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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 28/08/2012 9:06 PM, Andrew Cowie
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote
cite="mid:1346159199.2907.1.camel@turminder-xuss.roaming.operationaldynamics.com"
type="cite">
<pre wrap="">On Tue, 2012-08-28 at 07:09 +0000, Mary Gardiner wrote:
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre wrap="">c. (possibly just a neutral statement, rather than a con) some people who
attended LCA primarily for the miniconf days — they do exist! — might not attend
LCA any more.
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap="">
Only a personal anecdote, but I found out about LCA 2003 in Perth
because of the Debian Miniconf (which was quite heavily advertised in
Debian circles). Glad I went!
</pre>
</blockquote>
Yay! My work here is done. :P<br>
<br>
I've been pondering this thread for several hours. I've rewritten
this message several times. <br>
<br>
Let me first have a word on mini-confs. They were originally
supposed to be zero load on the LCA organisers; *IMHO* they should
simply be a confirmation that there's a room somewhere that can be
used for $project WHILE the LCA organisers set up. There should be
no expectation that LCA starts when the mini confs start I think
over time they've become the tutorial preludes of LCA. Perhaps to
keep them simple, they should be a 'no budget', 'no sponsorship'
track (they shouldn't need that, and they shouldn't draw sponsorship
away from LCA). Any mini conf presentation that has a wide audience
appeal than should be bumped up to the main conf.<br>
<br>
<br>
Let me turn now to the state of LCA, IMHO, as an ex organiser
('03-PER).<br>
<br>
1) <br>
Times have changed. LUG participation - where we draw much of THIS
community came from, has diminished, IMHO. When I returned to Perth
in 2010, PLUG had 22 members (~81 today, but that was some work).
The role of the LUG as a focal point of OSS - spreading ideas and
tribal knowledge - is diminished; there's not a lot of fresh blood
coming in that participate *IRL* in the community. I've missed the
last few LUG COMMS IRC meetings (sorry Don et al), but the
attendance there has been pretty low (I've enjoyed chatting with the
other LUGs and sharing event ideas, successes and failures; Where's
everyone else been - shouldn't someone from each LUG be there?). To
me, this is a shrinking community.<br>
<br>
2)<br>
The roaming objective of LCA has in my mind, been achieved, but at
the cost of not being able to seamlessly repeat with minimal effort
(fresh organisers/suppliers/venues every year).<br>
<br>
3)<br>
At the same time, segments of our community have formed their own
focused conferences (DDU, OSDC, etc), so we have fragmented our
volunteers and participants. <br>
<br>
1+2+3 = conditions that make it tough to continue as we have done.<br>
<br>
<br>
Distributed organisation makes some sense. As does *not* moving
venue every year, and using (the same) professional organisers to
reduce the workload (picking up the slack from reduced volunteers).<br>
<br>
Even possibly rebranding LCA (what demons have I invoked now?) and
embrasing the separate conferences (DDU, PyCon, OSDC) to run after
LCAng to encourage the community to unify at one time and place?
Don't get me wrong - LCA has an awesome reputation and history (I'm
immensely honoured and proud of my involvement, now and to the day I
die); but are we representing ourselves with branding that no longer
captures people in a market that has scattered?<br>
<br>
Let me suggest that the community needs a session in Canberra 2103
to debate the future: 2014 will be sorted by then[1]; it's 2015 and
beyond we need to navigate for. Tough questions with many options
may leads to endless flames and limitless threads on-list with no
clear direction.<br>
<br>
James<br>
<br>
[1] No, I'm not running another LCA. But I think the distributed
management option + some stuff I'll let others put forward should
work for 2014, but consider having 'interns' each year (forces fresh
membership as people 'retire').<br>
<br>
PS: I'll be in Melbourne Sept 16 - 22 or so (w/Mrs + 2 year old).
What's happenin' (offlist, SVP)?<br>
<br>
<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
<em>Mobile:</em> +61 422 166 708, <em>Email:</em>
james_AT_rcpt.to<br>
PLUG President 2012: <a href="http//www.plug.org.au">http://www.plug.org.au</a></div>
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