[Linux-aus] LCA 2023 ?

[David]

On Sat, 30 Jul 2022 20:32:26 +1000
Kathy Reid via linux-aus <linux-aus at lists.linux.org.au> wrote:

> Hi everyone,

Hullo, yourself!

 
> One of the things I'm observing here is people wanting news on future 
> open source events from Linux Australia. What I am *not* observing are 
> folks putting up their hands to volunteer to help run those events. 
> We've seen PyconAU 2022 not go ahead (quite rightly) to ensure 
> sustainability and prevent (further) volunteer burnout. OSDC was last 
> held in 2015 (fantastic event by the way, thanks Morgan and Tim and 
> team), for similar reasons.

People might have their reasons for this.
For example, I know a bloke who lives in the desert, 1000 Kms west of
Brisbane and, if he's not there, he's in Russia, China, or India (among other
destinations).
He's only ever managed to get to just one open source event - the Gold Coast.

 
> Having been involved in running a few* open source events now, they 
> happen in one of a few ways (think of this as a rough typography of open 
> source events):
> 
> The first is where a dedicated, volunteer team develops and unites 
> around a vision, pulls together, overcomes obstacles, floods (looking at 
> you Brisvegas, and Gold Coast, and oh, G-town), norovirus (kia ora, 
> Dunedin), bushfire reconstruction delaying the opening of Penguin Dinner 
> venues (Yama, Canberra), airport buses not showing (hey Ballarat), and 
> always manages to deliver a memorable experience for hundreds of 
> delegates. The costs are generally low, because the event relies on 
> volunteer labour - which is essentially offsetting the labour cost of 
> the event.
> 
> The second is where event management professionals are engaged to run 
> part or all of the event, necessitating increased costs. Those paid 
> professionals may be in areas such as event management, audio visual, 
> sponsor engagement, communications and marketing and so on.
> 
> The third is where a commercial enterprise that has an interest in 
> engaging the open source community runs an event. These can be either 
> free or low-cost, with the downside that the content is usually 
> sponsor-flavoured or heavily skewed to the company's interest in putting 
> on the event - think "make X easier with our product Y" or "Hero TM 
> stories featuring our product Y but not explicitly referencing our 
> product Y". If they are higher cost, then the aim of the company is to 
> derive a profit from the event. The event is a profit generation 
> mechanism. Sometimes they can be both - sponsor-flavoured and 
> profit-generating.
> 
> Linux Aus events (LCA, PyConAU, OSDC back in the day, GovHack for a 
> couple years, HealthHack, a few BarCamps and such) have tended to move 
> from type 1 to type 2 as they have grown in size and complexity, but I 
> think are definitely not in type 3 territory. Sure, there are often 
> profits from LA events, but they go back into a) the event itself with 
> b) 6% going to LA to cover things like insurance and filing taxes and 
> adminis-not-trivia.
> 
> Even if events run as type 2 events - with lots of professionally-paid 
> skills on board, they still require type 1 event volunteers to set 
> direction and take ownership of the event. Without this, events are type 
> 3 events - where the event is run as a commercial endeavour.
> 
> My point is this - LCA, PyConAU and similar events simply don't run if 
> we don't have volunteers to run them. And if the events weren't fun, or 
> worthwhile, or high value, we wouldn't have people missing them. In a 
> perverse way, it's a good thing that we're missing LCA and PyConAU - 
> because it's highlighted the invisible labour, the taken-for-granted 
> volunteers and the thousands of hours of time and passion that go into 
> these events. We've gotten comfortable expecting an LCA every January or 
> a PyConAU every September. Because the work of delivering them has been 
> hidden - behind maturity, behind dedicated people, behind better 
> processes and systems and technology and communications.
> 
> Without that passion, that time, that labour, these events don't happen. 
> So, if you want an open source event to happen in 2023, you know what to 
> do. Patches welcome.

O.K., here's one.
Volunteers will always be necessary, but the rest of it isn't.
It almost happened during the pandemic.
In an environment as geographically diverse as Australia, with people 1000s
of kms apart, nobody has clicked on to running virtual summits/conferences.
We have the software and know how, yet somehow the logical medium never
happens.
The F2F aspect is nice to have every now and again, but it doesn't need to be
every time.
If we had five years to organise one of those, it would be an event worth
going to.
Perhaps Porcupine Tree playing the main stage?
Even kinder regards,

-- 
David Crosswell
P.O. Box 477
100 Edward Street,
Charleville 4470
Queensland
Australia

david_crosswell at telaman.net.au

https://www.telaman.net.au/