On Mon, Jul 11, 2011 at 12:43 AM, Vaidik Kapoor <[email protected]> wrote:
> Minutes of the meeting are now available at
> http://www.lug-iitd.org/Freed.in_2011/2012#Minutes_of_the_Meeting
[...]
Thank you for doing that, and sorry for the delay in responding. It has
been a rather hectic week. In the future, I would also request that we
freeze meeting dates several days in advance to give people a chance
to arrange schedules. Please also excuse the tl;dr.
I am disturbed at some things that are noted in the minutes. I wish that
I could have been at the meeting. Here are some notes on what is
worrying me:
* I think that the most important point that the people wanting to do
this need to address is why do they want to take over Freed.in. Please
do not see this as a dog-in-the-manger attitude: I would be most happy
to see a new lease of life for Freed.in, but would question whether
people have thought through the matter:
- IMHO, the time is ripe for a new event in India that can take
over what FOSS.in was doing in the last few years.
However, such a developer-oriented event has been far from the
focus of Freed.in, though Freedel was indeed close to this. IMHO,
people should consider whether they want to revive Freedel rather
than Freed.in.Or, start a new conference, hmm, let us call it
maybe noname-conf?
- My (again, very personal) opinion is that the FOSS developer
community in India is not yet strong enough to support such an
event, without adequate planning from the side of the organisers.
This does not mean that such an event is not worth doing, but
that it needs more of an organisational effort.
* I am also surprised at the fact that people seem to be ready to jump
into a major event without any lead-up. IMHO, a good plan would have
been to start with smaller, more-focused events, which let the organisers
gauge interest in such a developer-oriented event, and gain experience
in organising events. Why does it seem that this was not even discussed?
* One point, re an item in the minutes: "Satyakam suggested
that the reasons to have an event like Freed.in are different than
the reasons that we are going to tell the prospective sponsors as
sponsors are looking for benefits. Reasons like FOSS advocacy,
etc. are not what they'll be interested in. "
I find this attitude unbelievable for people purportedly interested
in freedom and openness, and I would also hope that the above
was not the actual attitude. However, if true, I for one am going
to be vehemently against such an event. Not to mince words, the
above is basically lying to sponsors to get money, and at least
IMHO, it would be better if Freed.in died rather than it morph into
such an event.
* I would also take issue with various reminiscences about Freed.in, as
noted in the minutes, but that is not important right now, and I will
approach the right people with a clue-bat in this regard.
Regards,
Gora
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