This is a reply to the comment Guidelines for selecting a city?, highlighted as a separate discussion.
Selecting a city for 2010 is no doubt a difficult task. Drupal Association leaves this task to the European community (or in effect to this discussion group), and gives us free hands to use whatever method we like (within reasonable limits).
I think we can conclude the following:
- All the cities nominated for 2010 could host a Drupalcon. (If there are any exceptions, DA will tell us so before October starts.) Thus, "This city works" is not an interesting argument.
- For each city, there are people promoting it more or less on the basis of being "their own". While this is highly understandable, it won't get the selection process going.
On finding the "best" city
A reasonable aim when choosing city should be to make the best possible Drupalcon experience for most people possible. This could mean the following:
- There should be a venue that accomodates enough people. I've heard that while Drupalcon Paris had 900 Drupalistas there could have been perhaps 1500 tickets sold. Thus, a Drupalcon 2010 should have room 2000 people or so. This fits all suggested cities.
- More people will come if it is easy to travel to the city (primarily from Europe and USA/Canada). This can be used to rate the cities.
- More people will come if it doesn't cost a lot in terms of travelling, staying and Drupalcon tickets. This can be used to rate the cities.
- More people will enjoy Drupalcon more if there are fun things to do outside Drupalcon. This can be used to rate the cities.
- I also think we should consider local Drupal communities for two reasons:
- While Drupal Association will take care of the heavy lifting, a local Drupal community can help making the Drupalcon into something extra.
- It feels good to "award" an active local community with a Drupalcon (if they want it). However, a Drupalcon is not primarily a gift to a local community, but an opportunity for Drupalistas around the world to meet.
If you have more criteria that could be used for selecting the 2010 city, please add them.
On voting
Most likely the criteria (these or other) will not lead to one city clearly ahead of the others, so I guess some kind of vote will be necessary at some point. Personally I prefer consensus, but that won't be possible with all the wills involved. Most likely some people will disapprove or be disapointed with the decision, which might be good to be prepared for.
However, it would be unfortunate if a future voting leads to a rally of as many local people as possible to the group just for the sake of voting. Discussions should (I think) be the primary base for the choice.
//Johan Falk, NodeOne
Comments
local experience is crusial
One think that i see as crusial for picking up a city is the local community:
Drupalcon is gonna be a 1000+ users - so the local group needs to be able to tacke this. and it is not enough that you wanna do it, experience plays in here.
Even that DA does the heavy lifting (contract etc) theres loads of stuff that needs to click. from milk in the coffe to tshirts to programs food etc etc etc. - and not forget all the nerds who forgot a pen etc...
*Locals that knows the area well.
We need a good written guide to the local area - hotels, traffic information, so foreigners dont feel lost the first day(s)
The language barrier will always be there, so its importent that theres people with local knowledge of restaurents etc. (its not like in US where you just go on yelp.com and can find everything.
The social element in drupal (or as i put it our hot sauce is a cold beer)
Its crusial that the social activities are planned ahead. Do the city have a bar that can hold 2-300 drupallers? - can we even have our own bar? Is the area good to be in for people who dont know to get around etc.
/morten.dk king of rock
morten.dk | geek Royale
Already done?
I understood that the board of the Drupal Association already picked a city for 2010. At least, that was clear in the introduction text of the old group.
Damien Tournoud
Not for Europe
The European 2010 city has not been chosen at all. So far only the North American cities for 2010 (San Francisco) and 2011 (Chicago) have been decided.
Learn Drupal online at Drupalize.me
thanks for the input
we are working on "balance score card" alike criteria /aternatives spreadsheet that will incorporate these criteria. any more criteria?
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bert boerland
Wouldn't this approach
Wouldn't this approach theoretically lead to the same city getting chosen every time?
yes
theoretical if it would be the best option, yes. but there are more criteria. a criterium might be "do we stimultate the local community?", "how often / near has a dc been organized in the area?" etc. so in practise no.
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bert boerland
German community strengh
I was very impress by the DrupalCamp in Kohn (Cologne).
Everything was very well organize by the community.
I want also to stress that it seems to be very grass-root and at the same time professional.
Even giving up the German proposal for 2009 was a very mature move.
From what I understood the germans wanted to be more organize at a local level to be able join force for a great DrupalCon.
I wish the French community had the similar as now we need to get organize after the DrupalCon when the energy is getting lower :)
Jean-Baptiste
There should be one ultimate test
Ask yourself if you think city x is a good city to have a DrupalCon. Is it a city where that you would want to visit? Is it a city that you think anyone else would want to visit. If you can answer yes to all three of those, then x is the city you should push for.
In fact, there are dozens, if not more, European cities that could work, and it is not a trivial choice. It is however, a choice that needs to be made soon.
- one on Is it a city that you think anyone else would want to v
Is it a city that you think anyone else would want to visit. is not a very valid criterium IMO. I would like to visit any place and I hope this holds true for all people. But wanting to visit a place says nothing about the possibilities for (non)locals to organize a con in that place.
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bert boerland