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On 5/15/2013 5:57 PM, Stefano Maffulli wrote:
> On 05/15/2013 02:21 AM, Thierry Carrez wrote:
>> We already know some people won't be able to join us, but in the
>> same way we already knew some people would not be able to join us for
>> all the previous summits held in the US. For example traveling to US
>> west coast has always been an issue for some Europeans. This sudden
>> concern about summits happening far away sounds very... US-centric to
>> me.
>
> My intention is to make sure that the next Design Summit is successful.
> Remote participation in Portland was dismissed rapidly and consensus was
> reached with a 'don't bother' verdict.  This time I've noticed people
> being more 'nervous' and I want to make sure we're on the same page
> before making a decision that need not to be improvised.
>
>> I'd definitely like to make sure we'll have enough of the "critical"
>> set of people present, which is a bit difficult to evaluate (what
>> makes you "critical" ?). In most sessions, the discussion happens
>> between ~5 critical participants, with the rest of the attendance
>> mostly listening or maybe asking a question. If we can have those 5
>> critical participants present, I think the summit will work as
>> intended.
>
> ACK
>
> Anybody has different opinions on this? Tech leads and 'core' developers
> especially if you disagree, please share your thoughts.
>
I disagree. Although I am one of the ~5 now, I was not at my first 
summit in Boston. But being in the back was an extremely valuable 
experience.
Some of the "critical" participants a year or two from now may be 
sitting in the back this time, but we don't now which ones. If many 
people who are interested cannot come it will be a bad thing. Perhaps 
unavoidable, but still not good.

This is a really hard problem. The extra cost is about US$1000 I think 
for those in the US.  I find
it hard to believe that a company employing some one to be a major 
upstream contributor will make a can't-go decision based on that $1000. 
But this
is a big issue for companies sending dozens or hundreds of people. It 
would help if the location decisions were made far enough ahead so that
the funds could be put in annual budgets. That will likely be a big 
issue this time around for those whose budgets for October were made 
last year.

  -David