[OSM-talk] SotM11 will be held in Denver.

Julio Costa Zambelli julio.costa at openstreetmap.cl
Sat Oct 23 07:17:21 BST 2010


Richard,

I have to make something clear first, I have _nothing_ against Denver,
and I will do my best effort to have the money and the time to go to
the SOTM2011 there. I love going to the states (three times, with zero
bad experiences yet) and I was not being sarcastic about my good
experience with the guys from the DHS.

So I am not a "detractor" of any particular city but of the idea of
doing the event far away from most of the people that we know are
interested in going to it.

I agree with you about OSI+OSMF amazing efforts that influences so
many people, including myself.

As much as I also agree with you in the general idea of moving the
SOTM around (a.k.a taking it out of Europe for the first time), the
fact is (and this is not a matter of perspective) that most of the
contributors, core developers, authors, etc. are still in Germany, the
UK and other countries of Western Europe, and that taking the event to
Colorado could have an effect on the number of attendees similar to
the effect of doing the FOSS4G in Australia and South Africa[1], or
maybe worst, at least assuming that it will not be held in the days
right before or after the OSGeo conference in Denver (a coordinated
schedule may compensate the decline caused by the distance from
Europe). I do realize that there may be a positive effect in terms of
showing the project to new people that may eventually become the new
contributors, core developers, authors, etc.

I am just in a ~1000Km. bus trip to attend the national Linux
Encounter to do my OSM talk (I did it this Friday morning), so I guess
I am one of the guys on the "not so complaining" side of the table ;)

As far as I know and the article [2] in the State of the Map blog
explains, 5 of the beneficiaries of the scholarship had their visas
denied by the Spanish embassies in their countries; 1 by the German
embassy; and 1 by the French embassy. So I correct myself in the
matter that this was a particularly Spaniard discriminatory act, this
was a European one. Anyway, I keep my bet on the DHS, they are quite
reliable in this kind of things.

Best Regards,

Julio Costa

[1] http://wiki.osgeo.osuosl.org/wiki/FOSS4G#Local_Organizing_Committee
[2] http://stateofthemap.org/sotm-scholarship-program/

On 22 October 2010 18:02, Richard Weait <richard at weait.com> wrote:
> On Fri, Oct 22, 2010 at 4:35 PM, Julio Costa Zambelli
> <julio.costa at openstreetmap.cl> wrote:
>> Henk,
>>
>> I do not want to argue since this just a personal opinion from someone
>> that has gone just to one SOTM and only thanks to the OSI Scholarship,
>> but:
>
> OSI is great.  I'm glad that folks from so many places have been able
> to attend.
>
>> [ ... ] but we are talking about the _global_ State Of
>> The Map
>
> It should move around then?  As I understand it the Drupal project
> alternates between events in Europe and North America.  I don't know
> how the percentage of contributors is divided in the Drupal community.
>
> But the fact is that any and every location will have detractors.
> There will always be a set of those who can't or won't make the trip.
> I've heard conference attendees complain about a 45 minute trip across
> town to attend, while they were sitting at a table with people who
> flew-in across the country.  Perspective plays a part here.  ;-)
>
>> Can we expect the Department of Homeland Security to be any less
>> "obstructive" with the scholarship beneficiaries than the agencies in
>> Europe? I do not want to make an stereotype of the officers of this
>> agency, since they have treated me so well every time I have gone to
>> the states, but to be honest if the Spaniards denied 7 visas, I will
>> bet money that this guys will deny the same or more.
>
> It was my impression that some potential attendees were denied travel
> by their own country, rather than entry visas to Spain.  If so, the
> destination country may not matter in those cases.
>
> Julio, I hope that you will be able to attend in Denver.  I hope that
> I will be able to attend as well. :-)  I think it is a beautiful part
> of the world.
>
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