I have heard back from the director of the Oxford Internet Institute today
and he seemed very positive about the idea, particularly if they could host
a parallel more academic conference. (There's got to be an economy of scale
since many speaker's would be appropriate for both.)
The OII have fairly limited facilities so may not be of that great a
financial benefit to us on their own. The importance of their interest
though is in the still close ties they maintain with Balliol college
(Jimmy's talk for example was introduced by the master of Balliol at his
recent talk) who may be able to properly help us out on accommodation and in
the help their endorsement would provide in securing central university
facilities. The master of Balliol expressed initial interest and said he
would get back to me in the new year.
What do people think to this possibility? We've had several failed London
bids in a row, if this came together would people be behind an Oxford one?
Tom