Re: Information you need regarding RMS

[Emily Chen <emilychen522 gmail com>]

Hi Pingooo, 

Thanks for those information. 

I will write to RMS the final email to confirm. 

Below are the thing we can afford: 
1. $400 travel subsidy from GNOME foundation, as long as he send the form before the deadline. He can use the $400 to pay for his lodging himself. 
2. Arrange his talk in 1 hour, on the 15th, Aug, 13:00 - 14:00 . Not two hours, also ,we need to make sure he is not late for this speech. 

So we will not provide lodging place for him, the same as other speakers. 

If all GNOME.Asia and COSCUP team members are agree, I will write to him today. Since we are going to announce our schedule on July 4th. 

I need everyone's vote. 

-Emily

2010/7/1 pingooo <ping nsr yeh gmail com>

I have personal experience with Richard Stallman on his last trip to
Taiwan and I second Will on

1. the term "open source" would make him unhappy;
2. he wouldn't care if he offended others;

and let me add that

3. he seems to think people he doesn't know are basically idiots;
4. he thinks whatever people around him does is trying to please him.

Like I said in the IRC meeting, I am very concerned if he comes to
COSCUP / GNOME.Asia 2010. We did come up with a plan with the
"speaker's package", but I'm afraid that can't possibly be sufficient
(nothing is) to make Richard Stallman behave the way we wish him to
behave.

If the purpose of inviting him over is for publicity, I would say
we'll have more than enough publicity with other keynote speakers and
the topics of the joint conference itself. His last and second trip to
Taiwan didn't generate much publicity, and I doubt a third trip can
produce more.

If the purpose is to get more people to listen to his talk, well, his
last trip didn't attract too big an audience in Taiwan.

Besides, we have to reject 8 submitted papers (2/hour * 4 tracks) to
make room for his keynote speech, and he doesn't like the 1 hour
length we give him anyway.

I would propose that we use accommodation costs as our excuse to
politely turn down his trip. But it is Emily's call since Emily is the
one that invited him.

My 2 cents.

pingooo

On Thu, Jul 1, 2010 at 3:03 PM, Will LaShell <will lashell net> wrote:
> Hi guys,
>
> I want to caution you regarding Richard Stallman and his requests.
> Richard has been to various conferences in the past and he is an
> extremely difficult guest to deal with.  He will want special attention
> over what should be expected for a regualar guest.  I wish to caution
> you greatly before you extend any offers to him.
>
> He has been a guest at GUADEC where he stayed at one of the organizers
> homes.  He was not comfortable and did not like the arrangement. He
> demanded to be taken to an alternative residence. You will need to make
> sure that somone is ready to find him as there are many instances where
> he will be late to any talk or event he is scheduled to be at. He will
> take offense to any mention of open source  vs free software. Last year
> at GUADEC he offended many people at the conference by making a bad joke
> about women during his keynote speech. It caused quite the public
> relation problems for GNOME and GUADEC.  During a speech in mainland
> China he talked about how Tibet should be Free.
>
> I cannot tell you not to assist him,  but I can try very hard to make
> sure you understand what working with him is like.   I am going to speak
> only for myself now  in that when I heard of him considering coming to
> GNOME.Asia I was not in favor of this.  I personally do not think the
> benefits he has are greater than the potential negatives he can incur.
> The last thing anyone needs are difficulties and bad press brought to a
> conference when we are all trying to expose people to the benefits of
> our development and software environments.
>
> I have had personal interactions with RMS that I am more than happy to
> converse with any of you about. I am available via  google talk,  skype,
> or phone call if necessary.
>
> I want our joint conference to go smoothly with positive feedback from
> participants and sponsors, as such I am writing to you all today.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Will LaShell
> GNOME.Asia Summit Committee
>
>
> On Thu, 2010-07-01 at 14:26 +0800, Ernest Chiang wrote:
>> Hi Will,
>>
>>
>> We can discuss via email first due to many meetings today...
>> I have not yet have any interactions with him so far.
>>
>>
>> ernest,
>>
>>
>> On Thu, Jul 1, 2010 at 1:36 PM, Will LaShell <will lashell net> wrote:
>>         Ernest,
>>
>>         Please contact me on google talk  (wlashell gmail com)   or
>>         via irc /
>>         email.  I would like to speak to you directly regarding your
>>         interactions with Richard Stallman.
>>
>>         Thank you,
>>
>>         Will LaShell
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>