[OSGeo-Discuss] Free Developer Slots at FOSS4G events: [was RE: FW: [Board] OSGeo Board Priorities]
Daniel Morissette
dmorissette at mapgears.com
Mon Mar 4 15:29:46 PST 2013
To add to what Bruce just wrote, unless you happen to live in the region
where FOSS4G is being held a given year, then the cost of traveling to
FOSS4G (flight/train, hotel, meals, etc.) is much more significant than
the registration cost and very likely a bigger show stopper for those
who cannot afford to go.
I am all for trying to make the event more accessible and keeping the
registration costs as low as possible, for instance by choosing more
affordable venues, but I am not convinced that free registration passes
would make much of a difference when you take into acount the other
travel costs and most importantly the complications introduced by an
arbitrary selection process.
My 0.02$
Daniel
On 13-03-04 6:15 PM, Bruce Bannerman wrote:
> (Wearing my former FOSS4G Conference organiser hat)
>
> Paolo and Jachym,
>
> This is an issue that comes up on a fairly regular basis.
>
> To be honest, as a person who has attended a number of spatial
> conferences, I must say that the costs for the average FOSS4G
> international conference are very reasonable and compare very favourably
> with similar events. They also represent excellent value for money when
> you think of the typical breadth and high quality of presentations.
>
> As a conference organiser, there is a great deal of pressure on ensuring
> a financially viable conference. It is not until the very last stages of
> the planning for the event that you start to get an understanding of how
> many people have actually committed to attend the event, and whether you
> will cover your costs for the event.
>
> There is a cost, even for 'free' slots. Think of meals, drinks and lost
> revenue opportunities to cover conference costs.
>
> So if a lot of free slots are given to developers and the conference
> fails to attract sufficient delegates to cover the conference costs, who
> pays for the short fall in funds that the conference has committed to?
> Do the volunteer local organisers pay out of their own pocket? Does OSGeo?
>
> We (FOSS4G-2009) did look at the idea of have a 'few' slots available
> for developers who had done an outstanding job for the community. But
> who would select these people? What would be the eligibility criteria?
> What process would be used that would allow an open and auditable
> selection of recipients? How would other hard working developers feel if
> they missed out on a free slot? What then would the impact be on the
> community and on the FOSS4G conference? So in the end, we decided out of
> fairness for all developers that we would not offer free slots for
> developers.
>
> So in summary:
>
> * FOSS4G events are good value for money and not overly expensive.
> * It does not make financial sense to provide a lot of free places for
> developers at FOSS4G conferences. If there are insufficient funds to
> cover the substantial conference costs, who pays?
>
>
> Bruce
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ------ Forwarded Message
>
> *From: *Jachym Cepicky
> *Date: *Mon, 4 Mar 2013 20:59:14 +1100
> *To: *<cavallini <http://cavallini@faunalia.it>
> *Cc: *OSGeo Discussions , OSGeo-Board List
> *Subject: *Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] [Board] OSGeo Board Priorities
>
>
> Hi,
>
> I fully agree, that the costs for individuals or small company are very
> heigh. I'm aware, you were mentioning this issue already. Since I know,
> FOSS4G-Global is the main source of income to OSGeo, I did not raise any
> obligation so far - I have no clue, how to organize this better for the
> future.
>
> Paolo's idea sounds not bad: having some kind of scholarship program,
> where we could allocate some money for people who can not come but it's
> valuable to have them there.
>
> Do we have some "priorities" for FOSS4G as well? In general, when I'm
> discussing this topic with people, general feelings are, that
> FOSS4G-Global is very developer-oriented meeting, compared e.g. to
> FOSSGIS (German local conference), which would be more user or business
> oriented (correct me if I'm wrong, it is a while, I was there).
>
> Having priorities of the FOSS4G-global could also point us the the
> answer, whether we should financially support developers to come or not.
>
> Jachym
>
> Dne 4.3.2013 08:33, Paolo Cavallini napsal(a):
> > Il 04/03/2013 00:44, Cameron Shorter ha scritto:
>
> >> A productive virtual meeting of the OSGeo Board
> >> <http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Board_Meeting_2013-02-26> resulted in
> general consensus
> >> over OSGeo's priorities, which in turn should help the OSGeo Board and OSGeo
> >> committees when guiding OSGeo into the future.
> >
> >> These principles are:
> >
> >> * OSGeo should act as a low capital, volunteer focused organisation.
> >> * OSGeo should focus support on OSGeo communities and initiatives which support
> >> themselves.
> >
> > Hi all.
> > Thanks for this. I welcome this change, that I think will make OSGeo much more
> > effective in promoting free and open source geospatial software.
> > On the other hand, I still have problems with annual FOSS4G, which has a cost that
> > scares away many top developers. IMHO (sorry to insist, I raised this point earlier)
> > the meeting should be free for developers (committers to OSGeo projects), and more
> > expensive for businessman. The net cash flow should be from business to GFOSS
> > promotion, not drawing from our precious developers.
> > All the best.
> > _______________________________________________
> > Board mailing list
> >Board at lists.osgeo.org <http://Board@lists.osgeo.org>
> >http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/board
> >
>
> --
>
>
>
> ------ End of Forwarded Message
>
>
>
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--
Daniel Morissette
http://www.mapgears.com/
Provider of Professional MapServer Support since 2000
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