Thoughts on WAWG F2F + I Annotate next spring

All,

I’d like to bring up a subject that was raised at the F2F in Santa Clara, but which others on this list or others at the meeting not in the room, may not have heard.  Doug suggested an email would be helpful.

Hypothes.is will shortly seek funding from the Sloan foundation (which they’ve signaled a willingness to provide) for an I Annotate meeting in 2015.  The dates we’ve selected are April 23-24 (+ a hack event on the weekend).  

We’ve thrown two of these previously:
http://iannotate.org/2014/
http://iannotate.org/2013/

Last year for the 2014 event, we also hosted an adjoining day for the OA community group to deliberate on a charter for the WG.  Many of those here were in attendance.
http://www.w3.org/2014/04/annotation/

For 2015, we are offering to do the same, in other words, to make the venue available the day prior to the event, Wed April 22, to the Web Annotation Working Group for a F2F meeting, if there is interest.

The funding from Sloan would cover the cost of the venue, food, and also travel for a significant number of participants (usually all, or a significant percentage, of the amount for anyone who requests / needs it).  Because we’re already throwing the event of course, the additional cost is a minimal part of the overall budget.  Also, Sloan strongly supports the W3 standards activity and understands its significance and relevance to the success of annotation generally, which they are already funding in other ways.

I recognize, and it was discussed, that this means there would be two F2F events in a row that would be in the Bay Area, which is of course suboptimal.  An option is to consider where the fall F2F might be and make sure there is good geographic diversity then.

We’re fine whichever way this goes.  However, as our proposal will come together shortly, I need to understand whether we should incorporate this extra day into our planning and budget.

Happy to field questions or reactions here, and suggest we include this as an agenda item for next Wednesday’s call to get a resolution, either up or down.

Dan