Re: Announcing Everything Open - Conference 2023

Thank you, Russell, for that clarification.
--
David Crosswell
Telaman Consultancies
P.O. Box 477
100 Edward Street
Charleville  4077
Queensland
Australia

https://www.telaman.net.au

On Thu, Oct 13, 2022 at 11:55, Russell Stuart via linux-aus 
<[email protected]> wrote:
> On 13/10/22 09:29, Craige McWhirter via linux-aus wrote:
>> At this juncture it looks to me like LA comittee and the community 
>> have
>> formally parted ways?
> 
> I'm responding to this even though I will probably be frowned upon by 
> my fellow LA executive members.
> 
> It's possible LA and the community have parted ways. I don't know for 
> sure. But if so, it's the community that's changed, not LA.
> 
> LA is doing what it has always done. It funds open source 
> conferences. For those of you who don't know, it works roughly like 
> this: a bunch of bunnies decide they want to do the work of running a 
> conference on a volunteer basis, they approach LA for funding and 
> logistics, LA makes them jump through some hoops to prove it's likely 
> the conference won't make a loss (I can't recall a proposal that 
> didn't make it through the hoops), and it happens.
> 
> The reason there is no LCA 2023 is no one put up a proposal to run 
> it. In fact no one put up a proposal to run LCA 2022 either. You seem 
> to be thinking this was a deliberate choice by LA. The evidence in 
> the public domain says otherwise - LA repeatedly asked for bids to 
> run LCA 2023 (and LCA 2022), and got none.
> 
> What "LA" did receive this year, after it was obvious the community 
> wasn't interested in running LCA 2023, was a proposal to run OE 2023. 
> The proposal was formally voted on last night, and I voted yes.  Not 
> because I prefer OE format over LCA 2023 (I don't) but on the grounds 
> I always use - do the bunnies look like a dedicated mob that will see 
> it through to the end, is it somehow related to open source, and is 
> it unlikely to make a loss. The proposal clearly met all those 
> criteria.
> 
> The LA above is in quotes because the people who put up the proposal 
> are mostly the LA exec. Mostly, because I'm one of the lazy ones. I 
> was only vaguely aware my somewhat secretive fellow exec members were 
> thinking of it, and have had no involvement in it’s planning. When 
> they delivered their formal budget to LA the secret was out of 
> course, because as treasurer of LA I took a long hard look at the 
> budget they put up, followed up on costings and quotes.  But that’s 
> no different to any other conference proposal.
> 
> I have no inside information on what their motivations for doing it 
> or choosing the format that did. But the motivations aren't hard to 
> guess - I know all of them are die hard fans of open source 
> conferences and they didn't want to see COVID kill Australia's 
> tradition of having them. I have absolutely no idea what drove the 
> format change, but here the golden rule of open source applies: he 
> who does the work makes the rules. It's not the first time a 
> radically different format for LCA was proposed. The only difference 
> is on previous occasions, LA has always had an alternate proposal to 
> run a "traditional" LCA alongside the radical one, and historically 
> it's *always* chosen the traditional proposal. But that choice wasn't 
> available this time.
> 
> If you, or anyone feels strongly that LCA should come back you can 
> make it happen. I think LA is one of open source hidden treasures, 
> literally. If you come to LA with a proposal to run an open source 
> conference, LA will loan you a years salary (a Google employee's 
> salary even) to make it happen. LA asks for no security, or anything 
> else beyond your word it's going to be a great open source conference 
> run prudently. If it all goes sour (and it has), then LA wears the 
> loss without complaint, and has in the past funded the same 
> conference the next year. Partially because of LA's corporate 
> reputation, you are likely to attract sponsors that will fund most of 
> it. It's almost like an open invitation to have an open source bash 
> for you and your mates at the corporate sponsors expense.  And if you 
> pull it off, you’ll learn a lot about your craft, realise somewhat 
> to your amazement you are capable of creating and organising a team 
> of 100 people that work together to deliver something fantastic, and 
> earn the accolades of everyone who attends.
> 
> It's one helluva deal, and one helluva of an experience. I've done it 
> myself a few times, and heartily recommend it. If you want an LCA 
> format conference to come back, all you have to do is take advantage 
> of it.
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