Agree that going virtual makes most sense given current status From: Emilien Macchi <emilien@redhat.com> Sent: Wednesday, March 11, 2020 5:46 PM To: Mark Collier Cc: openstack-discuss; Jonathan Bryce Subject: Re: FW: 2020 OSF Events & coronavirus [EXTERNAL EMAIL] Hi Mark, Thanks for the transparency, as usual. I have a few thoughts, please read inline. On Fri, Mar 6, 2020 at 4:04 PM Mark Collier <mark@openstack.org<mailto:mark@openstack.org>> wrote: upcoming event in Vancouver is no exception. The OpenDev tracks
each morning will be programmed by volunteers from the community, and the project teams will be organizing their own conversations as well each afternoon M-W, and all day Thursday.
But the larger question is here: should the show go on?
The short answer is that as of now, the Vancouver and Berlin events are still scheduled to happen in June (8-11) and October (19-23), respectively.
However, we are willing to cancel or approach the events in a different way (i.e. virtual) if the facts indicate that is the best path, and we know the facts are changing rapidly. One of the most critical inputs we need is to hear from each of you. We know that many of you rely on the twice-annual events to get together and make rapid progress on the software, which is one reason we are not making any decisions in haste. We also know that many of you may be unable or unwilling to travel in June, and that is critical information to hear as we get closer to the event so that we can make the most informed decision.
I believe that we, as a community should show the example and our strengths by cancelling the Vancouver event and organize a virtual event like some other big events are doing. There is an opportunity for the OSF to show leadership in Software communities and acknowledge the risk of spread during that meeting; not only for the people attending it but for also those in contact with these people later. I'm not a doctor nor I know much about the virus; but I'm not interested to travel and take the risk to 1) catch the virus and 2) spread it at home and in my country; and as a community member, I feel like our responsibility is also to maintain ourselves healthy. In my opinion, the sooner we cancel, the better we can focus on organizing the virtual meetings, and also we can influence more communities to take that kind of decisions. Thanks Mark for starting that discussion, it's a perfect sign of how healthy is our community; and hopefully it will continue to be. -- Emilien Macchi