Michael Hudson wrote:
> "Tayssir John Gabbour" <···········@yahoo.com> writes:
> > Python, Perl and maybe Ruby have O'Reilly, which perceives an
incentive
> > in organizing conferences for them. O'Reilly has emphatically made
> > clear it has no interest in lisp.
>
> But Python has PyCon and EuroPython which are certainly not organized
> by O'Reilly. Perl has (at least) YAPC.
>
> There's nothing magical about organizing conferences like these. It
> takes a couple of hundred people who want to go and an awful lot of
> hard work on the part of the organizers.
Thanks for telling me about PyCon, which I remembered as being
organized by O'Reilly. (I wasn't interested, but a friend went.)
However, I am not aware where I gave the impression that organizing
conferences was magical. I am highly interested in volunteering for
every conference I attend, because such things are fun for me, and it
will give anyone who accompanies me something non-touristy and yet
nontechnical to do for a couple hours.
For at least the third year in a row, PyCon is in DC. The ILCs in
contrast gave one the ability to explore interesting cities while
having a context for being there for a few leisurely days. Potentially
with friends; no one I know would be excited about DC.
And this was during the dark ages of lisp when I suspect companies got
marginal financial benefit from ILC sponsorship, and people put up
personal funds hoping there would be enough turnout. In contrast,
here's what the Pycon guys do for sponsorship:
http://www.python.org/cgi-bin/moinmoin/PyconSponsors
Here's the "community" PR agencies:
http://www.python.org/cgi-bin/moinmoin/CreatingBuzz
I mean, if it's hard work, why a priori turn down any resource which
may/may-not aligned with you in organizing some simple gettogether
which lasts a few fleeting days? Are we to believe there are two
warring political factions in the Powerful Lisp Community, the Peoples'
Front of Lisp, and the Lispish Peoples' front, and they can't decide
between hiring magicians or clowns for midday entertainment? Do these
guys not have hotmail accounts for communicating with each other? Are
their Visions too divergent? If so great; organize two or 1.5
conferences.