> >> Steven
>> >>
>> >> Unusual maps in strange places -  mappery.org <http://mappery.org/>
>> >>
>> >> Subscribe to my weekly “Maps in the Wild <http://eepurl.com/dKStT-/>”
>> >> newsletter
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> _______________________________________________
>> >> Board mailing list
>> >> Board at lists.osgeo.org
>> >> https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/board
>> >
>> >
>>
>>
>> --
>> Angelos Tzotsos, PhD
>> President
>> Open Source Geospatial Foundation
>> http://users.ntua.gr/tzotsos
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>> Conference_dev at lists.osgeo.org
>> https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/conference_dev
>
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