[Debconf-team] Regarding DebConf13 planned location
Hi,
It has been requested that those of us that have concerns about the
DebConf13 location should formally raise them with the DPL and the
DebConf chairs. I regret that it has come to this, but since I still
do have a lot of concerns, I'm following this path.
My main concerns were expressed in a mail I sent last night [1], after
spending a good part of the past weekend discussing several issues
with local team and global team members. Summarizing, these concerns
refer mainly to the fact that the location chosen is "in the middle of
nowhere", with bad access to shops and alternative accommodation,
while at the same time offering accommodation that we know from past
experience many attendees won't find good enough, thus having less
developers attending.
Apart from me, Ana Guerrero [2] and Steve Langasek [3] also sent their
own analysis regarding the accommodation situation. In Ana's case,
she concluded as me that the location is not adequate for DebConf, in
Steve's case, his conclusion was that in order to not give people a
too unpleasant experience the maximum number of attendees needs to be
reduced more than for past european DebConfs.
There are also concerns about the costs, the budget has been analyzed
by Richard Darst [4], with the conclusion that we would need to reduce
the size of the conference quite a lot in order to make it affordable.
Either by reducing the number of sponsored attendees or by reducing
the amount of DebConf days.
During the past months, many other people have raised their concerns
both on list and on IRC. Most of these concerns have not been
resolved yet. Some other options have been analyzed, but not in much
depth, because many local-team members feel that the chosen location
is very good, even though a number of past and future attendees and
organizers disagree.
Last week, there was a 90 minute team meeting [5], which after a lot
of discussion, tiredness and hurt feelings, ended up in an agreement
to try to negotiate this week with the director of the proposed venue,
the possibility of signing a contract for only one week, or one week
of full occupancy and one partial week, because we can't be certain of
having the money to pay for two full weeks at their rates. If things
can be worked out, then contract would be signed this same week.
Because of all this, I'm asking to please not sign the contract with
LeCamp and explore better options for DebConf13.
I'm making this motion knowing that there is very little time to make
it and that it's very last minute, but I'm doing it because I'm
convinced that this is not a good location to hold DebConf.
Let me just state that no matter what happens, I'll be both attending
DebConf13 and participating in the orga-team from now on. Be it in
helping with the investigation of new locations or with making the
current location work as good as possible.
[1] http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.linux.debian.conference.team/8937
[2] http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.linux.debian.conference.team/8950
[3] http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.linux.debian.conference.team/8945
[4] http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.linux.debian.conference.team/8880
[5] http://meetbot.debian.net/debconf-team/2012/debconf-team.2012-11-22-20.00.log.html
--
Besos,
Marga
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