[OSGeo-Conf] Analysing the downfall of FOSS4G 2011

[Smith, Michael ERDC-CRREL-NH]

I have to say I'm more on Frank's side here. I think we do need to take
chances to get the message of OSGeo and the benefits of open source to
these "other" areas. Otherwise, we'll just have a North America conference
and stagnant. The energy from the new areas that OSGeo has expanded to is
worth the risk, IMHO. Otherwise, why are we even bothering if we don't
take some risks.

Mike

--
Michael Smith

US Army Corps
Remote Sensing GIS/Center



On 8/14/12 2:57 PM, "Paul Ramsey" <pramsey at opengeo.org> wrote:

>On Tue, Aug 14, 2012 at 11:46 AM, Frank Warmerdam <warmerdam at pobox.com>
>wrote:
>> I agree with Jachym that it is still desirable to give the local
>> organizers quite a bit of freedom and that we should accept that
>> occasional failure is not a disaster.
>
>On the contrary, I'd say that random failures are a disaster and will
>actually contribute to more failures. As Cameron noted in his
>document, the success of a conference is tied to the perceived
>expectations. Throwing a conference is like throwing a party. Do you
>want to go to a lame party? No, you want to go to a rocking party. If
>PartyPete throws awesome parties every Thursday, you'll clear your
>schedule as next Thursday rolls around. If LameLou throws passable
>parties sometimes, and sometimes cancels them, you'll start going to
>PartyPete's instead. Consistency is very important.
>
>The same thing will go double for sponsors: are you going to commit to
>early sponsorship and send a cheque to an event that was cancelled
>last year? Or will you hold on to your cheque until the last minute
>just in case? The uncertainty effect is going to make the financial
>situation of future conferences more precarious as sponsors and
>registrants hedge their bets until later in the calendar. This will
>only get worse if we embrace failure as an occasionally acceptable
>mode.
>
>P.
>_______________________________________________
>Conference_dev mailing list
>Conference_dev at lists.osgeo.org
>http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/conference_dev