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   mhoye (mhoye@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 23-Mar-2025 09:53:55 JST mhoye

   During COVID we learned that we could run conferences remotely, making a lot of conferences accessible to people in less affluent countries and much of the global south. And when the risks of COVID waned and vaccines made travel tolerably viable again, we learned how many people - often people who claim to champion diversity and inclusivity - saw conference travel as a job perk they didn't want to give up, even if it cost less affluent countries and the global south that access.

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     mhoye (mhoye@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 23-Mar-2025 09:53:54 JST mhoye

     in reply to

     Now - unsurprisingly - the situation has escalated, as it does whenever mobility is a function of privilege. In-person conferences in the US means not only no less-affluent countries and no global south, it means nobody who wants to risk spending a month in a cage because they objected to an ideology or a genocide on the internet or have an X on their passport or filled out a form wrong five years ago or or or.

     We know what to do and how to do it, because we've done it before.

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     mhoye (mhoye@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 23-Mar-2025 09:53:54 JST mhoye

     in reply to

     I understand that in person has a lot going for it. I understand that the hallway track was great. I get it. But hear me out. My counteroffer is this:

     Fuck your hallway track.

     "But my unscheduled meeting with no goal, no plan and random strangers, that's important", how about no. If I put that on your calendar you'd decline it and try to get me fired. Let's be real about what that was: it was socializing. That's what you miss, and "meeting people on the internet"? We know how to do that.

     Luke T. Shumaker repeated this.
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     Anil Dash (anildash@me.dm)'s status on Sunday, 23-Mar-2025 09:53:54 JST Anil Dash

     in reply to

     @mhoye I get the broad social and political point you’re making, but I’m going to disagree with some of the specifics. I have people who have told me that the unscheduled space around structured parts of events was the only place that they, as marginalized people in the industry, could find access to talk to people who could open doors for them. Digital spaces require making things explicit & documented in a way that can exacerbate vulnerability. That’s a real thing.

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     Anil Dash (anildash@me.dm)'s status on Sunday, 23-Mar-2025 09:56:11 JST Anil Dash

     in reply to

     @mhoye I still do “coffees” (I don’t drink coffee) with early-career folks for this exact reason, when I could certainly do a zoom instead many times. There are often things they do not or cannot have on a wiki or in a Google Meet/Zoom, or where they rely on an intermediary to facilitate the intro in person — those are real aspects of community. We need to find ways to accommodate that reality.

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     Anil Dash (anildash@me.dm)'s status on Thursday, 27-Mar-2025 08:18:36 JST Anil Dash

     in reply to

     • Anna e só

     @anna @mhoye yeah, this is well put. I’ve had people tell me this in a very personal way, and that’s the thing I can’t let go of

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     Anna e só (anna@friend.camp)'s status on Thursday, 27-Mar-2025 08:18:37 JST Anna e só

     in reply to

     • Anil Dash

     @anildash @mhoye I think it’s very important to question existing structures and how centralized they are in the Global North—I do that all the time—, but (this is raw, so forgive me if I haven’t found the right words): conferences are one of the few structured ways I’ve found to have travel costs to another country reimbursed or covered by another party. And as someone contemplating immigration as I observe what’s going on in the U.S. and what may happen here in Brazil, that prior travel helps.

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     Anna e só (anna@friend.camp)'s status on Thursday, 27-Mar-2025 08:18:38 JST Anna e só

     in reply to

     • Anil Dash

     @anildash @mhoye As a marginalized person from the Global South, in-person conferences are also one of the few venues where people realize I’m real. Throughout the years, I’ve noticed how easy it is to dismiss me and my experiences, or ignore me, in virtual settings. I’ll also point out that I run into connectivity issues very frequently in my country, and I’ve lost track of how many times that messed things up.