I believe everyone has been in a very complex feeling this year in many ways. But we should all know that we should fight to the virus, not to the oran team on yes or no to have DebConf registration or in person at the moment.
I am sorry for the organizing team, who for sure has poured a lot of
energy and dedication into DebConf20. They deserve all our gratitude and
they have all mine. I know it is disappointing to see their efforts
wasted, but in the current situation I don't think it is responsible to
physically meet from all over the world.
As crisis is turning point. According to everyone's feedback. I also believe to have the conference in person is not the best option to fight together to the virus. And I also don't want our DebConf orga team's efforts to be wasted.
I believe orga team has done their best. We hope we all may work together to make this year as the first special DebConf ever with revolutionary arrangement(online, VR/XR...etc) possible.
And I believe the online C&W party would be super special with a lot of things to share each other. And we might have a day trip to dig into some source code of free software online.
In this way, Debian may demonstration how we can still make one of the largest conference in world to be done in such a most fun way as DebConf's tradition ever during the pandemic.
Let's look at the bright side, and I hope the orga team this year may have some idea to make it in turn.
Best wishes,
-Andrew