I've decided [1] that I'm going to resist going to tech conferences
and summits in particular by air travel, unless it becomes an
existential issue. For a variety of reasons described in [1] and the
two other posts it links to.
I know for some people that this will present some concerns about my
efficacy as PTL of placement, so I thought I better mention it
sooner than later so we can make some decisions on how we want to
proceed:
* Should I take myself out of the running for U PTL? In which case
we need to get a shadow warmed up.
* If I'm not there, but still PTL, should we still hold the usual
regularly placement things (project update and onboarding, PTG
things)? In which case we need to prepare chairs/moderators for
those sessions.
Given my positions on the exclusive properties of conferences, I'd
prefer that we turn update and onboarding activities into
asynchronous, document-oriented affairs that anyone can utilize at
any time, not just those wanting and able to go to summit.
Similarly, given how useful the placement pre-PTG was for Train, the
very small amount of time spent discussing placement issues in
person in Denver, and the team's strategy of focusing on a
relatively small number of changes, I'm not certain we need "time"
in Shanghai. We can spread that work out.
Thoughts or questions from anyone?
[1] https://anticdent.org/remote-maintainership.html
Thanks a ton Chris for speaking up on that topic. I also share your opinions in this blog.
I've talked with a few TripleO contributors and a bunch of us won't go to China either (for different reasons).
Instead, I think we'll try to make progress in our asynchronous collaboration and eventually organize a virtual meetup if needed.
Also, in my humble opinion you shouldn't step out of PTL role just because you won't go to the next conference. I think it's part of the PTL role to find out how to make the collaboration happen without barriers, no matter where you are in the world. Thanks for all your hard work on Placement and I hope you'll make the right decision for you and the project.