[OSGeo-Conf] Speaker Discounts

[Tim Bowden]

On Thu, 2008-10-09 at 11:20 -0700, Paul Ramsey wrote:
> The subject is a bit misleading, since Anselm weaves a larger critique
> of the open source geospatial community in general after his specific
> critique of the FOSS4G pricing.
> 
> http://lists.burri.to/pipermail/geowanking/2008-October/005650.html
> 
> However, I have heard this criticism before, in 2007, although usually
> from alumni of O'Reilly conferences. See my followup. If we were
> willing to up the general fee structure slightly and knew we were
> going to have something like 700 attendees on 120 speakers, we could
> at least provide a discounted admission to speakers.
> 
> If we wanted to, that is. Do we want to?
> 
> Paul

At the risk of being way too blunt, the pricing issue for presenters can
go to hell as far as I'm concerned.  FOSS4G is the gathering of the
tribes.  If you don't have the passion to be a part of the community and
share what you're doing, forget it.  If you need to be paid to present,
don't bother.  Do it with a passion for your chosen profession or not at
all.

Regards,
Tim Bowden

-- 
Experience is that marvelous thing that enables you recognize a mistake
when you make it again.