[TYPES] online conferences should be free

[Alejandro Díaz-Caro]

I may add that it makes totally sense to me that a service such as Clowdr
(and other similar platforms) charge for their usage. The price do not only
covers the usage, but also there is somebody to assist you (giving
tutorials, answering questions, etc). In any case the prices are quite fair
and, as I mentioned before, there are still options to make the conference
either free, or mostly free. The alternative would be to use some ad-hoc
solution, which probably will not be perfectly adapted for a conference.
And since conferences will be virtual yet for some time (at least), we
should use the best available tools.

So, my point of view is that conferences should be free, as much as
possible, and should not renounce to use the best available tools.

-- Alejandro


El dom., 6 jun. 2021 20:33, Benjamin Pierce <bcpierce at cis.upenn.edu>
escribió:

> On Sun, Jun 6, 2021 at 1:15 AM Stefan Monnier <monnier at iro.umontreal.ca>
> wrote:
>
>> [ The Types Forum,
>> http://lists.seas.upenn.edu/mailman/listinfo/types-list ]
>>
>> I think it would make sense for the ACM to host some of those services
>> (and participate in their development).  IIUC this is partly what
>> happen(s|ed) with clowdr.
>>
>
> I can say a few words about what happened with Clowdr... :-)
>
> For those that don't know, Clowdr <http://Clowdr.org> is an open-source
> virtual conference platform that's been under development for the past year.
>
> The first version of Clowdr in summer 2020 was supported by a small NSF
> grant. Since the autumn, further development has been led by Clowdr CIC, a
> UK Community Interest Company that was set up to maintain, develop, and
> help conferences use Clowdr. The company has grown organically, funded by
> service contracts with individual conferences under which Clowdr hosts the
> platform and, in some cases, assists with conference organization and
> logistics. Several of these have been ACM conferences, but the company has
> never received funding or sponsorship directly from ACM.
>
> Best,
>
>     - Benjamin
>
> P.S. For full disclosure, I am one of the original Clowdr developers and
> one of the founding directors of Clowdr CIC. To avoid conflicts of
> interest, I resigned all my official positions within ACM and SIGPLAN when
> the company was formed.
>
>
>
>