[OSGeo-Conf] The Funding Problem

[Paul Ramsey]

>> No, what is "the funding problem" and what would a solution look like?
>
> I think that Markus refers here to the relatively high cost of registration
> and travel for the more formal type of conference.

Given airfare and the cost of rooming in any location for a full week,
I think the issue is travel. The registration cost of FOSS4G remains
low enough that the idea that it is a serious impediment I think is a
red herring.

> How about doing an "OSGeo world conference" every other year with cheaper
> less formal conferences between - these could even been regional/continental
> to minimize travel cost.

Again, I really fail to see that FOSS4G is so punitively expensive. It
is certainly punitively far away, but we have only ourselves to blame
for that.

If people start popping up and offering to organize and host a North
American or European "technical get together" I don't think anyone
will seriously tell them "no". About the only pointed comment I can
imagine would be "hold it in the spring so it's not directly next to
FOSS4G".

But people aren't offering to put these things on, that I have seen?
I'm more concerned that, globally, we'll run out of FOSS4G hosters in
the next couple rounds. We're not exactly beating back the hordes from
the gates, begging to be allowed to host conferences.

Anyways, this is the origin of my (received-as-hostile) comment to
Markus that, if he is not seeing what he wants in the current set of
conferences, to step up and put on one he wants to see. I wanted to
see FOSS4G put on in a particular way, because I thought doing so
would establish a model that others would then want to follow, so I
got it and put it on. Just like in the software, the idea is "show me,
don't tell me".

A cheap, regional, technically oriented conference can be put on right
now, and we don't need to muck w/ FOSS4G to do it. Pick some dates in
the spring, and put it on. It won't interfere unduly with FOSS4G and
if that kind of thing is roaringly successful we might find ourselves
stopping the FOSS4G train because the other conferences are so darn
good. Show us.

P.

> Many organizations have a big world congress once in 3-4 years
> and annual regional conferences in between, but we are small so we can have
> the
> world conference more often.
> This would avoid having two conferences in one year and splitting the
> community
> and it should provide both the worldwide  meeting and the more informal one.
> And of course, the world congress would still have space for the "working,
> coding
> meetings" along with keynotes, business and technical sessions and
> everything
> that belongs to a more formal congress.
>