Interesting discussion.  May I suggest we level the playing field by moving next year's conference to South Central Europe, say Pristina, Kosovo, or Sarajevo, or Zagreb?  We'd reach a whole new level of inclusiveness.  

Carol Bean


On Nov 25, 2013, at 9:46 PM, Jonathan Rochkind wrote:

>> Finances are a limiting factor on conference attendance for people of all
>> demographic groups, and I would endorse plans to surmount that.
> 
> Code4Lib is, of course, one of the least expensive conferences you'll find. And the community and organizers care a lot about keeping it so -- there are sometimes disputes in a given year about whether the organizers could have kept it even less expensive. But it's still, every year, one of the most affordable conferences around.
> 
> Which is pretty darn awesome, and important.
> 
> That's pretty much what we do try and increase financial accessibility for people of all demographic groups. We also try to switch the regional location around the country every year, to even out transportation costs for for people in different parts of the country.
> 
> If you can afford to go to any conference at all, you can afford for Code4Lib to be that conference. Of course, there are people who can't afford to go to any conference.  Which is unfortunate. But I'm not sure what, if anything, is being suggested we could do about that?
> 
> If you have or can find a source of funding willing to pay registration, hotel, and transportation for anyone who can't afford it, then please feel free to organize it to happen.
> 
> That's what the people who organized, and continue to organize, the diversity scholarships did. They just organized it.
> 
> Jonathan