Re: Some Finnish thoughts of Guadec+aKademy 2009

[Liam R E Quin <liam holoweb net>]

On Sat, 2008-07-05 at 20:30 +0300, Petri Räsänen wrote:
[...]
> As a final remark I believe that one factor in the decision making
> process will be the message that will be read "between the lines" of
> the decision. I can speak only speculatively and on behalf of our
> proposal, but if the choice is Tampere, I believe it can be
> interpreted as a sign openness to new countries as a location,
> respecting the diversity of the community and in a way as decision to
> take a fresh new step in the country where it all more or less got
> started.  Not a bad message, right?

A good message, worth exploring...

Questions to ask are
(1) where is Free Software in most need of support?
    For example, identify places where there are strong challenges, or
    where there are new and young communities starting that need to be
    encouraged;
(2) If that is not a strong factor, then identify the key people you
    want at the conference, and ask which places are they most likely to
    attend.  A survey can be helpful here.
(3) If there are no overall clear answers from (1) and (2), where will the
    conference get good press coverage and media visibility?

Of course, the purpose is for Free Desktop People to get together, exchange
ideas, boost morale, and admire each other's ankles.  But the outreach aspects
are also important, and I think are more important than the cost of a pint
of beer or a pair of socks in a given location.

Liam

-- 
Liam Quin - XML Activity Lead, W3C, http://www.w3.org/People/Quin/
Pictures from old books: http://fromoldbooks.org/
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