[OSGeo-Discuss] [OSGeo-Conf] Free Workshop Tickets @ FOSS4G

Tue Jun 19 09:07:17 PDT 2018

Dear Mark and all,

as you know, there will be a GeoForAll meeting on Friday morning. We could
use the meeting to present the prizes to the students? What do you think?

Regards,
Serena

Serena Coetzee (GPr GISc 1245)

University of Pretoria
Director: Centre for Geoinformation Science
Associate professor: Department Geography, Geoinformatics and Meteorology
Geography Building 3-5, Main Campus, Lynnwood Road, Hatfield, 0083, South
Africa
email: serena.coetzee at up.ac.za · Web: www.up.ac.za/cgis · Mobile: +27 82
464 4294 · Tel: +27 12 420 3823

On Mon, Jun 18, 2018 at 10:56 PM, Mark Iliffe <markiliffe at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi Suchith,
>
> Yes - this is awesome. We're happy to provide a platform for Geo4All
> obviously, please contact me off-list for me to intro the right people in
> the DLOC!
>
> Cheers,
>
> Mark
>
> On 18 June 2018 at 05:30, Suchith Anand <Suchith.Anand at nottingham.ac.uk>
> wrote:
>
>> Hi Mark and DLOC Team,
>>
>>
>> Great work you all are doing for FOSS4G 2018 . May I also bring to your
>> attention , that we have a small budget in GeoForAll  for acknowledging
>> student contributions through Student awards at key events  .
>> Distributed as follows
>> First prize -250 USD ;Second prize - 150 USD; Third prize -100 USD
>>
>> The only requirement that we have is that  LOC will need to plan and
>> administer the student competition  and give them at the event with a short
>> blogpost to the community after the event.
>>
>> We are hoping the Dar es Salaam Team will take up this opportunity. We
>> look forward to successful FOSS4G 2018.
>>
>> Best wishes,
>>
>> Suchith
>>
>> ------------------------------
>> *From:* Conference_dev <conference_dev-bounces at lists.osgeo.org> on
>> behalf of Mark Iliffe <markiliffe at gmail.com>
>> *Sent:* 17 June 2018 20:31
>> *To:* ML osgeo discuss; Conference Dev
>> *Subject:* [OSGeo-Conf] Free Workshop Tickets @ FOSS4G
>>
>> Hi All,
>>
>> Firstly… we’re super excited to be welcoming you all to Dar es Salaam
>> this August… it’s going to be amazing!!
>>
>> Secondly, at the end of last week, there was a very good discussion on
>> Twitter about free tickets at FOSS4G [1] - there are numerous threads that
>> span from here with good comments for offering free tickets to workshop
>> presenters and keynotes and against.
>>
>> I’d like to explain why we made the choice not to offer free tickets to
>> workshop presenters.
>>
>> When we were putting together the workshop program, we were overwhelmed
>> by the quality and quantity of submissions received by the call. We
>> received 73 submissions and accepted 27. This was incredibly difficult as
>> we wanted to widen the scope of content within the workshop program (aka…
>> not have the same as last year) and balance new presenters with established
>> ones. Everything was a compromise to establish this program, but on balance
>> I believe (and I hope you as the community will agree), that we got the
>> balance right.
>>
>> We have the stated aim in our proposal and since that we want to use
>> FOSS4G in Dar es Salaam to widen participation of many under-represented
>> groups within our community - as a global community, we need to be as
>> diverse as the world. Part of the economic impetus within the DLOC is to
>> widen access and participation - this means working out how to achieve
>> that. Bluntly, if we want to have a conference with the same content and
>> people, we shouldn’t be holding this in Dar es Salaam.
>>
>> As many, (but not all), workshop presenters are from companies sponsoring
>> their travel to FOSS4G (offering workshops that directly relate to services
>> offered by their employer), the drive to widen participation, with previous
>> conferences not offering free workshop tickets (Nottingham in 2013 for
>> example) and no stated promise to offer free tickets for presenters, I led
>> my committee and we resolved to not provide free tickets to presenters.
>>
>> However, potentially this is wrong - and I’d like to stress as a
>> volunteer(and unpaid!) conference chair/organiser, we’re capable of getting
>> things wrong… but we/I want to ensure that it’s put right.
>>
>> In effect, there is no profit from the workshop tickets, effectively,
>> this pays for the conference venue and the food and drink for the workshop
>> days. The cost of this is roughly $75. We’re charging $75 - this is cheaper
>> than previous workshops! To offer a free ticket to workshop presenters, we
>> would have charged $100 and reclaimed the cost of the workshop presenter
>> ticket from there. We charged as low as we could, because we recognised
>> that for some attending FOSS4G, $25 can be a very large difference… but for
>> others... not at all (hence the donation button for the Travel Grant
>> Programme!). But, to widen participation, we need to be as inclusive as
>> possible and that means making hard choices.
>>
>> We’re being inclusive by raising the number of TGP attendees from 10 in
>> Boston to 51 for Dar. As the DLOC, we’ve booked the YMCA for our TGP
>> attendees - this means that the TGP this year can support micro-grants,
>> paying $250 to support the bus travel, food, and drink of a community
>> member in Uganda that ordinarily would not be able to get to the conference
>> in theory on their doorstep - because of this, every little helps, saving
>> $100 here, $300 there etc. This may sound like hyperbole, but it’s a direct
>> and concrete way that FOSS4G is widening access, in both economically
>> disadvantaged and gendered situations.
>>
>> Ultimately: If you are a workshop presenter at FOSS4G this year and are
>> unable to get your ticket/want a free ticket, please get in touch with me - *we’ll
>> sort you out and make it right.* If this has given the impression that
>> we are taking advantage of our workshop presenters - *it is not the
>> intention, nor the case and we’re sorry*.
>>
>> Going forward, I’d recommend there be a further discussion within the
>> conference selection process on whether workshop presenters, keynotes etc
>> are given free passes and clarify whether it should be one way or the other
>> - but that is not for me or my committee to decide! It’s 70 days to go to
>> the best FOSS4G yet… and we’ve got a conference to put on!
>>
>> Thanks to all of you who make this community great :-)
>>
>> Best,
>>
>> Mark
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> [1] https://twitter.com/sarasomewhere/status/1006304174332661760
>>
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>>
>>
>>
>>
>
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