On Tue, Feb 10, 2009 at 4:14 PM, Moray Allan <[email protected]> wrote: > Can you compare your proposed venue to previous DebConf venues? > (e.g. what previous venue was most similar?) > > What would be new about DebConf in your proposed location?
This is from Benjamin Mako Hill, who's not subscribed to the list: So, I've been to DebConf in Toronto, Oslo, Porto Alegre, Helsinki, and Edinburgh but I can't speak to Mexico City or Argentina. Here's my comparison: In most ways, I think Helsinki is the best model to what the facilities at MIT will be like. Both venues are large, modern, research universities with all that such institutions have to offer. MIT will also provide large academic meeting spaces and classrooms (although I don't remember if we had so much classroom space in Helsinki). The default accommodations at MIT will be dorm rooms as well so I suspect Helsinki is a pretty good comparison on that end as well. There are a few major differences with Helsinki. One is that we shouldn't anticipate problems with the wifi which I know was a huge headache for people then. Even in the worst situation, MIT offers two weeks of full-access, unfirewalled, Internet to anyone for two weeks. That's with no special arrangment or questions asked. Second, the MIT campus is much less spread out than Helsinki. The downside is that there won't be as many big open green spaces to play soccer or frisbee in, for example. The upside is that nothing will be more than a 5 to 10 minute walk away from anything else at MIT. Third, the dining experience will be quite different. We'll have more a-la-cart at normal restaurants than at a single cafeteria. Toronto is actually a pretty good comparison in this regard although in Toronto there was no funded food. I suspect most people will eat "food court" style on most days. The final comparison, which I think is different from every DebConf except maybe Edinburgh, is that we'll be right in the center of Cambridge. Boston is a short walk across the river and Central Square Cambridge is a 5 minute walk from the venue. We're right near a major bus and a subway stop. You can treat that as either access to a major US city with lots of attractions or as things to distract from the conference. :) Regards, Mako _______________________________________________ Debconf-team mailing list [email protected] http://lists.debconf.org/mailman/listinfo/debconf-team
