<div dir="ltr">Hi Everyone,<div><div><br></div><div>I would like to start this email with the caveat, statement, and admission that "<b>I am an idiot</b>" to ensure all are provided with the requisite informed context.</div><div><br></div><div>The environmental concerns of holding a conference are immense, that we would be reticent not to consider. I for one love this planet, as I happen to be living on it and I quite like living. Living involves whiskey, dim sum and chocolate. In short, I don't want to stop living because I doubt those things will be in it. </div><div><br></div><div>To tell a story. I cried in an airport on 31 December. I had seen my parents for the first time in a long time and was heading back 'home' to NYC. I was listening to my very good friend Steven talk to my other good friend Ivan on "<a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/be/podcast/ivan-sanchez-the-politics-of-geo/id1500132553?i=1000545491911">The Politics of Geo</a>". The emotion of hearing Ivan discuss the transitive relationships within the nexus of economy, philosophy and geography provided an emotional crescendo that I am sure made a few people quite uncomfortable. We are social beings and we would be irresponsible not to take our community to where it can have the maximum impact. I suspect we, in our own way, have had these moments during these very challenging times over the past two years.</div><div><br></div><div>Through our work, we provide humanity with the very tools which will provide its salvation. For example, through the efforts of FOSS4G in Dar es Salaam (which was a privilege to co-chair with Msiliakle) from bringing the largest (yet!) number of travel grant awardees to directly supporting an FGM charity with resources to combat the horrid practice, we managed to achieve something that would have simply been impossible virtually. It is with pride that I note that one of our FOSS4G TGP awardees went on to Keynote in Argentina. I write this as a past FOSS4G chair because of the mentorship of our community. Others will come through our networking and will go on to achieve more and drive more than we could have ever imagined. </div><div><br></div><div>We must undertake efforts to make sure that there is geographically equitable representation to inspire and foster the next generation. We have no choice but to do this in person, not due to exacting mental health costs on us imposed by our current challenges, but to inspire the next and undertake every effort to ensure that all are capable of participating. The past two years have demonstrated the hard limit of our virtual world and we do not have the time to wait for the next 5 billion to come and join us - we must go out to meet them and embrace them where they are, not where we are. To me, the question is not the environmental cost of convening a FOSS4G, it would be the cost to humanity of not convening one.</div><div><br></div><div>But, then again, this is my personal opinion and I am an idiot.</div><div><br></div><div>Best,</div><div><br></div><div>Mark</div></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Wed, 12 Jan 2022 at 16:51, Jonathan Moules via Discuss <<a href="mailto:discuss@lists.osgeo.org">discuss@lists.osgeo.org</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
<div>
<p>The problem with the social interaction arguments is the massive
environmental cost.<br>
<br>
It's about 22,000 km round trip from either NW USA or West Europe
to Buenos Aires, Argentina for example.<br>
Depending on the calculator you use, that's about 4 tonnes of CO2
for the round trip. The world target by 2030 is 2.1 tonnes per
capita (Page XXV - UN Environment Programme report -
<a href="https://wedocs.unep.org/xmlui/bitstream/handle/20.500.11822/34426/EGR20.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y" target="_blank">https://wedocs.unep.org/xmlui/bitstream/handle/20.500.11822/34426/EGR20.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y</a>
). So that's about two-person years of CO2 emissions for a ~4 day
conference.<br>
<br>
This is why I ask what actual benefits "networking" provides. It's
not part of an anti-social crusade, it's because "business as
usual" for us means "our grandparents screwed everything up for
us" in a few generations. Jetting around the planet has a
real-world cost even if it's one that's invisible to most of us
right now.</p>
<p>We take our ability to jet around the globe by air for granted
but forget that just 90 years ago it was impossible. Literally.
The (turbo) jet hadn't been invented. And even today, the vast
vast majority (> 90%, probably much higher) of the world's
population never fly in a given year (
<a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/air-space-magazine/how-much-worlds-population-has-flown-airplane-180957719/" target="_blank">https://www.smithsonianmag.com/air-space-magazine/how-much-worlds-population-has-flown-airplane-180957719/</a>
).<br>
</p>
<p><br>
> I think if a group of individuals[1], or several groups, want
to put forward proposals for the conference to be located in
"Cyberspace"[2] then that should not be disallowed, and then its
up to the conference committee to consider it fairly according to
the criteria for selection.<br>
<br>
On the surface, this is a good idea, but unfortunately it has a
fundamental problem:<br>
There are no "criteria for selection" of the conference beyond
"the committee members voted for this proposal". There's zero
transparency in the process.</p>
<p>It strikes me that there is another advantage to the online
setup, one that solves a very real recurring problem of the
in-person conferences:<br>
Repeatability.<br>
Currently every conference starts from scratch; the new LOC has to
figure everything out for themselves and all the knowledge from
the old LOC is lost (although they do usually try to help with the
transition). However, with an online conference, once the tooling
is setup for the first one it would seem the burden to create the
later ones would be much lower, and you'd benefit from possibly
having some LOC members do it multiple times allowing the transfer
for institutional knowledge.<br>
<br>
(And no, for a whole host of reasons, I'm not the person to put
forth any formal proposal)<br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<div>On 2022-01-12 15:52, Barry Rowlingson
via Discuss wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite">
<div dir="ltr">
<div>I think if a group of individuals[1], or several groups,
want to put forward proposals for the conference to be located
in "Cyberspace"[2] then that should not be disallowed, and
then its up to the conference committee to consider it fairly
according to the criteria for selection. <br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Barry<br>
</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>[1] Not me</div>
<div>[2] But not "the metaverse". Just No.</div>
</div>
<br>
<div class="gmail_quote">
<div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Wed, Jan 12, 2022 at 3:45
PM Michael Smith via Discuss <<a href="mailto:discuss@lists.osgeo.org" target="_blank">discuss@lists.osgeo.org</a>>
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">This
email originated outside the University. Check before clicking
links or attachments.<br>
<br>
I would say that its probably best to think about Hybrid, as
this is what is happening for 2022. Essentially you are both
right, there are pluses and minuses to each. And we want to
support both going forward as there isn’t going to be an
approach that works for everyone. Future FOSS4Gs will probably
all part virtual and in-person.<br>
<br>
Note this is my personal opinion.<br>
<br>
Mike<br>
<br>
<br>
--<br>
<br>
Michael Smith<br>
US Army Corps / Remote Sensing GIS Center<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
On 1/12/22, 10:28 AM, "Discuss on behalf of Iván Sánchez
Ortega via Discuss" <<a href="mailto:discuss-bounces@lists.osgeo.org" target="_blank">discuss-bounces@lists.osgeo.org</a>
on behalf of <a href="mailto:discuss@lists.osgeo.org" target="_blank">discuss@lists.osgeo.org</a>>
wrote:<br>
<br>
El miércoles, 12 de enero de 2022 15:26:05 (CET) Jonathan
Moules via Discuss<br>
escribió:<br>
> > we really hope that FOSS4G2023 can be safely<br>
> > organized in physical format.<br>
><br>
> Why?<br>
<br>
Because we humans are social animals; and people like me,
who are almost<br>
completely burnt out by not having been outside of their
houses for nearly two<br>
years, could really use an in-person event to see their
friends and their<br>
personal heroes.<br>
<br>
I'm not gonna attack Jonathan's points (or even reply to
them, risking an<br>
episode of sealioning to erode my patience), but I want to
make one of my own:<br>
<br>
It's good for our collective mental health. We *want* an
in person event, we<br>
*hope* for it; which for me is a sign our brains have some
demand for it, even<br>
if it's intangible.<br>
<br>
<br>
--<br>
Iván Sánchez Ortega <<a href="mailto:ivan@sanchezortega.es" target="_blank">ivan@sanchezortega.es</a>>
<a href="https://ivan.sanchezortega.es" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">https://ivan.sanchezortega.es</a><br>
<br>
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