easy CoC solution: permanently end in-person conference

[Thomas Lord]

     Good programmers inevitably learn, somewhere along the way, the
     following lesson:
     When you encounter a very hard problem to solve, don't spend all
     your time just on the problem.  Also question whether it really
     needs to be solved - or if a better approach avoids the problem in
     the first place.
     Libre Planet is built on the following intolerable premise: People
     should fly from around the world to Boston, once a year, to connect
     free software activists and enthusiasts in a social setting
     conducive to sharing presentations, meeting, and having informal
     discussions.
     Only one part of that premise is no longer tolerable, at all, in
     2021: the travel it requires.  Air travel is, with perhaps very rare
     exceptions, wildly, intolerably socially irresponsible.  The rate at
     which fossil fuel emissions must now fall is so rapid, it not
     compatible with widespread air travel, and it is not compatible with
     current levels of energy demand.
     This same problem, in addition to the pandemic's discouragement of
     large "meatspace" conferences, effects not only Libre Planet, but
     everyone on the planet.  Few are no fly-in conferences are anything
     but extremely irresponsible in 2021.  It's just a fact.

   Image

     It will be hard to replace the Libre Planet conference but perhaps
     not *too* hard 64Good programmers inevitably learn, somewhere along
     the way, the following lesson:
     When you encounter a very hard problem to solve, don't spend all
     your time just on the problem.  Also question whether it really
     needs to be solved - or if a better approach avoids the problem in
     the first place.
     Libre Planet is built on the following intolerable premise: People
     should fly from around the world to Boston, once a year, to connect
     free software activists and enthusiasts in a social setting
     conducive to sharing presentations, meeting, and having informal
     discussions.
     Only one part of that premise is no longer tolerable, at all, in
     2021: the travel it requires.  Air travel is, with perhaps very rare
     exceptions, wildly, intolerably socially irresponsible.  The rate at
     which fossil fuel emissions must now fall is so rapid, it not
     compatible with widespread air travel, and it is not compatible with
     current levels of energy demand.
     This same problem, in addition to the pandemic's discouragement of
     large "meatspace" conferences, effects not only Libre Planet, but
     everyone on the planet.  Few are no fly-in conferences are anything
     but extremely irresponsible in 2021.  It's just a fact.
     It will be hard to replace the Libre Planet conference but perhaps
     not *too* hard.  We have software like jitsi.  We have telephony
   systems.
     So forth.
     Perhaps Libre Planet should evolve into an annual "big event" online
     but also an ongoing series of smaller online events.   I don't know.
     People with a clearer picture of the needs should discuss that.
     For now, it is enough to say that a conference premised on air-travel
     is in and of itself an astonishing anti-social proposition in 2021,
   and
     from now on.
     Of course online conferences also need behavioral guidelines, but
     there is no point squabbling over those until we begin to have some
     permanent online conference infrastructure in place.  And until that
     infrastructure is in place, Libre Planet should do the right thing
   and
     take no further steps that would  encourage air travel.

   -t