4 ms·

Are conferences good value for money (as a use for free software donations/funding)? Like I get that they're good, I like attending conferences. But if I could

by Y_Y 5y ago

Are conferences good value for money (as a use for free software donations/funding)? Like I get that they're good, I like attending conferences. But if I could choose between employing someone full-time for a month (especially somewhere with low cost of living like India or Eastern Europe) and buying flights and a hotel room for a weekend, I think I'd choose the former.

meibo 5y ago
Conferences are essential in building a healthy community - and seeing who you actually "work for", especially as an open source developer. Sure, you can sit on Zoom for an hour or two and hold a talk, but you really can't beat the face-to-face experience. I think it's something you need to experience to see the value in.
- mlang23 5y ago
  In my experience, conferences are a very nice to have, unique experiences, interesting people. But productivity? No. When it comes to being productive, I get far more done sitting at my desk at home. I totally understand that conferences are a really nice thing to go to for contributors. But its more a sort of compensation for unpaied work. At some point, you are invited to go to a foreign country, and you get a sort of geek-holiday. Thats nice. But I never considered it essential for my contributions. In fact, my impression actually turned around when the "bring your children" thing started to be normal. I vividly remember a few talks at DebConf where I was not able to follow the speaker because of verbal small children in the talk room. Since then, I really really prefer to listen to talk recordings at home.
  - baby 5y ago
    I always find conferences to be a real boost for productivity personally. You always come out full of ideas and papers to read or implement. The motivation and passion of others can be contaminating as well.
    - jcelerier 5y ago
      > You always come out full of ideas and papers to read or implement. is it really what GIMP needs though ?
      - prokoudine 5y ago
        We don't go to face-to-face meeting for papers. We come for live interaction, major release level decision-making etc. We tried video conferencing a few times. It's fun but hard to organize (timezones), too messy, and time-consuming. So are chats.
  - johannes1234321 5y ago
    > productivity? No. When it comes to being productive, I get far more done sitting at my desk at home. It depends. For creating production-quality code certainly true. But for design discussions, feature priotisation etc. an in person meeting often is better. Also such events /can/ lead to interesting results from hacking sessions where people collaboratively spin out ideas and code stuff. That code typically needs cleanup, but can spark ideas. Way home from a conference for me often was the time where I had creative new ideas :)
throwanem 5y ago
I feel like, in your third sentence, you may have typed "enjoying" and intended "employing".
- watt 5y ago
  And also maybe "former"? Is conference really better value than employing somebody for a month?
  - Y_Y 5y ago
    Maybe I should have invested in a proof-reader. Thanks for both of the corrections.
    - tudorw 5y ago
      Proofreader, ahem, sorry, could not resist, I am not really bothered...
stuaxo 5y ago
I don't know about conferences per-say, but something like LibreGraphicsMeeting is, as people developing lots of open source graphics get together and swap ideas. Luckily there is one there has been some funding, at least for travel.
- dcminter 5y ago
  Just FYI "per-say" should be "per se" - Latin for "by itself."
- prokoudine 5y ago
  LGM initially was "annual meeting of GIMP devs, but this time — with fellow teams from Scribus, Inkscape, and Xara LX projects" :)
abhinav22 5y ago
(I agree with your opinion) But is the article about conferences? I thought it was about directly supporting some of the developers of GIMP, perhaps I misread
- erikerikson 5y ago
  I believe that was a reference to restrictions on funding coming from GNOME
908B64B197 5y ago
> But if I could choose between employing someone full-time for a month (especially somewhere with low cost of living like India or Eastern Europe) and buying flights and a hotel room for a weekend, I think I'd choose the former. A month's worth of a bad programmer's time might be worth a lot less than meeting motivated good software engineers at a conference and potentially turning one or two into contributors.

by Y_Y 5y ago

meibo 5y ago

Conferences are essential in building a healthy community - and seeing who you actually "work for", especially as an open source developer. Sure, you can sit on Zoom for an hour or two and hold a talk, but you really can't beat the face-to-face experience. I think it's something you need to experience to see the value in.

mlang23 5y ago
In my experience, conferences are a very nice to have, unique experiences, interesting people. But productivity? No. When it comes to being productive, I get far more done sitting at my desk at home. I totally understand that conferences are a really nice thing to go to for contributors. But its more a sort of compensation for unpaied work. At some point, you are invited to go to a foreign country, and you get a sort of geek-holiday. Thats nice. But I never considered it essential for my contributions. In fact, my impression actually turned around when the "bring your children" thing started to be normal. I vividly remember a few talks at DebConf where I was not able to follow the speaker because of verbal small children in the talk room. Since then, I really really prefer to listen to talk recordings at home.
- baby 5y ago
  I always find conferences to be a real boost for productivity personally. You always come out full of ideas and papers to read or implement. The motivation and passion of others can be contaminating as well.
  - jcelerier 5y ago
    > You always come out full of ideas and papers to read or implement. is it really what GIMP needs though ?
    - prokoudine 5y ago
      We don't go to face-to-face meeting for papers. We come for live interaction, major release level decision-making etc. We tried video conferencing a few times. It's fun but hard to organize (timezones), too messy, and time-consuming. So are chats.
- johannes1234321 5y ago
  > productivity? No. When it comes to being productive, I get far more done sitting at my desk at home. It depends. For creating production-quality code certainly true. But for design discussions, feature priotisation etc. an in person meeting often is better. Also such events /can/ lead to interesting results from hacking sessions where people collaboratively spin out ideas and code stuff. That code typically needs cleanup, but can spark ideas. Way home from a conference for me often was the time where I had creative new ideas :)

throwanem 5y ago

I feel like, in your third sentence, you may have typed "enjoying" and intended "employing".

watt 5y ago
And also maybe "former"? Is conference really better value than employing somebody for a month?
- Y_Y 5y ago
  Maybe I should have invested in a proof-reader. Thanks for both of the corrections.
  - tudorw 5y ago
    Proofreader, ahem, sorry, could not resist, I am not really bothered...

stuaxo 5y ago

I don't know about conferences per-say, but something like LibreGraphicsMeeting is, as people developing lots of open source graphics get together and swap ideas. Luckily there is one there has been some funding, at least for travel.

dcminter 5y ago
Just FYI "per-say" should be "per se" - Latin for "by itself."
prokoudine 5y ago
LGM initially was "annual meeting of GIMP devs, but this time — with fellow teams from Scribus, Inkscape, and Xara LX projects" :)

abhinav22 5y ago

(I agree with your opinion) But is the article about conferences? I thought it was about directly supporting some of the developers of GIMP, perhaps I misread

erikerikson 5y ago
I believe that was a reference to restrictions on funding coming from GNOME

908B64B197 5y ago

> But if I could choose between employing someone full-time for a month (especially somewhere with low cost of living like India or Eastern Europe) and buying flights and a hotel room for a weekend, I think I'd choose the former. A month's worth of a bad programmer's time might be worth a lot less than meeting motivated good software engineers at a conference and potentially turning one or two into contributors.