Uma said
> Perhaps we must also question here the interests of academic institutions, design organizations and others who plan expensive conferences, as well as the publishers in the more dominant nations where knowledge control also gives them an edge in a knowledge/creative economy.
Thanks Uma,

Most people just do what they can.  The academic publishers do it for 
money, I think their model is bad because it excludes those who cannot 
pay for content, but I don't think they can re-engineer their businesses 
without putting many of their staff out of work and I guess if they have 
an ethical responsibility it starts with their workers.

BioMed Central started with a clean slate so they could come up with a 
more modern model and they recognise that taking an ethical stand over 
open access and poor countries is likely to get support from editors and 
authors in the rich countries. So far that works but they have to earn a 
living and they will do what is necessary to stay in business - once you 
have a job and your family depend on you you will do what you can to 
keep that job.

Most conferences are subsidised by the university that hosts them but 
there are limits to what can be achieved and the main costs for many 
people are travel and accommodation. The DRS conference this year will 
probably cover its main costs or make a small profit for my university 
but only because the time of the the two main organisers, our designer 
and the team who will edit and produce all the proceedings and 
conference information are not being charged to the conference budget. 
We can only do this because we have been successful in getting income 
for other work and have a little surplus to support the conference. 
Universities in Britain and many countries have no easy pot of money to 
draw on, we are obliged to run as a business whether we like it or not.

Uma is writing from India so I'll say that an Indian university can do 
something about this and other sectors of India's economy have thrived 
by addressing similar problems. If an Indian university were to host a 
large design conference the cost to delegates from India and elsewhere 
would probably be a lot lower than for a European conference. So 
although I accept Uma's point that we all must make a greater effort to 
make the infrastructure more equal I still say "what are you, your 
institution and your country doing?" At the moment our choice seems to 
be between an expensive conference or no conference at all.

best wishes from Sheffield,
where we have one of the richest districts in Britan, and several of the 
poorest.

Chris

*********************
Professor Chris Rust
Head of Art and Design Research Centre
Sheffield Hallam University, S11 8UZ, UK
+44 114 225 2706
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www.chrisrust.net

Every time I see an adult on a bicycle, I no longer despair for the 
future of the human race. - H. G. Wells