Re: [Debconf-team] My thoughts on reconfirmation, fundraising, etc
On Tue, Jun 01, 2010 at 03:20:35AM -0400, Richard Darst wrote:
> Ana has also been helping out some today, and identified about 27 of
> ~200 sponsored attendees whom she could find no sign of free software
> community related work on the internet - and yes, this is being very
> broad. She also consulted with others who know of the free software
> community to ensure that we didn't miss people involved but we just
> don't know about, but we'd definitely want to do more of this
> checking.
As I said before, I think it's a mistake to exclude people who don't yet have
pre-existing signs on the internet of being visibly involved in the free
software community but who can articulate a reason for wanting to attend that's
plausibly related to the conference instead of the location. Most $tourists
won't be able to do that usefully, and the number who can is small enough that
it's a reasonable price to pay for the many probable new contributors who will
show up to the first US debconf ever. (I know someone personally who is a
Debian/FOSS user and is coming and yet doesn't show any Debian/FOSS involvement
over the first 5 or 6 pages of Google results. I can give his name off-list if
you care.)
This is not to say we shouldn't ask for the brief explanation as I described,
or even that we shouldn't apply it if it becomes financially necessary, but
only that your/Ana's criteria are too narrow.
- Jimmy Kaplowitz
jimmy@debconf.org
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