[Board] Re: [OSGeo-Conf] "OSGeo Teach-in

[Frank Warmerdam]

jo at frot.org wrote:
> FOSS4G Workshops are always oversubscribed, both for presenters 
> and attenders. As Hobu put it, the economics are "screwed" -
> it takes a lot of time and effort to develop the materials.
> The workshops provide a large part of the conference revenue;
> the reward for presenters is token (one free entry?).
> 
> So i would like to know a lot more about what the potential
> impact would be on FOSS4G of holding separate workshop events,
> anywhere in the world. I'd like to know if the conference commitee is
> satisfied with the way FOSS4G is positioned and run now. 

Jo,

To me the first paragraph answers the second.  If we always have more
presenters and attenders than we have space for at FOSS4G then there is
no reason to believe that other events will have a noticable impact on
FOSS4G workshops.

The economics of FOSS4G workshops may not be very rewarding to presenters
but that does not seem to have thrown much of a damper on them.  The much
larger problem has been with getting enough rooms and computers for one or
two days of intensive workshops at FOSS4G.

My personal opinion is that there is a great deal of room for other
conferences and training events around the work, and that it is
sufficient to make a modest effort to limit competition with FOSS4G.

One thing we lack though, is organizational capacity as OSGeo to
operate many events per year.  So we need help from local chapters,
and potentially "outside" organizers to put on events if we want to
start doing more.  The local chapters are definitely doing that now
(FOSSGIS in Germany, the big conf. in Spain, at least one major conf
in Italy, our little OSBootCamp event in Ottawa, etc).

PS. I've taken the liberty of replying only to the conference list
under the assumption that most interested board members are already
there, and that there is where we are supposed to be developing a policy
per the motion at the board meeting.

Best regards,
-- 
---------------------------------------+--------------------------------------
I set the clouds in motion - turn up   | Frank Warmerdam, warmerdam at pobox.com
light and sound - activate the windows | http://pobox.com/~warmerdam
and watch the world go round - Rush    | President OSGeo, http://osgeo.org