Next wineconf

[Jeremy White]

Hi Henri,

On 12/17/18 5:47 PM, Henri Verbeet wrote:
> On Fri, 14 Dec 2018 at 01:34, Jeremy White <jwhite at codeweavers.com> wrote:
>> We punted on the question of where to have the next Wineconf.  Two
>> candidates we considered were Japan and Toronto.
>>
>> I've asked folks at Valve if they would be willing to present at the
>> next conference, and the answer was positive for Toronto, and less
>> enthusiastic for Japan.  Ulrich has been patiently offering to host for
>> many years, and I think it would be good to rotate back to North America
>> on it's scheduled year.
>>
> Just so there's no misunderstanding, "we" above is "the Wine Project
> Leadership committee", as opposed to "CodeWeavers", right?

It was not intended to be a 'We' as in CodeWeavers, but I meant it more 
as a 'We the gathered Wine community'.

We've never really had a formal process for deciding things like next 
conference location; it tends to be more of an ad hoc consensus.  And 
while the committee holds the power to fund the event, it does not 
generally take a role in determining it's location.  That is, it does 
not act like a board of directors would and make decisions like this. 
The committee really limits itself to funding decisions.

> 
> I would like it to be clear that this reply is as a member of the Wine
> project, as opposed to a CodeWeavers contractor. At the same time,
> since apparently Valve's willingness to attend in Canada, but not in
> Japan was a consideration, I think it's only fair to point out that
> CodeWeavers also has significant customers in Japan. Were they asked
> as well?

No.  But I think Valve's use of Wine is a particularly interesting story.

The other point is that I felt I got a similar reaction from a number of 
people when we did discuss Asia; that they would come to North America, 
but not Asia.   My feeling is that there is a small group of people that 
are very passionate for the idea, and then a lot of indifferent people, 
and a small number that would not come if it was in Asia.  Anyone saying 
they will not come to the conference tends to affect me, perhaps in a 
disproportionate way.


> 
>> So I propose we have WineConf 2019 in Toronto, with a tentative plan to
>> try for Japan in 2020.
>>
>> One question we also never addressed was what of time of year.  It
>> seemed as though summer worked really well last year.  Historically, the
>> 'plan' was early fall; procrastination has forced us to late fall in
>> recent years.  But I volunteered to conduct a quick survey, which is here:
>>
>>     https://goo.gl/forms/wnWeIRWkYqTmrUtI3
>>
>> If we get a statistically compelling set of answers, we'll follow those
>> results.  Otherwise, how about we let Ulrich pick.
>>
>> That all make sense?
>>
>> Pitchforks and torches go here.
>>
> Although I'm confident Ulrich would make a great host, I don't think
> anyone would be terribly surprised to learn I'd be a little
> disappointed if WineConf 2019 wouldn't be in Asia.

Just to speak to my thinking a bit further.  My feeling was that if we 
telegraphed the move to Asia for a longer period that we would increase 
the odds of having more people attend.  I would also like to have an 
actual host - someone that lives in Asia who is willing to volunteer - 
so that we have someone who can coordinate the event.  My hope was that 
we could start that ask now, and have them stand up and advocate for 
their site at this years conference.

But the point of the email was to provoke a conversation, so thank you 
for that.

Unfortunately, we don't have a formal mechanism for deciding this; we 
generally rely on consensus.  So ideally I persuade you to my way of 
thinking, or we get a strong chorus of other voices advocating for one 
way or the other.

Cheers,

Jeremy

p.s.  The summer / fall poll results are running exactly 50/50 at the 
moment :-/.