[Linux-aus] LA ctte meeting summary 2005/02/13

[Bret Busby]

On Tue, 22 Feb 2005, Michael Still wrote:

> 
> Bret Busby wrote:
>> On Mon, 21 Feb 2005, Stewart Smith wrote:
>> 
>>> 5) LCA will be where the best bid comes from. Anybody who did not put in
>>> a serious bid cannot complain.
>>> 
>> 
>> So, when Microsoft puts in a bid for it to be held at Redmond (?) USA, it 
>> will be held there?
>> 
>> Microsoft has lots of money. It could put in a far better (?) bid than 
>> anyone else.
>> 
>> Or, if SCO puts in a big bid, to make that the "best bid", will the 
>> conference be held at SCO headquarters in the USA?
>> 
>> Is Linux Australia going to surrender the conference to the highest bidder, 
>> for making the "best bid" ?
>
> You make an interesting assumption that the LCA hosts have paid to hold the 
> event, and that "best" is measured in terms of dollars. Given that no one has 
> ever suggested that, it shows an interesing window into your own thought 
> processes.
>
> "Best" is more about providing value to attendees, attracting interesting 
> speakers, and hosting an event generally in line with previous LCAs.
>
>

And, prithee, explain where in the post to which I was responding above, 
did it say that "best" was anything other than that ""best" is measured 
in terms of dollars".

The statement to which I was responding did not in any way, qualify 
the criteria for "best bid", which could also be taken to mean who would 
give the best deal for committee members to attend a conference (as in 
the people who make the decision could be offered first calss flights 
and accommodation, and other frills, to gain their approval of a bid).

And, given some of the reported offers that have been made in terms of 
holding the "Olympic Games", and that the decision as to who and where, 
hosts a conference is made by a committee, rather than the membership as 
a whole, it would not be overly surprising if bids contained components 
about which we know not.

And, given that a conference has been approved by the decision makers, 
to be held in a foreign country, it is a precedent that indicates that 
it is likely that future conferences will be held in various countries 
in Asia, and, likely, some time, in the USA, rather than in Australia, 
which, by virtue of the asserted name of the conference, is where the 
conference should be held.

The membership as a whole did not decide where the conference would be 
held, and, as a consequence, what was supposed to be an Australian 
conference, has gone overseas, restricting people from Australia, 
INCLUDING members of Linux Australia, from attending, indicating that 
the conference is no longer an Australian conference, and that it is 
not for the benefit of all Linux Australia members who could attend 
Australian Linux conferences, but rather, that it is for the benefit 
of the more elite people who can afford, by way of money and other 
criteria, to go traipsing off overseas, to attend international 
conferences.

But, anyway, as I mentioned in a previous response to another post, the 
issue that Australia no longer has its own Linux conference, was not the 
issue. What was the issue, that people have tended to overlook, is that, 
in response to the raising, within the committee, of the proposal for a 
separate Linux users conference, I had stated that previous annual 
conferences for Linux users, had existed, as the CALU, and the 
conferences for Linux users, had been deleted and replaced. As I said in 
the other posting, that the Australian Linux conference has now also 
been deleted and replaced by an international conference, was just an 
aside.

--
Bret Busby
Armadale
West Australia
..............

"So once you do know what the question actually is,
  you'll know what the answer means."
- Deep Thought,
   Chapter 28 of
   "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:
   A Trilogy In Four Parts",
   written by Douglas Adams,
   published by Pan Books, 1992 
....................................................