[OSGeo-Conf] Two parallel conferences proposal: OSGeo-tech andOSGeo-Biz

[Michael P. Gerlek]

My thuddingly-devalued $0.02:

I agree with Paul -- I can code perfectly well at home, thank you -- but
stipulate that there is something to be said for getting a bunch of
people in a room together to hammer out ideas and plans.  But that is !=
to writing code, however.  If people want to code-sprint during the
conference then so be it, but I'd rather not see it detract from the
conf in any way.  Doing a post-conf weekend sprint would be best, for
example.

Also, as I look across the globe to far-way places with strange sounding
names like Africa and Australia, I'm increasingly interested in smaller,
regional conferences.

-mpg


-----Original Message-----
From: conference_dev-bounces at lists.osgeo.org
[mailto:conference_dev-bounces at lists.osgeo.org] On Behalf Of Paul Ramsey
Sent: Friday, October 03, 2008 8:37 AM
To: Markus Neteler
Cc: OSGeo-Conf
Subject: Re: [OSGeo-Conf] Two parallel conferences proposal: OSGeo-tech
andOSGeo-Biz

On Thu, Oct 2, 2008 at 11:10 PM, Markus Neteler <neteler at osgeo.org>
wrote:
> On Thu, Oct 2, 2008 at 5:44 PM, Paul Ramsey
<pramsey at cleverelephant.ca> wrote:
>> The energy that makes FOSS4G to appealing to folks (and it is
>> universally mentioned by folks I talk to who have been to other
>> industry conferences) derives heavily from the geek presence.
>
> Sure, exactly. But we aren't supporting them sufficiently.
> E.g., most members of the GRASS dev team are not here,
> several can just not finance it. Likewise for other projects.

OSGeo is never going to be able to fly people to the four corners of
the earth. The best we can manage would be to restrict the conference
to locations closer to the development teams, which is something I am
certainly in favor of.

> Additionally, a dedicated corner (a big one!) where folks can
> continuously code over the conference isn't really evident. It could
> even be in the (then) big OSGeo booth with sofas and such which
> should be a good place - but it is not (yet). Think continuous
> codesprint!

You really think people are going to come to a conference and then
spend the whole time code sprinting? I can do that at my desk, right
here. That said, if you think it's a big deal *talk to the organizing
committee for the next conference*. If you think it's a *really* big
deal, *organize a conference just the way you like it* to show
everyone how good it can be.

> If we go too far away from our geeks we just get disconnected.
> OSGeo is *community* (including those who don't have much money),
> let's not leave them behind.

What are the action items here, please, and who is going to act on them?

> Markus
>
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