[ubuntu-us-ut] Utah Open Source Conference thoughts

[Bryan Petty]

On 9/12/07, Thad Van Ry <thad at linuxnetadmin.com> wrote:
> On 9/11/07, Adam Olsen  wrote:
> > Wait.  I think at this point, you're just ignoring Bryan's arguments,
> > which I think are valid.
>
> I'm not ignoring them, I believe I covered them in previous responses.
> No need for me to re-hash them. If you missed my responses, go read
> the previous e-mails from me again.

No, you didn't cover them:

On 9/11/07, Thad Van Ry <thad at linuxnetadmin.com> wrote:
> On 9/11/07, Bryan Petty <bryan at ibaku.net> wrote:
> <snip a whole bunch of stuff that I consider whining>
> I decided with this thread that you can wrestle with a pig in the mud,
> but, sooner or later you realize that the pig is enjoying it.

That email did not repeat a single aspect that I already covered in
previous posts.

> OSCon is designed for "your regular nerd" and yet they charge well
> over $100 for their "Open Source" conference. If you don't feel that
> the price was worth it, state why. Are you willing to fork over
> $1,000+ to travel to Oregon to attend OSCon? If not, why not. If it's
> because you are a student, would you be willing to do that when you
> are a working professional?

I can't compare UTOSC with DefCon, but you can compare OSCon to it?
OSCon is a 5 day convention with over 400 sessions in 10 tracks. The
comparison here is worse than with DefCon, except that it is the same
subject material even though it's highly geared for professional
developers. You already said you want UTOSC to motivate those not
aware of open source to get become involved, so unless you've changed
you mind about what you want UTOSC to be about, you shouldn't even be
considering prices on the same level as as a conference geared for
professionals.

Besides that, they bring in Jeff Waugh, Karl Fogel, Guido van Rossum,
Chris DiBona, Jimmy Wales, Mark Shuttlesworth, and many more
noteworthy speakers in just one year. You think the comparison is the
same? I'd go see any one of the above give a speech over Bruce Perens
any day.

> In my opinion, a conference that charges over $100 to attend is going
> to attract people that really care about the topics covered. It will
> also discourage those who are there for the free swag and snacks. I
> have enough T-shirts from years past at Comdex. Knowledge is more
> useful to me then T-shirts are. I personally don't want a conference
> that only attracts college students and makes business people not want
> to attend.

And this is why you went to a conference where you knew that "anybody
that paid more than $55 for the conference didn't try to get a
discount code"? Both you and Clint are complete hypocrites. It's easy
enough to preach about higher prices when you're making money from the
conference, not spending it. The two people supporting this $200+
concept are Clint, who runs the conference, and you, who works for
Guru Labs, one of the sponsors of the conference.

Since my last email, I've learned about a couple critical details
about how UTOSC was run which outright prove that Clint is just
ripping people out of their money for this conference. I'm not going
to mention them here just to save him at least a spec of dignity just
because he did do the work of organizing it at least, even if it was
for monetary gain. These are details that he's been holding back, and
he needs to come out with himself. I will say that I feel sorry for
Novell in this situation, they lost a lot of good rep because of
Clint's actions.

The least you could do is admit your mistakes, and work towards some
peaceful resolution with the community. All of us working on open
source projects are mostly volunteering our time, so when someone such
as Clint comes through and pulls a stunt like this, it's disrespectful
to the entire community. Neither the OSI or the FSF saw even so much
as $1 of anyone's registration dues, so you have no right to claim
that "it's for the open source movement".

Until Clint takes the steps necessary to redeem himself, and show some
dedication to Open Source, you can trust me to be leading the boycott
on next year's conference.

Regards,
Bryan Petty