Hi,
I don't oppose the concept of making sure that we sponsor enough from diverse attendees, but I don't like the idea of having two pools, nor the 2500 EUR number. That is a lot money, and while it might be justified for someone coming from around the globe, it would be absurd for someone coming from Europe.
I think this should be normal sponsored people, i.e. travel, food and lodging. Whatever the travel costs are.
One thing that was mentioned last week, while discussing this with people from the bursaries team is that we may factor diversity into the ranking, as one extra factor (participation in Debian and financial need being the other two).
Google has a "scholarship for women" plan, where they sponsor women to go to technical conferences, they did it this year for the Barcelona mini conf, but they decide who they want to sponsor, and how the money flows. The conference organizers have no say in this.
I don't oppose in principle to having a perk of sponsoring attendees, but I think we should be the ones that decide who's sponsored, not the companies. How would you word it so that it made sense?
Regards,
Marga