Crazy Idea: debian developer conference

[Joey Hess <joey@kitenet.net>]

I've been thinking about this for a while, but it always seemed like a crazy
idea. But it seems other people were thinking about it too, and others like
the idea, so I had better post about it.

Wouldn't it be great if all the debian developers could be flown in to a
convention site, get to meet each other, really tighten up the gpg web of
trust, attend talks by developers, discuss important issues in person, and
so on? It would really make us more of a community.

The two big questions:

	Where?
	
		Preferably somewhere with a high density of debian developers.
		The California Bay Area (20 some developers with many more
		nearby) and the Netherlands come to mind. We'd need a map of
		where people live to make an informed choice.

	How much $$ would it take, and where's that come from?

		I'm figuring around $700 per developer, for plane fare and
		lodging. If 250 attend that's $175k. Plus some unkown amount
		to rent out a convention center.

		We always seem to have money we don't need to spend on
		hardware or bandwidth, but I don't think it's on this scale.
		Corporate donations? I don't really know.

Is this idea worth pursuing?

-- 
see shy jo