Thanks for the background Mark. Keep in mind that that OSGeo projects and committees also have a budget, many indicated that they would assist their members with foss4g travel and/or accommodation. For context OSGeo does ask that each project officer attend the AGM (or send a community member to speak on their behalf).
I am one of the individuals who submitted a workshop in the hopes of earning a conference ticket. I have enough notice that I will be able to sort out the gap. I would like to acknowledge that earlier in my career finding a way to earn a foss4g conference ticket was a way for me to attend foss4g events (run a workshop, save up half the year, sofa surf based on a generosity, etc...). For the FOSS4G 2013 event you mentioned I joined the video team. I recognize that this was a case was I was giving up my time, since I had more time then money. Personally it takes me five days to prep a 1/2 day workshop. One reason I would like to continue to support instructors is so they take that prep time, but perhaps we could find a balance where financial support is more directly tied to preparation. Do something like hire an designer to help with diagrams if initial course milestone is met etc... -- Jody Garnett On Sun, 17 Jun 2018 at 12:31, Mark Iliffe <markili...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hi All, > > Firstly… we’re super excited to be welcoming you all to Dar es Salaam this > August… it’s going to be amazing!! > > Secondly, at the end of last week, there was a very good discussion on > Twitter about free tickets at FOSS4G [1] - there are numerous threads that > span from here with good comments for offering free tickets to workshop > presenters and keynotes and against. > > I’d like to explain why we made the choice not to offer free tickets to > workshop presenters. > > When we were putting together the workshop program, we were overwhelmed by > the quality and quantity of submissions received by the call. We received > 73 submissions and accepted 27. This was incredibly difficult as we wanted > to widen the scope of content within the workshop program (aka… not have > the same as last year) and balance new presenters with established ones. > Everything was a compromise to establish this program, but on balance I > believe (and I hope you as the community will agree), that we got the > balance right. > > We have the stated aim in our proposal and since that we want to use > FOSS4G in Dar es Salaam to widen participation of many under-represented > groups within our community - as a global community, we need to be as > diverse as the world. Part of the economic impetus within the DLOC is to > widen access and participation - this means working out how to achieve > that. Bluntly, if we want to have a conference with the same content and > people, we shouldn’t be holding this in Dar es Salaam. > > As many, (but not all), workshop presenters are from companies sponsoring > their travel to FOSS4G (offering workshops that directly relate to services > offered by their employer), the drive to widen participation, with previous > conferences not offering free workshop tickets (Nottingham in 2013 for > example) and no stated promise to offer free tickets for presenters, I led > my committee and we resolved to not provide free tickets to presenters. > > However, potentially this is wrong - and I’d like to stress as a > volunteer(and unpaid!) conference chair/organiser, we’re capable of getting > things wrong… but we/I want to ensure that it’s put right. > > In effect, there is no profit from the workshop tickets, effectively, this > pays for the conference venue and the food and drink for the workshop days. > The cost of this is roughly $75. We’re charging $75 - this is cheaper than > previous workshops! To offer a free ticket to workshop presenters, we would > have charged $100 and reclaimed the cost of the workshop presenter ticket > from there. We charged as low as we could, because we recognised that for > some attending FOSS4G, $25 can be a very large difference… but for > others... not at all (hence the donation button for the Travel Grant > Programme!). But, to widen participation, we need to be as inclusive as > possible and that means making hard choices. > > We’re being inclusive by raising the number of TGP attendees from 10 in > Boston to 51 for Dar. As the DLOC, we’ve booked the YMCA for our TGP > attendees - this means that the TGP this year can support micro-grants, > paying $250 to support the bus travel, food, and drink of a community > member in Uganda that ordinarily would not be able to get to the conference > in theory on their doorstep - because of this, every little helps, saving > $100 here, $300 there etc. This may sound like hyperbole, but it’s a direct > and concrete way that FOSS4G is widening access, in both economically > disadvantaged and gendered situations. > > Ultimately: If you are a workshop presenter at FOSS4G this year and are > unable to get your ticket/want a free ticket, please get in touch with me - > *we’ll > sort you out and make it right.* If this has given the impression that we > are taking advantage of our workshop presenters - *it is not the > intention, nor the case and we’re sorry*. > > Going forward, I’d recommend there be a further discussion within the > conference selection process on whether workshop presenters, keynotes etc > are given free passes and clarify whether it should be one way or the other > - but that is not for me or my committee to decide! It’s 70 days to go to > the best FOSS4G yet… and we’ve got a conference to put on! > > Thanks to all of you who make this community great :-) > > Best, > > Mark > > > > > > > [1] https://twitter.com/sarasomewhere/status/1006304174332661760 > _______________________________________________ > Discuss mailing list > Discuss@lists.osgeo.org > https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
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