Finances are a limiting factor on conference attendance for people of all
demographic groups, and I would endorse plans to surmount that.
Code4Lib is, of course, one of the least expensive conferences you'll
find. And the community and organizers care a lot about keeping it so --
there are sometimes disputes in a given year about whether the
organizers could have kept it even less expensive. But it's still, every
year, one of the most affordable conferences around.
Which is pretty darn awesome, and important.
That's pretty much what we do try and increase financial accessibility
for people of all demographic groups. We also try to switch the regional
location around the country every year, to even out transportation costs
for for people in different parts of the country.
If you can afford to go to any conference at all, you can afford for
Code4Lib to be that conference. Of course, there are people who can't
afford to go to any conference. Which is unfortunate. But I'm not sure
what, if anything, is being suggested we could do about that?
If you have or can find a source of funding willing to pay registration,
hotel, and transportation for anyone who can't afford it, then please
feel free to organize it to happen.
That's what the people who organized, and continue to organize, the
diversity scholarships did. They just organized it.
Jonathan
