The Future of OS//OS, could it be a thing again?

Hi Strypey - thanks for your questions and support. We are unable to confirm at the moment as we are waiting on funding proposals to be accepted (or not).

If our current plan (OS//OS focusing on open in the context of politics and government in the lead up to the election) is not accepted then we will most likely go out to the community to see what is wanted.

Unfortunately my current sense is that there will not be enough resources to host OS//OS this year.

Unfortunately my current sense is that there will not be enough resources to host OS//OS this year.

Thanks for sharing that. For whatever it's worth, I think that OS/OS has great crowdfunding potential. I bet that many previous participants (and others) would be surprised if OS//OS doesn't happen this year, and would actively help a campaign.

The size of a campaign could be based on the ultimate amount (or lack) of other funding sources.

Of course, I don't know if any core participants may be able to develop a (time-consuming) campaign. If anyone's willing to give it a shot, I'd like to help.

I hope your funding comes through, but I don't think it hurts for a major in-person event to have a year off, or even become biannual instead of annual. NetHui have done some experiments with skipping the main event some years, and doing regional satellite versions of the event (NetHui South in Ōtepoti), or a roadshow version.

Another option is to experiment with putting on a simpler, cheaper, more grassroots event. I bet the Michael Fowler costs some serious cash. A fun event could be created by mirroring and striping the conference sessions across a range of smaller venues around Welly (eg Enspiral Space, Open Source Gallery, 128, Maker Spaces, BizDojo, Te Whaea, local marae...), making the whole inner city our Open Society campus. Maybe you could even have pied pipers leading conference-goers from session to session, reminiscent of Amanda Palmer's visit!

If it looks like there's just no way to put on an in-person event, what about experimenting with a web-based conference? A conference server (or a federation of a number of them) could be assembled, with a range of communication and collaboration tools running under one domain name, and one set of login credentials. For example speakers could be introduced and give their talks via an instance of Jitsi Meet/ Videobridge, outputting to a webcasting system for participants to watch, and with a system for them to submit questions in plain text for Q&A. Collaborative notes could be taken on an Etherpad, as they were (I think) last year. These tools could be used before the event to collaboratively plan the themes, book the speakers, and confirm a timetable. After the event any burning discussions could continue there, as well as the beginning the process of planning the next one.

@strypey - these are some really cool ideas. I think one of the main issues for us this year isn't just the funding but also the time involved to make it happen. The team is distributed across locations this year so thats an added challenge. So taking a year off does feel like the right move - also with the election happening in September there is very little room in the attention economy and much of our community will be 100% heads down on that.

@gregorycassel its much the same with crowdfunding. In my experience crowdfunding is often close to a ' break even' exercise between the marketing / campaigning time and effort to get the funding - and then you need the bandwidth to actually use the funds to run the event.

Saying all that - if there is energy in the community for others to lead and drive events, then we'd be happy to explore that option.

http://ose-21.org/

For the record, I actually prefer the idea of a web-based conference for something like this.

(And yes, 2018 seems more realistic at this point for whatever develops.)

Just wondering if there are any updates for OS//OS in 2018/19? I'm now based in China, so much less likely to be able to make it in person. But I now have a dedicated workspace and no WINZ on my back, so I would be keen to put some time into helping plan and set up tools to allow those who can't attend to participate as much as possible via the net.

Just a note that with all the new needs for user-respecting software for online working/ learning/ playing, and conference organisers across the world experimenting with different ways of holding events online instead of in person, now might be the time to consider a reboot of OS//OS as an online event.

@Anthony Cabraal this 👆👆👆🙏

There is definitely an opportunity and gap here. For sure.

The question is, who would have the capacity and keenness to convene this? Open to ideas and chats with anyone who would want to put their hands on the wheel and foot on the gas