Re: [openhealth] Should we make FOSS Health conference exclusive?
Hi Fred, I think it is a good strategy to raise prices but to still be open. Unfortunately I can not participate in the event due to my limited budget but I would prefer to have an open event. I support Tim's view that it is neccessary to address also people outside the core community. But it mainly depends on your focus. What is your conference like? Is it more on strengthening collaboration between different FLOSS-HC projects and the community of developers in FLOSS-HC or do you also want to attract potential users and new developers for FLOSS HC. In the latter case try to be as open as possible. From my experience of organizing the OSEHC workshop (follow-up webpage under construction: http://wikicts.med.up.pt/index.php/OSEHC_Workshop) http://wikicts.med.up.pt/index.php/OSEHC_Workshop it is very fruitful to have people with different backgrounds with different needs and perspectives. Being open raises your chance to have new FOFs at the end of the day :-). I'm currently organizing a FLOSS-HC workshop at Med-e-Tel in Luxemburg together with Etienne Saliez (http://www.medetel.eu/index.php?rub=educational_programpage=program http://www.medetel.eu/index.php?rub=educational_programpage=program) (Sustainable collaborations in healthcare open source software http://campaign.constantcontact.com/render?v=001gl3tGmS-gzS6wlDLAJiq_u6E9O7EWXTjhMPZx6jgiF9bOcS9_WG9qliaG4CpRjQPTre_ZzJFz8WRivPFNcu6YCiUcNFHj5VYpTeqZnj1zvnsNNq63F3NKg%3D%3D#LETTER.BLOCK16) I whish you all the best for your conference and I hope we find a way of exchanging experience and knowledge and may be a way of collaboration in future events. Best regards, Thomas fred trotter schrieb: Hi, So Early bird sales for the conference have gone really well. Much better than I expected, and potentially problematically well. If DOHCS attendance is any indicator, there will be a spike of late registrations. I may be running out of space, which is not a problem if I know months in advance but is a problem if I know days or hours. I have had several people email me saying I just missed early bird registration, can I still get tickets at that price? The answer is no, that would not be fair to the people who have registered on time. However, in sympathy to your pleas I have created a new almost early bird ticket sale that costs only a little more than early bird. You can purchase the tickets here: http://fosshealth.eventbrite.com http://fosshealth.eventbrite.com I am telling you know, if you want to go, or you think you might want to go, buy your tickets now. Otherwise, you will forget and then you will be emailing me asking for special treatment again. The people who register earliest will get the best deal, I will only raise prices as the deadline approaches. Do not let this happen to you!! Now for the main point of my message. Is it appropriate for me to make this an invitation-only event, like FOO camp? I could call it Friends of Fred or FOF (ok thats a terrible idea). The point is, it would help me keep the conference size down and ensure that everyone there was really important and/or doing really interesting work. Frankly I do not like the idea, it feels bad to make anything FOSS closed like that, but otherwise, conference planning might be impossible. Let me know what you think!! -- Fred Trotter http://www.fredtrotter.com http://www.fredtrotter.com [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] -- IT Science Center Rügen gGmbH Circus 14 D-18581 Putbus Telefon: +49(0)38301 8829-74 Fax: +49(0)38301 8829-59 karo...@it-science-center.de www.it-science-center.de Geschäftsführer: Gunther Dettmann, Ilvio Bruder Handelsregister Amtsgericht Stralsund HRB 6227 USt-Ident-Nummer: DE 244660253 [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
[openhealth] Should we make FOSS Health conference exclusive?
Hi, So Early bird sales for the conference have gone really well. Much better than I expected, and potentially problematically well. If DOHCS attendance is any indicator, there will be a spike of late registrations. I may be running out of space, which is not a problem if I know months in advance but is a problem if I know days or hours. I have had several people email me saying I just missed early bird registration, can I still get tickets at that price? The answer is no, that would not be fair to the people who have registered on time. However, in sympathy to your pleas I have created a new almost early bird ticket sale that costs only a little more than early bird. You can purchase the tickets here: http://fosshealth.eventbrite.com I am telling you know, if you want to go, or you think you might want to go, buy your tickets now. Otherwise, you will forget and then you will be emailing me asking for special treatment again. The people who register earliest will get the best deal, I will only raise prices as the deadline approaches. Do not let this happen to you!! Now for the main point of my message. Is it appropriate for me to make this an invitation-only event, like FOO camp? I could call it Friends of Fred or FOF (ok thats a terrible idea). The point is, it would help me keep the conference size down and ensure that everyone there was really important and/or doing really interesting work. Frankly I do not like the idea, it feels bad to make anything FOSS closed like that, but otherwise, conference planning might be impossible. Let me know what you think!! -- Fred Trotter http://www.fredtrotter.com [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Re: [openhealth] Should we make FOSS Health conference exclusive?
On Wed, 2009-03-11 at 08:31 -0500, fred trotter wrote: Now for the main point of my message. Is it appropriate for me to make this an invitation-only event, like FOO camp? I could call it Friends of Fred or FOF (ok thats a terrible idea). The point is, it would help me keep the conference size down and ensure that everyone there was really important and/or doing really interesting work. Frankly I do not like the idea, it feels bad to make anything FOSS closed like that, but otherwise, conference planning might be impossible. Let me know what you think!! Hi Fred, Thanks for taking on this chore. Conference planning and organization is a pain no matter what you do (as far as I have experienced). FOF -REALLY! bad idea. :-) We need to be reaching out beyond the current FOSS healthcare community. That is why I have started to present at full FOSS events like the upcoming International Forum for Free Software http://fisl.softwarelivre.org/10/www/ Ranting and raving at the current group of people is like preaching to the choir or worse, slashing at windmills. We need to acknowledge and address the shortcomings of current FOSS offerings and work with a larger community to address those issues. People around the world are recognizing the benefits in open source software but they also want real interoperability. Some places are greenfields and others have legacy issues to deal with. The true open source consultant will recognize those on a case by case basis; instead of charging in with ONE solution. That is very much like the proprietary guys do and it really doesn't resonate with buyers. I wish you the best with DOHCS and I really wish I could be there. But, it is a long way from the sunny beaches of Brazil and alas I found no funding. :-) Cheers, Tim [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Re: [openhealth] Should we make FOSS Health conference exclusive?
Now for the main point of my message. Is it appropriate for me to make this an invitation-only event, like FOO camp? I could call it Friends of Fred or FOF (ok thats a terrible idea). The point is, it would help me keep the conference size down and ensure that everyone there was really important and/or doing really interesting work. Frankly I do not like the idea, it feels bad to make anything FOSS closed like that, but otherwise, conference planning might be impossible. I think it's your good right to do so. Karsten -- Nur bis 16.03.! DSL-Komplettanschluss inkl. WLAN-Modem für nur 17,95 ¿/mtl. + 1 Monat gratis!* http://dsl.gmx.de/?ac=OM.AD.PD003K11308T4569a
