[Foss4g2013] [OSGeo-Discuss] FOSS4G 2013 Nottingham Update

[Barry Rowlingson]

On Fri, May 10, 2013 at 5:37 PM, Peter Batty <peter at ebatty.com> wrote:
> Hi Jeroen,
>
> I'm not saying there shouldn't be any discussion, but I do think far too
> much is being read into Barry's comment on high value workshops. I think it
> was an offhand comment, and as Barry said he wasn't involved in workshop
> selection.

 Yes. Note that value is not just cost. Cheap and expensive courses
can both be poor value. I did say "great training cheaply from great
trainers" to emphasise this.

 As a conference committee we are strongly encouraged to use the
"Lessons Learned" pieces that previous conference organisers write up.
Today I've reviewed those and the role of community input in workshop
selection over the past few FOSS4Gs.

 In 2009, the organisers got adventurous and tried a fairly open
review process, but seemed dissatisfied with it:

http://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/FOSS4G_2009_Lessons_Learned#Workshops

and indeed the "Lesson learned" seems to be:

"refine the selection criteria" and "I would then perform the
selection myself" which seems pretty clear cut. There would be no
community review.

The 2010 and 2011 lessons pages are pretty skinny on workshop process.
2007 and 2008 both did a small committee plus local group final
decision process which mirrors ours.


Barry