Hi David:
Sorry you had such bad experiences.
I guess what you are saying here is that I need to forge ahead with my
own proposals to the organizers and not expect any backing from you.
That is ok with me. I know how much time and effort you spent in the
past coordinating these things and I for one appreciate everything
you've done.
FYI, my offer to present at both this and the past ApacheCon were/are
not predicated on getting paid. I never assumed I would get paid for any
work related to the project, be it code contributions or ApacheCon
presentations. I do this because I want to do it and I want to give back
to the community. I still believe in OFBiz and this is a wonderful
opportunity to tell the world about it.
Regards,
Ruth
David E Jones wrote:
I'm not sure if you meant this or not Ruth, but as it was addressed to me I should clarify: I did speak up here, but I am not taking a role in organizing anything as I did in previous years. In other words, I'm not committing to anything on behalf of the project and I'm not trying to recruit speakers and I'm not volunteering to speak or do training either.
Quite frankly in the past it has required a lot of time and money and liability
with no real benefit. I hope someone profited from those past efforts, perhaps
the for-profit organizers and maybe some attendees as well. About that, I don't
know. ApacheCon was a mess in '08 because people were paying a lot to attend
(both the training and the conference) and yet none of the money (not a penny)
went to any of the presenters or trainers. In other words, the presenters and
trainers were paying to be there and so were the attendees. This culminated in
some fascinating personal attacks from people who attended and who were not
satisfied that what they got was worth what they paid for it.
Just in case anyone is wondering ApacheCon is not the only one that ended up
this way. In another conference I did some pre-conference training and made
almost nothing doing it because the conference organizers mixed the funds for
the training with the funds for the conference, and so basically I offered
training and most of the proceeds went to subsidize the conference. My guess is
that this happens a lot with conferences.
So, taking that on just so other people can make money? Well, I'd like to say
that I learned my lesson and that's why I'm not interested (that would
incorrectly make me look experienced and intelligent and somehow remotely good
at business dealings), but the fact of the matter is that even if I wanted to I
don't have the weeks of time and thousands of dollars to even participate in a
bare minimum way. If someone else does, I'm sure many people will benefit from
their contributions and they should certainly step up and go for it.
Anyway, sorry if any bitterness bled through in this text. I think it's really
just human nature that expectations of EVERYONE involved with such things have
expectations dramatically inconsistent with reality.
-David
On Apr 2, 2010, at 11:06 AM, Ruth Hoffman wrote:
Hi David:
I would be very interested in hosting sessions similar to last November's
ApacheCon in Oakland. I'm prepared to commit to at least (3) 50 minute
sessions. If someone wants to organize something out side of ApacheCon, then,
depending on the venue, I may be able to commit to participating in that. My
session(s) will be end-user focused. In fact, I'm considering submitting a
proposal for a session on end-user use of the framework independent of any
applications.
I'm not sure what is meant by the rest of this thread, but regardless of the
participation from project committers, I plan to submit at least one proposal.
Regards,
Ruth
David E Jones wrote:
In the last thread about this it sounded like people were more interested in
doing a separate conference that would be less expensive to attend.
Either way, I haven't heard anything about anyone pushing for any sort of
conference. Has anyone else heard anything, or is anyone else interested in
pushing this along?
-David
On Apr 2, 2010, at 6:56 AM, Erwan de FERRIERES wrote:
Hi all,
so I'm coming back on this subject, but as it is said here
(https://blogs.apache.org/foundation/entry/apachecon_na_2010_business_community),
the conference call is over at the end of the month.
so, are we making an OFBiz symposium ? Or an OFBiz camp ?
Cheers,
--
Erwan de FERRIERES
www.nereide.biz
