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Dear virtual #Sunbelt2020 and #icwsm 2020 participants. Dear people who could not afford to participate in these or other online conferences. I think it is important to be transparent at this point about the actual costs of #online conferences. 1/6
Close to 100% of all participation fees are used to cover sunken costs from canceled in-person meetings and to cover back-offices and other overhead of scientific associations. 2/6
Researchers have invested hundreds of hours to create systems for hosting and navigating these online events. 0% of participation fees goes to them or their institutions, which is fine because we see this as part of our job and we love doing it! 3/6
For #Sunbelt2020, I even talked with @zoom_us – using 1x Webinar1000 and 7x Webinar500 accounts for hosting the event was covered by my university’s Zoom contract! So, no additional costs for the actual hosting part of the event. 4/6
Online (and future hybrid) conferences are tremendous opportunities to open science & broaden scientific exchange. This can be such an opportunity to democratize research & level the academic playing field. It is so painful seeing these opportunities pass because of fees. 5/6
We understand, these scientific associations need to cover sunken costs in the short term. However, they need to figure things out quickly or we’ll organize future online conferences without them. And these will be free of charge, and I am happy to help to organize them. 6/6
PS: Yes, yes, we all know that nothing can replace an in-person conversation. But the academic elite does not need to be worried - there will be plenty of in-person events in the future. But these events must turn to hybrid models for inclusion and sustainability reasons. 7/6
