>>>>In this case Tamar is one of the owners of the event.
>>
>>1) She and two others stepped in when the last VFP conference was about to go under. She's shown more than once that she makes no $ from SWFox and it's common knowledge that running the conference is a community service.
>
>A few days ago I said that a conference is really not a community service - not in itself, and certainly not like a standard community event (user group, SQL Saturday/Code Camp, etc., where there are specific manifestos that talk about open content).
>
>Tamar has (unintentionally) answered it as well. Please look at Message #1633687.
>
>I'm not criticizing her in any way. She's adhering to the general theme of most conferences and the recognition that the conference (or the speaker) owns the content, seeking permission, etc.
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>In a community (i.e. non-paid) event, there would be no such thing as, "you have to ask the speaker's permission, I can't give it to you". Most community events have a portal where speakers post their content. SQL Saturday, for instance, tries to enforce that speakers post their material to the site, either before the conference or immediately afterwards. That way, everyone can access it - even people who couldn't attend the event. (Note: these sites often require registration to the site, but it's free).

OTOH, my impression is that at most of those events, there's no paper, just code, which to me is far less useful. I know that, when I'm learning something, having both code and an explanation is, by far, the best combination.


>So again - a conference is not a community service. The conditions you described (VFP got ignored, etc) do not change that. At the end of the day, people pay a fee to get in, and the content is not deemed freely distributable. Yes, conference speakers/organizers might also participate in community activities. And certainly, Tamar (and others) have done a substantial amount for the community. But Tamar's reply reveals a compelling difference between a conference and a community event. I think Tamar would generally agree with this.

"Community service" and "community event" aren't necessarily synonyms. I'd argue fairly strongly that running SWFox is community service. Because we do it, a lot more articles and code get written. Many of our speakers (including me) choose to share them publicly after the conference. User groups sessions are given by our speakers both before and after the conference. Without Southwest Fox, there would simply be fewer high-quality pieces of writing about VFP.

Tamar