In reply to Jaiden Everett.

Hi Jaiden, the sessions will be available for free on WordPress.tv over the next few weeks -- the keynote is already there -- but charging to watch it live helps offset the costs associated with the stream and the conference itself, which are substantial.

There were also free viewing parties around the world hosted by local WordPress meetups.

Regardless of those free options, the ticket prices for WCSF (and WordCamps in general) are intentionally kept at a fraction of normal tech industry conferences, with the specific goal of making them open to as many people as possible.

For more insight into the costs associated with putting on WCSF and the philosophy behind ticket prices, check out these pages:

* http://2013.sf.wordcamp.org/2013/04/07/the-wordcamp-san-francisco-budget-or-how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-the-spreadsheet/
* http://plan.wordcamp.org/planning-details/selling-tickets/