Giovanni Mascellani wrote...
> 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, (...)
Seconded.
> but in the current situation I don't think it is responsible to
> physically meet from all over the world. It's not just about the risk
> each individual attendee would accept to take: it's the risk our whole
> communities take (particularly the vulnerable ones, from the health
> viewpoint) when individuals allow the virus to spread.
Just to add some perspective: The big lock-downs started some ten weeks
ago. Until DebConf it's some fourteen weeks from now.
So it's really hard to predict how things will be by August. While it
certainly will not be back to all-normal, I can imagine it might be
possible (read: allowed by the authorities) to do such an event, with
some additional rules like mandatory masks¹ all the time and sleeping in
separate rooms. We might however as well be just at the start of the
second wave and in full lock-down again.
In the light of that uncertainty I find the organzizers' decision fairly
bold - but I trust they've discussed this problem a lot and had reason
to cast their decision as they did.
The sad part however is several people will not yet be able to attend
anyway: Those from countries where the outbreak is not yet under
control, people with a precondition², and some who are bound by company
policy that forbids travelling due to the pandemia.
Christoph
¹ Too bad I never sent my feedback for 2019 - one paragraph was about
the DebConf Plague, and asking to provide masks for those who are
already sneezing, to keep impact low. *That* will be taken care of for
the next twenty years, I'm sure.
² Mentally looking around in the community and guessing from every-day
experience, their number is certainly not zero and possibly much
higher than we think.
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