Dear OSGeo community,
After attending FOSS4G last week, I wanted to share some thoughts.
As much as I'd like to be a regular attendee, I am afraid that the
conference is becoming too expensive. This year the early
registration was more than $400 (for 2.5 days of conference; the
tutorials were extra), and the least expensive hotels listed by the
conference website were more than$100 a night (As a matter of fact,
most of the hotels listed on the conference website were 4 stars or
more!). Add the flight, and it ends up more than $2500. I am at a
small university, and travel funds are limited. I imagine the
situation is the same for many people in academia and external
funding has become very hard to get.
On the other hand, FOSS4G is the only conference that unites FOSS GIS
developers. I am wondering if anybody has the same concerns, and if
anything can be done to keep the conference available to a wide
audience. For e.g., have a regional conference; and/or split into
several venues e.g. users/research/business/developers; have lower
rates for academia and researchers.
-Laura
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Laura Toma
Dept. of Computer Science
Bowdoin College
Brunswick, ME 04011, USA
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