[OSGeo-Conf] Questions for FOSS4G 2013 teams

[Peter Batty]

Here are three questions for all the teams:

(1) How many (global) FOSS4G events has the proposed conference chair been
to, and which ones? And please list the same info for any of your committee
members that have been to previous events.

(Note: I don't think it is a pre-req to have been to any, but obviously it
helps with continuity and building on previous events)

(2) To the conference chairs: are you willing and able to put in a lot of
time to this? Has your employer agreed to give you a reasonable amount of
time off from your normal work responsibilities, as you will need this? And
in the event that you were not able to continue as conference chair, who
would step in to replace you?

(I ask these questions as in Denver our original conference chair did have
to step down because of unforeseen circumstances).

(3) The core mission of FOSS4G is to be the "meeting of the tribes" of the
open source geo development community, which has one set of requirements:
it has a very techie focus, people it want to be informal and casual and
"non-commercial". Many people, myself included, also see FOSS4G as an
opportunity to introduce new people to open source geospatial - to be more
of an outreach event, have more introductory level sessions, more
non-technical sessions. But to some extent the requirements for this
conflict with the core mission of FOSS4G - you risk losing the friendly
techie collaborative atmosphere, you risk being seen as "too commercial"
etc. Some people in the community would rather see FOSS4G be a strictly
developer-focused event.

So to the question ... to what extent do you see your FOSS4G having an
outreach function in addition to the core focus on existing open source
developers, and how would you address the challenges mentioned here?
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