I think there is a great deal to be said for holding SotM in different locations.
The trouble is finding them. Running a successful conference like this is quite a lot of work. Locations that are used to holding conferences will have experienced teams that exist. Other locations will have to put together something from scratch which will be more work so just coaxing people to do the work to put in a submission is a major effort. For Africa the ideal location would be one that is visa free for most African countries. Kenya may well be the African country that allows visa free travel from the most African countries but it does require visas for most African countries. Then you get safety. Is OpenStreetMap a terrorist target? Unfortunately the answer is yes. If I wish to destabilise a country then I want to grab any food aid and only supply my supporters. So NGOs and OpenStreetMap become targets. Nairobi has been hit by terrorist attacks in the past. I suspect there are safer African countries but you need to plan ahead and what might be safe today might have it's government overthrown by a coup tomorrow. Then you get people voting with their feet. SotM EU and SotM US may attract more attendees and more interesting presenters. How do you deal with SotM becoming a side show? Accessibility Oxford Street in London has roughly 1.5 million people within a 45 minute journey by public transport. I'm unsure what the numbers for Nairobi are but the higher the number of locals the higher the number of people who might attend. Same sort of comment for longer distances. What sort of destinations and what frequency are available at the airport? Any long distance trains available? One comment made to me by someone who attends a number of OpenStreetMap conferences was at least they could take a bit of time looking at Ottawa. Often they only saw the inside of the hotel and the conference building which sometimes were the same building. Apparently these days modern hotels all look the same. How do you ensure that this one would be any different? My feeling is getting HOT and WHO involved might up the chances of success. Cheerio John On Tue, Aug 22, 2023, 19:28 o_andras <o_and...@emailasso.net> wrote: > Hi fellow humans! > > (replying to the top email to avoid accidentally pointing fingers, lest > anyone think I'm accusing them of anything; it's intended to be more of > an introspection guide) > > > I find it disheartening that "open and diverse" nowadays seems to mean > "exclusive". The rules created to foster diversity and whatnot exclude > too, turns out! So much for diversity... > > Of course, this is not news, I'm not the first to think it or even to > say it (unfortunately I'm not the most expressive either; let's hope I > can get the message across). Is it taboo to talk about it? I've seen > others expressing this sentiment and being shunned for it. > > Can't the (possibly) affected part of the community understand this? A > SotM hosted in a "western" country (strong emphasis on the quotes!), > maybe it's welcomming to the global community -- we the "westerners" are > so much better after all (that was sarcasm, if you couldn't tell...) > But is it accessible to the global community? > > And didn't you, a "westerner", get the chance of attending several SotMs > already? And are you part of the OSM community to "westernize" the > "non-westerners"? Never thought of going to other places to learn > different ways of life, etc? > > Being "good" or "bad" is not so clear-cut, either. There are some better > things and some worse things. Being worse at something doesn't make it > worse at everything. > > Certainly, not everyone in a given country is the same. You should know > -- can you positively say there's no discrimination in your own country, > just because you yourself don't discriminate in your own country? I wish > you and I both could... > > > OSM or the SotM isn't your own toy, that you can lend for others to play > with. It's more of a leisure=playground; access=yes. Let everyone have > their turn. If you don't want to go down the slide today (no matter the > reason), go to the swing. The slide will be there for you another day. > > > PS: please avoid replying with examples of extremism. From my pov it's > not relevant to the SotM discussion. > > Best regards, > o_andras > > > > _______________________________________________ > talk mailing list > talk@openstreetmap.org > https://lists.openstreetmap.org/listinfo/talk >
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