[CREATE] LGM2012 in Argentina?

[a.l.e]

hi dave,
 
> I'd like to hear from the LGM Board their thoughts :-)

i can only give my personal point of view.

since i don't know how to make it real, i don't even know how much this opinion is worth.

nobody wants to speak up, so it's probably more worth than no opinion at all...



personally, i think that the next LGM should be oriented toward the needs of the developers (or better: the programmers!), we need an LGM which puts them in the middle of the action.
and we should get them to actually attend!

the goal should be to bind current/past contributors to the projects and attract new contributors.


is it a good goal? hard to say, since it's not easy to get feedback from the developers themselves, and find out what their wishes for the LGM 2012 are.

personally, i have the feeling that, now, it's time to attract more people who do the real work for our software, who take some responsibility on them (no, we don't only need coders, but we badly need people who can program!)



don't get me wrong, i love how in the past LGMs more and more people from the culture, graphics art and academic world got involved in LG world through the meetings.
we get very valuable feedback and see that our software is in use! and abused!
for me it's the best i could get!


but: most of our projects don't seem to have the workforce to implement the wonderful ideas we are told of!



now, many things are unclear to me. (and that's the main reason why i did not write about it spontaneously)

1.
is the LGM the right place for promoting the participation in our projects?
i don't know... but i'd wish it could have that role!

what do the people in here think about it?
what do the developers think about it?


2.
really: do the developers want the LGM as a meeting for them?

(the numbers: only one team attended the LGM 2011; still, the attendance was not bad at all: most projects were there with at least one person... most of the time a man deeply involved with the project!)


3.
is argentina the right place for such a step?
maybe... the people promoting it, could tell us what are the benefits of getting there...




voilà, having been (collectively) asked to express what i think about the next LGM, i will also say what was in my mind before reading about the offer to to argentina:

we don't need an LGM in 2012.
i how you're not shocked.

we wanted a two years preparation time? let's do it. let's skip the LGM in 2012. let's start preparing the LGM 2013.
and in 2012, instead of having an LGM, let's organize a bunch of regional meetings, let's participate as a group at existing events. let's promote that we're going to attend! and let's tell the world what we achieved there!

we already have a LGD at LCA in australia, we have proposals for a meeting in california (iirc), we will go to opendesktop, to fosdem, to rmll, to ccc, to froscon, labtolab, to LGM brasil, ... maybe to LGM argentina...

let's split the LGM all over the world, let's have regional and team internal meetings, let's become visible to the other people, let's blog about what went well and what not...
let's find out what we miss. let's find out what we need!

... and at the end of the year let's sit together and think how the LGM 2013 should look like, how we can achieve our goals in the location we will have chosen.



one final wish: don't tear apart this email. don't answer to it by putting +1 or -1 all over the place, don't reply by quoting the full mail and inserting here and there some comments.
i think that we can most profit of the discussion, if the people taking part take the time to formulate their thoughts, develop their ideas.

it's just a wish...
but, at the end, it could keep the thread to a sane length (if there is ever a discussion starting from here).


ciao
a.l.e