DConf 2019: Shepherd's Pie Edition

[Joakim]

On Sunday, 23 December 2018 at 09:51:58 UTC, Nicholas Wilson 
wrote:
> On Sunday, 23 December 2018 at 08:08:59 UTC, Joakim wrote:
>> On Sunday, 23 December 2018 at 06:54:26 UTC, Russel Winder 
>> wrote:
>>> Others have cited Rust and Go. I shall cite Python, Ruby, 
>>> Groovy, Java, Kotlin, Clojure, Haskell, all of which have 
>>> thriving programming language oriented conferences all over 
>>> the world. Then there are the Linux conferences, GStreamer 
>>> conferences, conference all about specific technologies 
>>> rather than programming languages. And of course there is 
>>> ACCU. There is much more evidence that the more or less 
>>> traditional conference format serves a purpose for people, 
>>> and are remaining very successful. Many of these conferences 
>>> make good profits, so are commercially viable.
>>
>> That's all well and good, but none of this addresses the key 
>> points of whether there are less tech conferences being done 
>> and whether they make sense in this day and age. There are 
>> still people riding in horse and carriage, that doesn't mean 
>> it's still a good idea. :)
>
> You say that like some superior technology exists to replace 
> the conference.

It does, read the first link I gave in my first post above.

> Yes, DConf may benefit from tutorials, workshops, BoFs, 
> whatever, but the value it brings to the community is very real.

It may bring some value, but that's not the question: the 
question is whether we could get more value out of the 
alternatives, particularly at a cheaper cost? The fact that you 
and others keep avoiding this question suggests you know the 
answer.

>>> Thus I reject the fundamental premise of your position that 
>>> the conference format is dying off. It isn't. The proof is 
>>> there.
>>
>> Yes, the proof is there: the conference is dying.
>
> Hardly. IME there are two kinds of conferences (or maybe they 
> form a spectrum, whatever) academic and industrial. Academic is 
> going nowhere, research needs presenting, organisation of 
> collaboration needs to happen.

Research conferences are irrelevant. I don't pay attention to 
them and the fact that the Haskell link Atila gave above says 
their conferences are for presenting research is one big reason 
why almost nobody uses that PL in industry.

> Industrial, there is project coordination, employment 
> prospectus, business opportunities, why do you think companies 
> sponsor conferences? They get their moneys worth out of it.

Clearly not in the iOS community, and according to a commenter in 
my second link above, the Javascript community in his country, as 
the number of tech conferences is going down a lot. It is my 
impression that this is true across the board for pretty much 
every tech community, but I presented that iOS link because he 
actually tallies the evidence. That is a canary in the coal mine 
for the conference format, that the largest burgeoning dev market 
on the planet has a dying conference scene.

> Perhaps you as an individual believe that they are not cost 
> effective for you, fine.

As I keep repeating, this is not about me. I'm pointing out 
trends for _most_ devs, my own preferences are irrelevant.

> But consider that the foundation reimburses speakers and I 
> personally would be very interested to hear what you have been 
> doing with Andoird/ARM and I'm sure many others would as well, 
> the question becomes: is it worth your time?

I don't understand what's so special about "speakers" that it 
couldn't simply reimburse non-speakers that the foundation wants 
at one of the decentralized locations instead. It seems like the 
talk is a made-up excuse to pay for some members of the core team 
to come, when the real reason is to collaborate with them. Why 
not dispense with that subterfuge?

I see little value in a full talk about a port to a new platform 
like Android, that is basically another linux distro with a 
different libc. It's not a matter of my time, I don't think it's 
worth the audience's time. I wish those organizing DConf would 
focus on that more.