[Debconf-team] Criteria for Debconf location decision
A couple of comments from last night's meeting struck me:
21:39 < stockholm> vorlon: i was impressed by how different cutures are
and thought that it would be interesting to see other cultures. instead
we should all go to a mc donals or disny world
and
21:25 < gwolf> I do think that we carry growth to the FS movement
wherever we hold Debconf.
21:26 < gwolf> moray_uk: ...Less developed countries have, IMHO, more
need to be pushed a bit
The first of these seems to imply that less "western" culture is a
desired feature of a Debconf, and the second seems to imply that we
should choose a location with less involvement in Debian in order to
"sell" ourselves better. Do people feel that these are valid criteria?
(Personal opinion follows)
Firstly, let me stress that I'm not involved in the Edinburgh bid at all
- for a variety of reasons, I'm unlikely to make Debconf next year even
if it gets held in my house. These are my own opinions.
Debian is, first and foremost, a distribution of free software. As the
consitution puts it:
The Debian Project is an association of individuals who have made common
cause to create a free operating system.
Debconf should exist to support this. That is, the most important aim of
Debconf should be to assist in the creation of a free operating system.
This leads to the following conclusions:
1) Debconf should aim to provide the facilities necessary to aid in the
creation of a free operating system (network connectivity, venues for
talks, that sort of thing)
2) Debconf should aim to bring together the individuals involved in the
creation of said free operating system (so should be accessible to as
many people involved in Debian as possible, to the degree that this
doesn't compromise the first conclusion)
there's a third conclusion, which I think is somewhat less strong:
3) Debconf should aim to encourage interest in free software, in order
to increase the number of people who may become involved in Debian in
the future
Firstly, I think the fact that point 3 depends upon a result that can't
be guaranteed (ie, holding Debconf somewhere will increase the number of
people involved in Debian in future) suggests that it should be held
more weakly than the first two conclusions. That is to say, point 3
should not be at the expense of points 1 and 2. Secondly, I think the
assumption that, say, Sarajevo fulfils point 3 more than Edinburgh does
is not a well-founded argument. The number of factors involved is large
and I'm not aware of any good research into whether advocacy events are
more effective if held in areas with little to no prior interest in the
field compared to areas where some awareness already exists.
In conclusion, I don't think that point 3 should be a strong
consideration in choosing the location of Debconf. I certainly don't buy
the argument that the smaller amount of free software activity in Bosnia
is an incentive to hold a conference there. I'd be interested to know
what others think.
(I think the idea that Debconf should attempt to expose developers to
different cultures is entirely insane. It doesn't fit any of the goals
of Debian. That isn't to say that I'm against Debconf being held in
countries which don't have stereotypical "western" culture", merely
against this being any sort of criterion in choosing the location.
Brazil satisfied my criteria (1) and (2) perfectly well, and so I was
happy to be there. The fact that I was in Brazil was a bonus. However,
if there'd been another option that satisfied criteria (1) and (2)
better than Brazil did, we should have chosen it *even if it was a city
with a McDonalds on every corner*. We're here to create a free operating
system, not to teach each other the value of different cultures)
--
Matthew Garrett | mjg59@srcf.ucam.org
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