On Sat, Aug 2, 2008 at 10:02 AM, Brian Artiaco <barti...@gmail.com> wrote:
> It's kind of humorous that someone would complain about an IPA being > too hoppy... since that's kind of what makes it an IPA ( read here: > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India_Pale_Ale )
Yeah, I thought that was funny too.
But now onto discussion of next year's FOSCON.
First the bad news. Good thing you're sitting down (unless you read email standing up).
OSCON won't be in Portland next year. It'll be in San Jose. (And, unfortunately, no amount of protesting is going to be able to change it because these things are booked way ahead)
Sooo... what does that mean for FOSCON? Do we pass it off to SanJose.rb (I'm guessing there must be one) or do we do one at a different time from OSCON next year?
On Sat, Aug 2, 2008 at 1:10 PM, Phil Tomson <philtom...@gmail.com> wrote: > On Sat, Aug 2, 2008 at 10:02 AM, Brian Artiaco <barti...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> It's kind of humorous that someone would complain about an IPA being >> too hoppy... since that's kind of what makes it an IPA ( read here: >> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India_Pale_Ale )
> Yeah, I thought that was funny too.
> But now onto discussion of next year's FOSCON.
> First the bad news. Good thing you're sitting down (unless you read > email standing up).
> OSCON won't be in Portland next year. It'll be in San Jose. (And, > unfortunately, no amount of protesting is going to be able to change > it because these things are booked way ahead)
> Sooo... what does that mean for FOSCON? Do we pass it off to > SanJose.rb (I'm guessing there must be one) or do we do one at a > different time from OSCON next year?
On Sat, 2008-08-02 at 13:10 -0700, Phil Tomson wrote: > On Sat, Aug 2, 2008 at 10:02 AM, Brian Artiaco <barti...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > It's kind of humorous that someone would complain about an IPA being > > too hoppy... since that's kind of what makes it an IPA ( read here: > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India_Pale_Ale )
> Yeah, I thought that was funny too.
> But now onto discussion of next year's FOSCON.
> First the bad news. Good thing you're sitting down (unless you read > email standing up).
> OSCON won't be in Portland next year. It'll be in San Jose. (And, > unfortunately, no amount of protesting is going to be able to change > it because these things are booked way ahead)
> Sooo... what does that mean for FOSCON? Do we pass it off to > SanJose.rb (I'm guessing there must be one) or do we do one at a > different time from OSCON next year?
Well ... here's my suggestion:
1. RubyCentral will sponsor regional Ruby conferences. That's how Ruby Hoedown, Mountain West, etc., get up and running.
2. Between Seattle and Portland, there is a boatload of Ruby talent and a number of Ruby-based businesses.
3. There are plenty of places between Portland and Seattle we could have a conference. Seattle is easier for international travelers to get to, but other than that, we could do it anywhere on the I-5 corridor that has a large enough hotel, wireless and a decent microbrewery. My personal preference is for Olympia, Centralia or Longview, rather than in Seattle or Portland.
So, since RailsConf isn't here next year, OSCON isn't here next year, and we have no idea where RubyConf will be, I think the thing to do is to "elect" a couple of "leaders", meet with the "leaders" of the Seattle Ruby Brigade, and plan a Pacific Northwest Ruby Conference for sometime in 2009 outside of the main tourist season (before Memorial Day or after Labor Day) somewhere between Portland and Seattle.
By the way, speaking of RubyConf, etc., I am most likely not going to this year's RubyConf. My paper on Linux I/O performance metric visualization was accepted at the Computer Measurement Group conference in December, so I'm gearing up for that. But I'll surely be up for a regional Ruby conference by next spring. :) -- M. Edward (Ed) Borasky ruby-perspectives.blogspot.com
"A mathematician is a machine for turning coffee into theorems." -- Alfréd Rényi via Paul Erdős
Since the last report I heard was that RailsConf is also leaving Portland, I think there may be room for FOSCON to stretch out a bit and become a more self-sufficient event. Especially after experiencing RubyFringe, I'm convinced that the locally-organized, sponsor-less conference is the way to go.
I'd love to talk with folks a bit more about what was so impressive and different about RubyFringe, and why I think Portland can and should host a similar event next year.
Date: Sat, 2 Aug 2008 13:34:47 To: <pdxruby@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [pdxruby] Re: FOSCON 2009
Then again, I suppose FOSCON could be held during RailsConf next year?
Phil
On Sat, Aug 2, 2008 at 1:10 PM, Phil Tomson <philtom...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Sat, Aug 2, 2008 at 10:02 AM, Brian Artiaco <barti...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> It's kind of humorous that someone would complain about an IPA being
>> too hoppy... since that's kind of what makes it an IPA ( read here:
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India_Pale_Ale )
> Yeah, I thought that was funny too.
> But now onto discussion of next year's FOSCON.
> First the bad news. Good thing you're sitting down (unless you read
> email standing up).
> OSCON won't be in Portland next year. It'll be in San Jose. (And,
> unfortunately, no amount of protesting is going to be able to change
> it because these things are booked way ahead)
> Sooo... what does that mean for FOSCON? Do we pass it off to
> SanJose.rb (I'm guessing there must be one) or do we do one at a
> different time from OSCON next year?
On Sat, Aug 2, 2008 at 1:59 PM, <rco...@gmail.com> wrote: > Since the last report I heard was that RailsConf is also leaving Portland, I think there may be room for FOSCON to stretch out a bit and become a more self-sufficient event. Especially after experiencing RubyFringe, I'm convinced that the locally-organized, sponsor-less conference is the way to go.
This sounds good. Without sponsors how did they handle food? Did they charge a fee?
> I'd love to talk with folks a bit more about what was so impressive and different about RubyFringe, and why I think Portland can and should host a similar event next year.
Would be interested in finding out more about your RubyFringe experience.
It's been a while since RubyConf has been on the West Coast.... maybe we could lobby for it to be in Portland? Last one I went to was Seattle in 2002.
> On Sat, 2008-08-02 at 13:10 -0700, Phil Tomson wrote: >> On Sat, Aug 2, 2008 at 10:02 AM, Brian Artiaco <barti...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> > It's kind of humorous that someone would complain about an IPA being >> > too hoppy... since that's kind of what makes it an IPA ( read here: >> > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India_Pale_Ale )
>> Yeah, I thought that was funny too.
>> But now onto discussion of next year's FOSCON.
>> First the bad news. Good thing you're sitting down (unless you read >> email standing up).
>> OSCON won't be in Portland next year. It'll be in San Jose. (And, >> unfortunately, no amount of protesting is going to be able to change >> it because these things are booked way ahead)
>> Sooo... what does that mean for FOSCON? Do we pass it off to >> SanJose.rb (I'm guessing there must be one) or do we do one at a >> different time from OSCON next year?
> Well ... here's my suggestion:
> 1. RubyCentral will sponsor regional Ruby conferences. That's how Ruby > Hoedown, Mountain West, etc., get up and running.
> 2. Between Seattle and Portland, there is a boatload of Ruby talent and > a number of Ruby-based businesses.
> 3. There are plenty of places between Portland and Seattle we could have > a conference. Seattle is easier for international travelers to get to, > but other than that, we could do it anywhere on the I-5 corridor that > has a large enough hotel, wireless and a decent microbrewery. My > personal preference is for Olympia, Centralia or Longview, rather than > in Seattle or Portland.
Seems we tried something like that several years back, and I'm just not sure that the in-between thing worked out all that well. I'd suggest that if something like that is done it should be held in either Portland or Seattle and then the people in the city where it's not could organize a train ride.
RubyFringe was unique in my experience in that the conference registration fees (which were non-trivial) covered not only the space and daytime meals, but dinner, drinks, and evening entertainment throughout the conference.
It was also a single-track, short-talk (30 minutes max) format, which kept the "slack" factor down to basically zero.
Without the support of a professional conference organization firm, though, the organizers worked for something like seven months planning the thing.
Date: Sat, 2 Aug 2008 14:06:09 To: <pdxruby@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [pdxruby] Re: FOSCON 2009
On Sat, Aug 2, 2008 at 1:59 PM, <rco...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Since the last report I heard was that RailsConf is also leaving Portland, I think there may be room for FOSCON to stretch out a bit and become a more self-sufficient event. Especially after experiencing RubyFringe, I'm convinced that the locally-organized, sponsor-less conference is the way to go.
This sounds good. Without sponsors how did they handle food? Did
they charge a fee?
> I'd love to talk with folks a bit more about what was so impressive and different about RubyFringe, and why I think Portland can and should host a similar event next year.
Would be interested in finding out more about your RubyFringe experience.
It's been a while since RubyConf has been on the West Coast.... maybe
we could lobby for it to be in Portland? Last one I went to was
Seattle in 2002.
On Sat, 2008-08-02 at 14:08 -0700, Phil Tomson wrote: > > 3. There are plenty of places between Portland and Seattle we could have > > a conference. Seattle is easier for international travelers to get to, > > but other than that, we could do it anywhere on the I-5 corridor that > > has a large enough hotel, wireless and a decent microbrewery. My > > personal preference is for Olympia, Centralia or Longview, rather than > > in Seattle or Portland.
> Seems we tried something like that several years back, and I'm just > not sure that the in-between thing worked out all that well. I'd > suggest that if something like that is done it should be held in > either Portland or Seattle and then the people in the city where it's > not could organize a train ride.
Well then ... in that case ... Portland would be closer for people in Corvallis or Eugene than Seattle. How big are the Ruby brigades in Corvallis and Eugene?
Still, I think Portland is a tad on the expensive side, especially for people flying in. That may be one reason why OSCON and RailsConf have abandoned us.
-- M. Edward (Ed) Borasky ruby-perspectives.blogspot.com
"A mathematician is a machine for turning coffee into theorems." -- Alfréd Rényi via Paul Erdős
On Sat, Aug 2, 2008 at 2:24 PM, M. Edward (Ed) Borasky
<zn...@cesmail.net> wrote: > Still, I think Portland is a tad on the expensive side, especially for > people flying in. That may be one reason why OSCON and RailsConf have > abandoned us.
Um, compared to San Jose (OSCON) and Las Vegas (RailsConf)? I have my doubts cost was a big issue. But I could be wrong.
As for deciding between Seattle and Portland, again I suspect Portland would win out on the cost side.
On Sat, 2008-08-02 at 13:10 -0700, Phil Tomson wrote:
> On Sat, Aug 2, 2008 at 10:02 AM, Brian Artiaco <barti...@gmail.com>
> wrote:
>> It's kind of humorous that someone would complain about an IPA being
>> too hoppy... since that's kind of what makes it an IPA ( read here:
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India_Pale_Ale )
> Yeah, I thought that was funny too.
> But now onto discussion of next year's FOSCON.
> First the bad news. Good thing you're sitting down (unless you read
> email standing up).
> OSCON won't be in Portland next year. It'll be in San Jose. (And,
> unfortunately, no amount of protesting is going to be able to change
> it because these things are booked way ahead)
> Sooo... what does that mean for FOSCON? Do we pass it off to
> SanJose.rb (I'm guessing there must be one) or do we do one at a
> different time from OSCON next year?
Well ... here's my suggestion:
1. RubyCentral will sponsor regional Ruby conferences. That's how Ruby
Hoedown, Mountain West, etc., get up and running.
2. Between Seattle and Portland, there is a boatload of Ruby talent and
a number of Ruby-based businesses.
3. There are plenty of places between Portland and Seattle we could have
a conference. Seattle is easier for international travelers to get to,
but other than that, we could do it anywhere on the I-5 corridor that
has a large enough hotel, wireless and a decent microbrewery. My
personal preference is for Olympia, Centralia or Longview, rather than
in Seattle or Portland.
So, since RailsConf isn't here next year, OSCON isn't here next year,
and we have no idea where RubyConf will be, I think the thing to do is
to "elect" a couple of "leaders", meet with the "leaders" of the Seattle
Ruby Brigade, and plan a Pacific Northwest Ruby Conference for sometime
in 2009 outside of the main tourist season (before Memorial Day or after
Labor Day) somewhere between Portland and Seattle.
By the way, speaking of RubyConf, etc., I am most likely not going to
this year's RubyConf. My paper on Linux I/O performance metric
visualization was accepted at the Computer Measurement Group conference
in December, so I'm gearing up for that. But I'll surely be up for a
regional Ruby conference by next spring. :)
-- M. Edward (Ed) Borasky
ruby-perspectives.blogspot.com
"A mathematician is a machine for turning coffee into theorems." --
Alfréd Rényi via Paul Erdős
> On 2 Aug, 2008, at 13:55, M. Edward (Ed) Borasky wrote:
> On Sat, 2008-08-02 at 13:10 -0700, Phil Tomson wrote: >> On Sat, Aug 2, 2008 at 10:02 AM, Brian Artiaco <barti...@gmail.com> >> wrote: >>> It's kind of humorous that someone would complain about an IPA being >>> too hoppy... since that's kind of what makes it an IPA ( read here: >>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India_Pale_Ale ) >> Yeah, I thought that was funny too.
>> But now onto discussion of next year's FOSCON.
>> First the bad news. Good thing you're sitting down (unless you read >> email standing up).
>> OSCON won't be in Portland next year. It'll be in San Jose. (And, >> unfortunately, no amount of protesting is going to be able to change >> it because these things are booked way ahead)
>> Sooo... what does that mean for FOSCON? Do we pass it off to >> SanJose.rb (I'm guessing there must be one) or do we do one at a >> different time from OSCON next year?
> Well ... here's my suggestion:
> 1. RubyCentral will sponsor regional Ruby conferences. That's how Ruby > Hoedown, Mountain West, etc., get up and running.
> 2. Between Seattle and Portland, there is a boatload of Ruby talent and > a number of Ruby-based businesses.
> 3. There are plenty of places between Portland and Seattle we could have > a conference. Seattle is easier for international travelers to get to, > but other than that, we could do it anywhere on the I-5 corridor that > has a large enough hotel, wireless and a decent microbrewery. My > personal preference is for Olympia, Centralia or Longview, rather than > in Seattle or Portland.
> So, since RailsConf isn't here next year, OSCON isn't here next year, > and we have no idea where RubyConf will be, I think the thing to do is > to "elect" a couple of "leaders", meet with the "leaders" of the Seattle > Ruby Brigade, and plan a Pacific Northwest Ruby Conference for sometime > in 2009 outside of the main tourist season (before Memorial Day or after > Labor Day) somewhere between Portland and Seattle.
> By the way, speaking of RubyConf, etc., I am most likely not going to > this year's RubyConf. My paper on Linux I/O performance metric > visualization was accepted at the Computer Measurement Group conference > in December, so I'm gearing up for that. But I'll surely be up for a > regional Ruby conference by next spring. :)
> On Sat, 2008-08-02 at 14:08 -0700, Phil Tomson wrote:
>> > 3. There are plenty of places between Portland and Seattle we could have >> > a conference. Seattle is easier for international travelers to get to, >> > but other than that, we could do it anywhere on the I-5 corridor that >> > has a large enough hotel, wireless and a decent microbrewery. My >> > personal preference is for Olympia, Centralia or Longview, rather than >> > in Seattle or Portland.
>> Seems we tried something like that several years back, and I'm just >> not sure that the in-between thing worked out all that well. I'd >> suggest that if something like that is done it should be held in >> either Portland or Seattle and then the people in the city where it's >> not could organize a train ride.
> Well then ... in that case ... Portland would be closer for people in > Corvallis or Eugene than Seattle. How big are the Ruby brigades in > Corvallis and Eugene?
> Still, I think Portland is a tad on the expensive side, especially for > people flying in. That may be one reason why OSCON and RailsConf have > abandoned us.
From what I've been told that was only a small part of the consideration. The main thing was that they felt that they outgrew the OCC (Oregon Conv. Ctr). OSCON was held in the south part (the larger of the two parts) - there is a north part, but it's not well setup for use with the south part (from what I was told). Also, they feel they need larger rooms because apparently there were too many overflow sessions this year (where people were standing out in the hallway) - I don't recall seeing this, but I guess it happened.
On Aug 2, 2008, at 1:59 PM, rco...@gmail.com wrote:
> Since the last report I heard was that RailsConf is also leaving > Portland, I think there may be room for FOSCON to stretch out a bit > and become a more self-sufficient event. Especially after > experiencing RubyFringe, I'm convinced that the locally-organized, > sponsor-less conference is the way to go.
If we see pdx.rb spearheading a larger, self-sufficient, event I'd like to toss out the suggestion of ditching the FOSCON moniker in favor of something more a) identifiably NW and b) identifiably Ruby- related.
Date: Sat, 2 Aug 2008 15:58:42 To: <pdxruby@googlegroups.com>
Subject: [pdxruby] Re: FOSCON 2009
On Aug 2, 2008, at 1:59 PM, rco...@gmail.com wrote:
> Since the last report I heard was that RailsConf is also leaving
> Portland, I think there may be room for FOSCON to stretch out a bit
> and become a more self-sufficient event. Especially after
> experiencing RubyFringe, I'm convinced that the locally-organized,
> sponsor-less conference is the way to go.
If we see pdx.rb spearheading a larger, self-sufficient, event I'd
like to toss out the suggestion of ditching the FOSCON moniker in
favor of something more a) identifiably NW and b) identifiably Ruby- related.
Been lurking a while and only been to a couple of meetings. My Ruby skills are paltry, but I have helped to run conferences many times and I love the open source world. I was one of the primary players in a recent DrupalCamp here in Portland. It has bothered me for some time now that OSCON and RailsConf (and many other tech conferences) are totally at odds with the open source community. They claim to be all about Open Source, but they are corporate. Many of our ranks are part of small companies or are contractors or freelancers. Yet these conferences ate so expensive that the majority of this crowd seems to get shut out and mostly those whose company can pay their way end up going. However, an event run entirely by volunteers run not-for-profit would a) be more accessible to all because it would be *much* cheaper, b) be exactly what we want it to be, rather than based on corporate decisions, c) be more in keeping with the gift economy aspects of open source and d) be better, yes better, because we'd put a team in charge of program who want it to be as good as it could be, rather than just enough powerpoint presentations with catchy titles. We'd keep what we like, fix what was broken and add what we'd missed.
So maybe their leaving town is an opportunity for us to step into the gap and fill it with something better? My thinking is to do a more generic conference that caters to the entire community, with the cool crowd that we loved seeing at the conferences, though maybe only in the free parts, but also with high-quality programming that exceeds what's on offer at most conferences.
And it can be done. I'll be at a conference next week that will have 16 tracks of primary programming, or about 27 tracks overall. It will have a couple of huge events, an art show, a huge dealers room, massive exhibits and 20-60 parties every night. And all this is volunteer run, with nobody making a profit, with no paid staff, and it costs you $100-$225 for a 5-day event in a convention center, depending on when you bought your ticket, because it is all run by and for a community that is also based on the whole pay-it-forward gift-economy ideology. I'd like to see Portland host something like that, something that feels open source and is run for us, not for money. It just needs enough of us to put up our hands and say, "I'll help." And it can be a Northwest thing traveling from city to city, being in Portland one year, Seattle the next, San Jose the next. Or not. We decide.
> So maybe their leaving town is an opportunity for us to step into the > gap and fill it with something better? My thinking is to do a more > generic conference that caters to the entire community, with the cool > crowd that we loved seeing at the conferences, though maybe only in > the free parts, but also with high-quality programming that exceeds > what's on offer at most conferences.
Great idea.
The Portland area's got such a wonderful mix of tech groups, from the language-specific like our own pdx.rb, to programming styles/ methodologies groups like pdxfunc, to art/geek groups like dorkbot, to business/process groups like SAO, OSL, and PSBA. It seems that we have more than enough talent and energy to pull off something really interesting.
Let's not call it a "generic" conference, though -- that's not the strongest marketing term. ;-)
On Sat, Aug 2, 2008 at 4:44 PM, John Labovitz <jo...@johnlabovitz.com> wrote:
> On 2 Aug 2008, at 4:25 PM, Grant Kruger wrote:
>> So maybe their leaving town is an opportunity for us to step into the >> gap and fill it with something better? My thinking is to do a more >> generic conference that caters to the entire community, with the cool >> crowd that we loved seeing at the conferences, though maybe only in >> the free parts, but also with high-quality programming that exceeds >> what's on offer at most conferences.
> Great idea.
> The Portland area's got such a wonderful mix of tech groups, from the > language-specific like our own pdx.rb, to programming styles/ > methodologies groups like pdxfunc, to art/geek groups like dorkbot, to > business/process groups like SAO, OSL, and PSBA. It seems that we > have more than enough talent and energy to pull off something really > interesting.
Yeah, I think this would be something we'd want to open up so that it's not just Ruby-specific.
And I agree that it shouldn't be called "FOSCON" anymore... though I'm not sure what a good new name would be.
> Let's not call it a "generic" conference, though -- that's not the > strongest marketing term. ;-)
GeneriCon! Yes, that sounds very exciting... um, well, maybe not.
> On Sat, Aug 2, 2008 at 4:44 PM, John Labovitz <jo...@johnlabovitz.com> wrote:
>> On 2 Aug 2008, at 4:25 PM, Grant Kruger wrote:
>>> So maybe their leaving town is an opportunity for us to step into the >>> gap and fill it with something better? My thinking is to do a more >>> generic conference that caters to the entire community, with the cool >>> crowd that we loved seeing at the conferences, though maybe only in >>> the free parts, but also with high-quality programming that exceeds >>> what's on offer at most conferences.
>> Great idea.
>> The Portland area's got such a wonderful mix of tech groups, from the >> language-specific like our own pdx.rb, to programming styles/ >> methodologies groups like pdxfunc, to art/geek groups like dorkbot, to >> business/process groups like SAO, OSL, and PSBA. It seems that we >> have more than enough talent and energy to pull off something really >> interesting.
> Yeah, I think this would be something we'd want to open up so that > it's not just Ruby-specific.
> And I agree that it shouldn't be called "FOSCON" anymore... though > I'm not sure what a good new name would be.
>> Let's not call it a "generic" conference, though -- that's not the >> strongest marketing term. ;-)
> GeneriCon! Yes, that sounds very exciting... um, well, maybe not.
I'm out of town Tuesday and back the following Wednesday, but I've been giving it some thought. I had thought of Open Can. Open for Open Source, and Can, well, because it's fun, and we'd be opening up a can of worms for professionally run cons. Other ideas are:
On Sat, Aug 2, 2008 at 5:27 PM, Bob Lehman <blehma...@comcast.net> wrote:
> I am all for drinking beer and brainstorming Tuesday, > hackacon > The Wrath of Khan. > Rubicon > I think I con
> it goes down hill from here -:)
> --Bob
>> On Sat, Aug 2, 2008 at 4:44 PM, John Labovitz <jo...@johnlabovitz.com> wrote:
>>> On 2 Aug 2008, at 4:25 PM, Grant Kruger wrote:
>>>> So maybe their leaving town is an opportunity for us to step into the >>>> gap and fill it with something better? My thinking is to do a more >>>> generic conference that caters to the entire community, with the cool >>>> crowd that we loved seeing at the conferences, though maybe only in >>>> the free parts, but also with high-quality programming that exceeds >>>> what's on offer at most conferences.
>>> Great idea.
>>> The Portland area's got such a wonderful mix of tech groups, from the >>> language-specific like our own pdx.rb, to programming styles/ >>> methodologies groups like pdxfunc, to art/geek groups like dorkbot, to >>> business/process groups like SAO, OSL, and PSBA. It seems that we >>> have more than enough talent and energy to pull off something really >>> interesting.
>> Yeah, I think this would be something we'd want to open up so that >> it's not just Ruby-specific.
>> And I agree that it shouldn't be called "FOSCON" anymore... though >> I'm not sure what a good new name would be.
>>> Let's not call it a "generic" conference, though -- that's not the >>> strongest marketing term. ;-)
>> GeneriCon! Yes, that sounds very exciting... um, well, maybe not.
On Sat, 2008-08-02 at 16:25 -0700, Grant Kruger wrote: > Hey,
> Been lurking a while and only been to a couple of meetings. My Ruby > skills are paltry, but I have helped to run conferences many times and > I love the open source world. I was one of the primary players in a > recent DrupalCamp here in Portland. It has bothered me for some time > now that OSCON and RailsConf (and many other tech conferences) are > totally at odds with the open source community. They claim to be all > about Open Source, but they are corporate. Many of our ranks are part > of small companies or are contractors or freelancers. Yet these > conferences ate so expensive that the majority of this crowd seems to > get shut out and mostly those whose company can pay their way end up > going.
Yes, that's a big part of it. For FOSCON, we've always had "sponsors", but it's decidedly non-corporate. And I would vote to keep whatever we do, whether just here in PDX or for a wider area, non-corporate / volunteer-run.
> However, an event run entirely by volunteers run > not-for-profit would a) be more accessible to all because it would be > *much* cheaper, b) be exactly what we want it to be, rather than based > on corporate decisions, c) be more in keeping with the gift economy > aspects of open source and d) be better, yes better, because we'd put > a team in charge of program who want it to be as good as it could be, > rather than just enough powerpoint presentations with catchy titles. > We'd keep what we like, fix what was broken and add what we'd missed.
I've never been to a RailsConf or an OSCON, but I have been to two RubyConfs -- Denver and Charlotte -- and both of them seemed less "corporate" than OSCON, from what I've heard about OSCON at any rate.
> So maybe their leaving town is an opportunity for us to step into the > gap and fill it with something better? My thinking is to do a more > generic conference that caters to the entire community, with the cool > crowd that we loved seeing at the conferences, though maybe only in > the free parts, but also with high-quality programming that exceeds > what's on offer at most conferences.
Well ... if we want funding from Ruby Central, it would need to be Ruby-specific. But if we want something generic for multiple open-source endeavors, we could probably get enough sponsors to make it work. I would attend anything that
a. I could afford, and b. Featured technologies that I was interested in.
If I were designing it, I would make it Ruby-specific. I would target a three-day conference with a single track each day. One day would be Rails. One day would be test-driven / behavior-driven development and general Ruby-as-a-scripting-language presentations. The third day would be devoted to implementations of the Ruby language, benchmarking, profiling, test suites and language syntax/semantics, etc.
> And it can be done. I'll be at a conference next week that will have > 16 tracks of primary programming, or about 27 tracks overall. It will > have a couple of huge events, an art show, a huge dealers room, > massive exhibits and 20-60 parties every night. And all this is > volunteer run, with nobody making a profit, with no paid staff, and it > costs you $100-$225 for a 5-day event in a convention center, > depending on when you bought your ticket, because it is all run by and > for a community that is also based on the whole pay-it-forward > gift-economy ideology.
Can I ask what conference this is? :)
> I'd like to see Portland host something like > that, something that feels open source and is run for us, not for > money. It just needs enough of us to put up our hands and say, "I'll > help." And it can be a Northwest thing traveling from city to city, > being in Portland one year, Seattle the next, San Jose the next. Or > not. We decide.
I don't think of San Jose as "Northwest". I'd only be willing to go as far south as Sacramento. ;) And you've left off Tri-Cities, Spokane, Boise and Bend.
-- M. Edward (Ed) Borasky ruby-perspectives.blogspot.com
"A mathematician is a machine for turning coffee into theorems." -- Alfréd Rényi via Paul Erdős
> If I were designing it, I would make it Ruby-specific. I would target a > three-day conference with a single track each day. One day would be > Rails. One day would be test-driven / behavior-driven development and > general Ruby-as-a-scripting-language presentations. The third day would > be devoted to implementations of the Ruby language, benchmarking, > profiling, test suites and language syntax/semantics, etc.
So, no place for alternatives web frameworks or even the many other things you can use Ruby for?
I would love to see something that included talks on all the more interesting areas where Ruby is being used.
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