Hi Ean:
Nice, but I think you might be missing my point.
ApacheCon is all about telling the world about OFBiz and using the
immense resources available to the Foundation to do that.
IMHO it isn't really about socializing with the small and (getting
smaller by the hour) OFBiz community. ApacheCon is for our end-users. Or
rather, our potential end-users. This should be the place where we
showcase our wares and not "vacation with a purpose".
Just my 2 cents.
Regards,
Ruth
Ean Schuessler wrote:
I think DebConf is a good example that this can be done and done
right. I know HP helps out with the expenses of DebConf but part of
that is helping fly in developers from countries where the currency
exchange rates make attendance impractically high. We may simply not
be able to do that or we may come to some agreement about how we would
share those expenses for speakers with something especially important
to contribute.
Given the relatively small size of our community, we have a lot of
flexibility about where we choose to meet. In my mind, the
accommodations should be purposefully modest yet interesting and fun.
There are lots of options like that in all kinds of places. We can
think of it as a collaboratively planned vacation with a purpose.
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.
