[Wolves] FOSS Talk Live

[Stephen Parkes]

On 19 August 2016 at 15:20, Peter Cannon via Wolves <
wolves at mailman.lug.org.uk> wrote:

> On 19/08/16 14:04, Stephen Parkes wrote:
>
> > This whole getting people who might be interested into one place and
> > potentially boring them into submission is how they sell time shares not
> > ideas.
>
> So let me get this straight, getting everyone into one place for FOSCON,
> GUADEC, FOSDEM, <ADD EVENT> is OK because they're all like minded people
> with the same values and interests but getting *outsiders* in is wrong?
>
>
Yes.  :p  (and great selective snipping)

because you think you're getting them there to get them to join your church
thanks to the charismatic preachers on the stage who are fed up of the
converted and will expand the herd by preaching louder to bigger
audiences.  Just getting people in the room and preaching is sure do work
and when it doesn't get a bigger church and a PA system and keep shouting
to the faithful and leave with their cheers ringing in your ears not
noticing you've done exactly the same and the folks who weren't interested
still aren't interested but it doesn't matter because next year we can come
back and do it again but bigger.  This time we'll invite CC self published
poets to do workshops and they can join us at the front cheering each other
on while the even bigger crowd behind is just as bored.

You're not deepening the pool just making it wider and that's not a bad
thing.

People will meet other people and discover new interests and each of those
is your evangelist.  Keep them keen and they will go out and widen the pool
of interested parties on a personal level


> > You might have seen the same old faces at OggCamp etc but those are the
> > people who are doing things daily to break down barriers.  Give them
> > more ideas to use and spread to the people they are connected with
> > rather than expect everyone to bring in a new cult member and do that
> > thing with our trouser legs we aren't meant to talk about.
>
> But they don't, or at least the vast majority don't.
>

How do you know?  I am pretty sure they do even if they don't use pulpits.


>
> > If you widen the appeal you'll just get more of the same people from
> > different backgrounds.  That's a very good thing but I'm not sure it's
> > the thing you think it is.  :)
>
> Yeah, because we don't want any of those pesky non users floating around
> messing up our cosy little walled garden. Personally I'm done with these
> events were it's the same old faces churning out the same old mantras while
> preaching to the converted. Has ANY of those "Panels", and I've been on
> some of them, changed their points of discussion in the last 5 years? Nope.
>

But you're not seeing my point (as usual :P ) All you are suggesting is
widening the pool of attendee's but you think you're deepening it.

Wide is good ;)  but you're going to get more of the same people but with
different expertise.  That's good because it means more chance for
participants to cooperate and move things forward in their own time.  But
that's not the outcome you seem to expect.

Panels are an example of what is wrong.  It was the increased participation
that the new breed of conventions bought that is the major innovation.
Chaired panels are just a way of retaining control of what is essentially a
collective of DIY cultures coming together.


>
> There are lots of people I love in the community and it was the yearly
> opportunity to see them in the flesh but ultimately I stopped attending any
> talks and spent 80% of the time just chewing the cud with friends. The next
> event I want to go to will have proper Red Hat, SuSE and even Canonical
> stands actually pushing to win business and promote OSS.
>
> -
>

They exist you know.  Canonical have a stand at pretty much every tech
event the Excell Centre has on the calendar.  They are different events
again to the one you want ;)

Sparkes