[Inpycon] Necessity of foreign delegates. Was Re: Notes from InPyCon planning meeting of local Pune Team

[॥ स्वक्ष ॥]

On Mon, Feb 21, 2011 at 04:51, Dhananjay Nene <dhananjay.nene at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> a. It is unclear if seasoned pythonista's decision to attend will be
> influenced by the existence of a foreign delegate

Sounds unfair to tag a delegate as "foreign" or count on their
attendance as the reason why Indians will attend. If that is the
measurement yardstick, do we have enough "Indian" pythonista's with
enough star credentials to pull in the crowds? The analogy (argument?)
seems meaningless.


> b. Part of the foreign delegate's fees are paid for by Pycon India
> whereas the local speakers don't have to, is a dualism that is hard to
> explain.

Its not dualism and I agree with Noufal on this. There are many people
who would not be able to hear Raymond or Jacob or Ian <add your core
Python devel here> speak and this is a nice opportunity to listen to
them share their knowledge.

Secondly, your "dualism" point fails as you dont have some facts
right. The PSF's grants (are hardly a sekrit, all the information is
available on their blogs and on the website) helps funds many people
(They dont discriminate on the basis of citizenship) for Pycon each
year. I had suggested a similar process for INpycon on multiple
occasions (last year a women's travel grant on the lines of
Euro-python) , but funds and sponsors were an issue. If anyone wants
to help kickstart this for INpycon you have a volunteer :)


> Of course foreign delegates paying for themselves (or fully
> paid for by PSF should be fine).

Disagree, If they are invited by us, WE need to take care of the
hospitality aspects. Secondly, if your argument is only based on how
IPSS utilizes the funds it has collected -- well, in that case, IPSS
which holds the money "in trust" for INpycon should spend it for the
very reason it was setup, for/on the conference. Diverting funds for
other tasks, however noble they may be, isnt the core activity of
IPSS.

> d. The opportunity cost of the expenditure. At 1L, we cold imagine
> sponsoring anywhere between 5-10 teams to work on a python summer of
> code during vacations in India (this is a new idea that came to my
> mind as I was thinking through the topic). From an expenditure review
> perspective (how many miles does a rupee go to promote python), I have
> a feeling that such an expenditure could be better suited to
> supporting the growth of python in India.

-1 to diverting the INpycon/delegate fees collected for the
conference. It does not seem ethical at all. Rather, I would argue
that instead of expecting a non-profit like IPSS to do the heavy
lifting for them, companies that use python have a vested interest in
promoting the language and that financial gain is motivation enough
for them to consider investing on hiring and training employees, etc
....

On the topic of IPSS conducting SOC's, would it be a floss-based (like
GSOC and RedHat/Fedora) SOC, since the conference is about the python
language and not just Libre software. This is easier said than done
and unless this is discussed and clarified properly, I am strongly
against IPSS funds being used to (inadvertently) benefit a commercial
entity.

-- 
vid ॥ http://svaksha.com ॥