[OSGeo-Conf] North American FOSS4G conference

[Paul Ramsey]

On Fri, Sep 23, 2011 at 10:52 AM, Volker Mische <volker.mische at gmail.com> wrote:

> I don't think that a yearly North American FOSS4G is a good idea. I fear
> that people will be going there and the global one will die (especially
> next year, when it is "in some other country").

Well, one reaction is to say "don't have another conference in NA".
Another is to ask, "why are we having conferences that people have to
be forced to go to?"

While it's nice that we're going off an evangelizing open source geo
in far away places (and yes, I know China is not far away from China,
but it's far away from the majority of our developer community, whom
we putatively want to attend), it don't personally feel it enriches me
professionally to do so (though it does enrich me culturally). So the
personal economic value for me is low. I imagine the same could be
said for many of the event sponsors.

If there was a North American event, I would preferentially attend it.
But I don't think that's a strike against the North American event,
rather the opposite.

P.