Re: Input requested on "blockers" to organising Debian events
Hi Chris,
I have discussed with you many of these topics in private, but I think
it is worth sharing it with the community.
On 18/08/18 22:56, Chris Lamb wrote:
> - If you ran an event before but you are no longer running it, why
> not? Are there any specific reasons you could point to?
I did organise a couple of BSPs in Dublin in the past. Not being a
regular thing, it just did not happen again. Inertia is probably the
main factor, but after that I would add losing simple access to a venue
and some funding, because I don't work for the company that provided
those any more.
On the other end of the event size continuum, I also used to be very
involved in DebConf (global) organisation, but the eternal governance
problems burned me out.
I also many times considered submitting a bid for DC, the main reasons
not to do it were -apart from the governance problems- the very long
advance planning needed, and the amount of "traditions" carried over
than mean half of the work is spent on organising stuff that I believe
do not add to the conference.
> - If you are already running events, what would the biggest reasons
> or threats to you stopping?
Finally, I have run two SunCamp events, and I am still thinking on doing
a third one. My main worry is the trade-off between convenience and
cost: the venue we used has comparatively low prices, but it is far from
the airport. Even with these low prices, many people cannot afford the
cost, and thus the event lacks diversity.
In conclusion, money and the ratio between effort and benefit for the
community are the biggest blocking factors for me. If I want to help run
an event that than reach most of the community, I have to go back to
burning myself out in DebConf or spend too much time and effort raising
funds for a miniconf. If I want to organise something simpler, I must
resign myself to an audience that can afford travel and board themselves.
I think that if one wants to promote the organisation of more events,
the best way would be to offset some of the load to Debian proper.
Funding is the big one, and I believe it could be centralised. But this
also applies to other aspects that can take a lot of time, for example
conference organisation software, and other support services.
--
Martín Ferrari (Tincho)
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