On Sunday, 23 December 2018 at 08:08:59 UTC, Joakim wrote:
On Sunday, 23 December 2018 at 06:54:26 UTC, Russel Winder
wrote:
Others have cited Rust and Go. I shall cite Python, Ruby,
Groovy, Java, Kotlin, Clojure, Haskell, all of which have
thriving programming language oriented conferences all over
the world. Then there are the Linux conferences, GStreamer
conferences, conference all about specific technologies rather
than programming languages. And of course there is ACCU. There
is much more evidence that the more or less traditional
conference format serves a purpose for people, and are
remaining very successful. Many of these conferences make good
profits, so are commercially viable.
That's all well and good, but none of this addresses the key
points of whether there are less tech conferences being done
and whether they make sense in this day and age. There are
still people riding in horse and carriage, that doesn't mean
it's still a good idea. :)
You say that like some superior technology exists to replace the
conference. Yes, DConf may benefit from tutorials, workshops,
BoFs, whatever, but the value it brings to the community is very
real.
Thus I reject the fundamental premise of your position that
the conference format is dying off. It isn't. The proof is
there.
Yes, the proof is there: the conference is dying.
Hardly. IME there are two kinds of conferences (or maybe they
form a spectrum, whatever) academic and industrial. Academic is
going nowhere, research needs presenting, organisation of
collaboration needs to happen. Industrial, there is project
coordination, employment prospectus, business opportunities, why
do you think companies sponsor conferences? They get their moneys
worth out of it.
Perhaps you as an individual believe that they are not cost
effective for you, fine. But consider that the foundation
reimburses speakers and I personally would be very interested to
hear what you have been doing with Andoird/ARM and I'm sure many
others would as well, the question becomes: is it worth your time?
