[OSGeo-Conf] Time to decide on FOSS4G NA 2017

Wed Mar 9 06:12:27 PST 2016

Thanks Rob

I support and appreciate your decision

I have copied the OSGeo Conference list so they are aware of your decision

Cheers
______
Steven


> On 9 Mar 2016, at 13:27, Rob Emanuele <rdemanuele at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Hi Steven,
> 
> Responding to this was on the FOSS4G NA core committee's plate, so apologies to everyone for not getting back to this sooner. We had a vote amongst the committee and all votes were in favor of not having a FOSS4G NA in 2017. We look forward to a great conference in Boston for FOSS4G 2017, and will work towards providing a great conference for FOSS4G NA 2018.
> 
> Let me take this opportunity to also to also plug FOSS4G NA 2016 in Raleigh on May 2-5; the program schedule is now published and we hope to see you there: https://2016.foss4g-na.org/ <https://2016.foss4g-na.org/>
> 
> Best,
> Rob
> 
> 
> 
> On Wed, Mar 9, 2016 at 7:41 AM, Steven Feldman <shfeldman at gmail.com <mailto:shfeldman at gmail.com>> wrote:
> Andrea
> 
> Could you provide an update on the committee's decision on hosting a FOSS4GNA in 2017?
> 
> Cheers
> 
> Steven
> 
> On Wednesday, 24 February 2016 17:20:56 UTC, Andrea Ross wrote:
> Thank you for posting this Michael.
> 
> It does seem like everyone understands the options and concerns/benefits, and there is considerable care for both FOSS4G Global and NA. This was a good & important discussion to have. Thank you all. We'll now ask the committee to confer amongst themselves and decide.
> 
> Kind regards,
> 
> Andrea
> 
> On Mon, 22 Feb 2016 at 10:33 Michael Terner <m... at appgeo.com <>> wrote:
> Full disclosure, I will be the incoming Conference Chair for the Global FOSS4G 2017 event to be held in Boston from August 14-18, 2017.
> 
>  
> 
> As promised, I’m back from holiday and have been able to better synch with our BLOC and would like to take the opportunity to more fully and formally reply to this important thread. Thanks are in order to Andrea for bringing this serious issue forward for discussion; indeed, there should be a common understanding of if/how Global and North American events should be “coordinated” when the international rotation brings the Global event to North America.
> 
>  
> Ultimately, we do hope and urge that a springtime FOSS4GNA event does not happen in 2017. The following provides the thinking behind this position.
> 
>  
> In re-reading the thread just about everything I was intending to write has been posted by someone, or another. Ultimately, this thread is a reminder of what’s best and powerful about the OSGeo/FOSS4G community. The discussions may be imperfect in some ways, but they are always open, thoughtful and reflect a desire for consensus. And indeed, it seems a consensus is potentially forming on this topic.
> 
>  
> First, a quick listing of opinions from other writers that we share:
> 
> 
> +1 to Rob Emanuel’s observation that this is a time to avoid “any force of schism” and that rather 2017 is a huge opportunity for the community “to come together”.
> +1 to Cameron Shorter’s very concise enumeration of what several people echoed in other posts: “two major FOSS4G events in the same country would weaken both events.”
> +1 to several writers who observed that precedent holds that regional events generally cede to the Global event when it is on the same continent (e.g., there was no FOSS4GNA in 2014 in lieu of Portland; no FOSS4G Asia in 2015 in lieu of Seoul; and no FOSS4G EU in 2016 in lieu of Bonn) with the few exceptions being for non-English language regional conferences.
> +1 to Randy Hale’s clear enumeration of the small business-person’s, or independent attendee’s dilemma, in having only so much time or budget available and needing to choose one, or the other, if there were two events.
> +1 to both Robert Cheetham’s and Jody Garnett's superb ideas on seeing an opportunity for new, focused types of geo open source events that can complement the bigger FOSS4G and FOSS4GNA events (e.g., Civic oriented open source; Big geo data oriented open source; etc.)
> 
> With these things said, I’d also like to address a couple of the additional points that Andrea referenced in her post from last Friday, Feb. 19.
> 
> 
> It is terrific that FOSS4GNA 2015 achieved such a great participation rate from women. It was an important accomplishment. I think all would agree that diversity in attendance and speakers is a key goal; and the Boston team shares this view, and we wrote on this in our proposal to OSGeo. We have our own ideas on how to spur diversity and do not believe that “free all access passes to all speakers” is necessarily the only way to advance this important objective (and we have not ruled out pricing and free passes as a tool to this end).
> We agree and are counting on east coast participation being an important part of our attendance base. At the same time, we hope not to lose the 10% (or whatever it turns out to be) participation of US attendees who may be prepared to travel cross-country but choose not to because they have a nearer-to-home option. We are planning on vigorous nationwide marketing for participation, and we hope to work with our international friends to encourage attendance and have this be the largest FOSS4G to date (and we hope that Bonn sets a new record for attendance in 2016!).
> Yes, we are aware that Boston is a relatively expensive city and that our hotel block rate was $260 (for 2 beds and double occupancy). At the same time, Boston’s costs are a function of its popularity and amenities and we believe interest in Boston and the New England region will help drive attendance. And, as we wrote in our proposal, there will be numerous lodging options beyond the hotel block that will provide more affordable lodging; from hostels to AirBnB to lower cost hotels outside the city but accessible by public transportation.
> 
> In the end, we love Eddie Pickle’s vision (that Robert Cheetham recounted in his post) of FOSS4G being among the most major geo gatherings, bar none. I have also heard Eddie relay this vision and coincidentally I will be meeting with him this coming Thursday in Washington, DC to further understand his ideas for realizing this vision. We see no reason why FOSS4G shouldn’t be the #2 geo event on the planet (and it is already the best one). As Robert wrote, over time, and as the gap narrows between the 10-15x difference between the Esri User Conference attendance and a growing FOSS4G attendance there will come a time where it will “be desirable to have sub-events that remain of substantive size…” But I would also agree that we are not there yet.
> 
>  
> The Boston Team needs and strongly wants the full support of the North American community to help continue the momentum of stronger and stronger FOSS4G events. Together and with a singular focus we can do great things to make FOSS4G 2017 the largest and best possible event.
> 
>  
> We thank everyone for this important discussion and also for your future support.
> 
>  
> And in the meantime, we are looking forward to supporting a fantastic slate of 2016 events with FOSS4GNA in Raleigh, NC in May, and Global FOSS4G in Bonn in August.
> 
>  
> Sincerely,
> 
>  
> MT & the BLOC
> 
> 
> On Mon, Feb 22, 2016 at 4:08 AM, Jody Garnett <jody.g... at gmail.com <>> wrote:
> There is the LocationTech tour <http://tour.locationtech.org/2015/> which follows the format you describe. It is a really nice format (taking the speakers to different cities) and attracts a different kind of crowd - and serves as a showcase of osgeo projects, locationtech projects ... and everything from mobile mapping to a customer projection for a lampshade.
> 
> But yeah outreach focus, how to get our software (and initiatives) in-front of more people. Keep the suggestions coming.
> 
> --
> Jody Garnett
> 
> On 20 February 2016 at 05:11, Josh Sisskind <josh.s... at gmail.com <>> wrote:
> I think it may have been mentioned above, but is there a possibility of holding a few, smaller, regional FOSS events rather than one larger FOSSNA?  For example, hold a small 1-2 day conference in DC, St. Louis, and Portland (cities in time zones picked at random).  This might encourage more attendees that would not be able to attend a larger conference, due to travel or time.  Also, it may encourage local regions to continue smaller meet ups and get togethers moving forward, growing the overall 'membership'.
> 
> On Thursday, February 18, 2016 at 2:32:12 PM UTC-5, Andrea Ross wrote:
> Dear Everyone,
> 
> As many of you know, FOSS4G NA is an important annual conference for a number of communities, projects, and initiatives. OSGeo & LocationTech are two of the well known Foundations participating, but FOSS4G NA spans well beyond both. 
> 
> In 2015, a number of people participated in crafting governance for FOSS4G NA <https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WlgmJgtl0LaV0EO0NtDDSnloTgsIvxu9KwddPDwX1WU/edit>. Following that governance, the core committee (see below), is working on making a decision regarding FOSS4G NA 2017. 
> 
> The key decision for the short term is whether FOSS4G NA 2017 should be held in 2017. FOSS4G Global will be held in Boston in late August (IIRC), so the decision is not as simple as it would have otherwise been.
> 
> Discussion is taking place on the FOSS4G NA selection mailing list <https://groups.google.com/forum/#%21forum/foss4gna_selection>. All are invited to participate.
> 
> For context: 
> 
> FOSS4G NA has grown into a good sized conference in its own right, and keeps growing. The next one is taking place May 2-5, 2016 in Raleigh North Carolina <https://2016.foss4g-na.org/>. FOSS4G NA has done some things differently than global such as free passes for speakers, registration discounts for committers, and and more.
> In other regions, the regional conferences have run in the same year as FOSS4G Global with no serious issues noted. It is likely FOSS4G NA could run anywhere other than the North-eastern United states, and both it and FOSS4G Global in Boston would succeed.
> A few groups have expressed some interest in FOSS4G NA 2017 being hosted in their region including San Francisco and Ottawa. It is now time to decide if we proceed with NA 2017, or not.
> 
> As per the FOSS4G NA governance <https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WlgmJgtl0LaV0EO0NtDDSnloTgsIvxu9KwddPDwX1WU/edit#>, the committee consists of:
> 3 past chairs of FOSS4G NA (Currently: Eddie Pickle, David Bitner, Rob Emanuele)
> 1 representative for OSGeo (Currently: Mark Lucas)
> 1 representative for LocationTech (Currently: Jim Hughes)
> Sarah Cordivano (chair 2016), will soon join the FOSS4G NA core committee as Eddie Pickle (chair 2012) retires from it.
> 
> For those interested, the kinds of things the committee is looking for in a place to host FOSS4G NA are:
> Good flight links nationally.
> Appropriate sized venue (500-700 people).
> A choice of accommodations at various price points.
> Economical price point for the conference venue.
> Active community in the region.
> Downtown location near many points of interest is a big plus
> Kind regards,
> 
> Andrea
> 
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> -- 
> Michael Terner
> Executive Vice President
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