Hi,
On 12/02/2015 10:23 PM, Steve Coast wrote:
> I’ve heard from a few people thinking of organizing an OpenStreetMap
> conference focused on the community, very different from what SOTM has become.
There are many different ways in which one could focus on the community.
In Germany, we've noticed that many community members abhor the term
"conference" because it sounds too self-important, and we've for years
been toying with the idea of holding something like an "OSM summer camp"
or "OSM BBQ weekend" or whatever, where you can bring your family and a
tent. It hasn't been tried yet though, and events like that can really
only be held on a local (at most: national) scale because they are (and
must be) low-budget to attract everyone. An event like that could
conceivably run with very little sponsorship, if any.
(Sponsor-funded scholarships for travel and accomodation are, in my
opinion, not a suitable replacement for making the event affordable for
its target group. But of course, as I said, an affordable event can by
definition never be a global event, due to travel costs alone.)
Doing special events focused on the developer community is also an
interesting option.
But like Michael said, I wouldn't give up on SOTM too quickly; if we can
reach a consensus that we want the conference to be participatory rather
than representative, we could very well make SOTM that community conference.
In my view, the annual Chaos Communication Congress is a prime example
of a good community conference despite its huge size; while it certainly
moves a ton of money behind the scenes, it is affordable and has no
visible commercial influence - the overwhelming part of the work is done
by volunteers. The conference is meticulously run, but not
"professionalised". Many of the volunteers running that conference
meanwhile have much more experience than anyone you could hire for the
job but still they're volunteers.
A less positive example from a similar sphere is FOSS4G; I am
peripherally involved in the FOSS4G 2016 planning and this conference,
while having the same humble origins as SOTM, has meanwhile evolved into
a behemoth where only big companies can afford to sponsor and only those
on an expense ticket can afford paying the entrance fee. FOSS4G still
involves a lot of volunteers behind the scenes, but it is meanwhile a
conference for professionals.
I think there's a dangerous metric in the minds of many people, where a
conference is better if it has a niftier web page, a more exclusive
conference centre, or attracts more visitors or more sponsorship money.
Volunteer participation is often viewed as a sad necessity ("of course
it would be better to pay professionals but they probably can't afford it").
If we manage to deconstruct that metric, and define what really makes a
good conference for us, then we can have a good conference right there
in SOTM.
(While at the same time leaving ample room for good local events.)
Of course, if we make SOTM too much community focused, there's always
the danger of someone starting their own OSM-for-businesses conference
and calling it "OSM+" or so ;)
Bye
Frederik
--
Frederik Ramm ## eMail frede...@remote.org ## N49°00'09" E008°23'33"
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