Making the rounds of the maillists these days is mediag8way’s linuxworld, which promises to be an exciting event, with 4 conference tracks that include introduction to business applications, more technical and systems admininstration, “meet the experts” (which should be interesting in itself), and an advocacy / public interest part which is open to the public.
Of the 3 day event (from Sep. 14-16), the most interesting seem to be for me the “technical tracks” such as the “Secure Computing & Online Communications using FOSS Tools” run by Ph Net’s Horacio Cadiz. The “Linux & Gender” seems to be stretching it a bit, considering I don’t really see if FOSS has really reached far into our society to develop gender issues yet, while the “FOSS & Gov.ph” and “FOSS & edu.ph” might be interesting to join up as well.
All basically meaning, this is the sort of thing I’d take time out to go to. Yes, all the way from the mountains of Antipolo, I’d go to Makati for the singular purpose of checking it out. No problemo.
All except for one thing:
Delegate’s Rates *
Corporate / Individuals P 6,500.00
Government / NGO / Academe P 5,500.00
Students P 3,500.00* Fees are inclusive of delegate�s kit, lunch and am and pm snacks for the three-day conference.
Daily conference passes and/or tickets for tutorials only are also available.
I called mediag8way’s hotline numbers to ask what exactly a ‘delegate’ is and was told what I dreaded to hear. A ‘delegate’ is anyone who’d visit the event. He’d get lunch, snacks, and a ‘delegate kit’, but no, there was no way around the P6.5k. The girl I spoke with said she ‘wasn’t sure’ if there was a way to get in and just listen to a talk, sans lunch and kit, but ‘maybe’ it might be allowed. To me, that sounds like if there are empty seats, they’d let people in for free, but if not, no go.
Now I used to write for mediag8way’s PCWorld, in fact some of the stuff I’ve written and I feel most proud of I submitted there. I was also a three time judge and contestant for mediag8way’s annual Phil. Webbies event, which means I might likely meet a few familiar faces and just might wrangle myself an invite inside.
However, that’s for myself. The issue here is, at P3,000.00 for a student, what of others? No let me rephrase that: what of those most needing to go to it.
Don’t get me wrong, mediag8way is a event company and companies are out to make money. FOSS is a hot topic and they’re capitalizing on making an event on it. Ain’t nuthin’ wrong with that.
However, the ‘F’ in FOSS stands for ‘free’, and I’ve to admit the first time I realized that the event wasn’t, and that I was off by 6,500.00 worth, it turned me off, at least until I got my bearings straight and realized, it isn’t mediag8way’s fault.
There’s no denying we need events like these. The Phil. computing scene is sorely pining, as a man would cry for water in the desert, for events like these. Poetic references aside, it’s a shame we don’t have them enough, a greater shame that this, one of the more popular events, had to have been brainstormed and promoted by an event company as a business event, and yet another shame – it costs P3,000.00 for a student to attend. I wanna see a student shell out that much money for this, really.
But that’s not the biggest shame. What is, is that really, there isn’t any feasible alternative out there. Having not have attended a PLUG event yet, maybe that’s not true. But having been in the industry for a while, and still not knowing of an event similarly designed and promoted as much as this – and most importantly held for free, or at least for a more reasonable amount – now that’s the true shame.
And as much as I would dislike asking local FOSS groups to get going on making their own events, knowing as much that it’s way difficult to even plan let alone hold one – as I write this I cannot help coming to that conclusion. Linuxworld’s quite appreciated, and is even a step in the right direction. But it’s a shame it cost P6,500.00.