Re: [Debconf-team] Cost reduction / shortening (was Re: not a registration fee, but...)

[Allison Randal]

I asked the Perl user group leader in Zurich about hacker spaces (for
possible alternatives for DebCamp) and he suggested:

--
 comes to mind which is frequented regularly by the
Linux User Group Switzerland (LUGS).

There are some photos of a meeting: 
---

Not ideal to have DebCamp and DebConf in different locations, but many
people will initially fly into Zurich anyway. (I can't actually read the
solino site, aside from Google's attempts to translate it, so it might
be unsuitable for other reasons.)

Allison
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[Debconf-team] Website restyle

[Allison Randal]

I've checked in a restyle on the dc13 website. Just theme changes so
far, no content changes. I went for a red & white theme, inspired by the
logo. All contributions or changes gladly welcomed. :)

I'll do some Information Architecture work next, organizing menus and
such. Then run through pages and make sure they're updated for 2013.

One notable thing is that the site currently offers translations in
Spanish when I'm guessing it should offer German, French, Italian, and
Romansh. There's some templating work there, but also input needed from
locals. (I can run pages through Google translate for a first
approximation, but they'll need to be fixed up by a native speaker.)

Also, many of the sponsor logos have a bluish background applied from
last year. We'll need updated versions of the logos for the returning
sponsors. (I managed to fetch transparent-background logos from past
years for the "Permanent sponsors".)

Allison
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Re: [Debconf-team] Website restyle

[Allison Randal]

On 10/28/2012 12:16 AM, Gaudenz Steinlin wrote:
> 
> For now I think it's OK to just have an englisch page. As soon as we are
> sure if the venue will be either in the german or french speaking part
> we probably want to translate to this language. The other three
> languages are nice to have but IMO not essential. It may be very hard to
> find someone to translate it to Romansh, sadly. I don't know any Free
> Software people knowing that language.

Okay, that's easy enough. I've commented out the link for the Spanish
translation, and will change it to whatever translation language is
chosen. (I'm leaving all the translation templating in place.)


> As we don't have any sponsors yet, I don't think we should put any
> sponsors logos onto the site. So just removeing the one from last your
> from the design is fine.

I left the Permanent sponsors and SPI in the footer, but removed the
others for now. Will add them back in as sponsors sign up.

Thanks!
Allison
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Re: [Debconf-team] Website restyle

[Allison Randal]

On 10/29/2012 09:30 AM, Raphaël Walther wrote:
> 
> I think we should remove the permanent sponsors until they commit. 

Okay, removed those as well.

> Also
> I'd like to help on the website because I think that most of potential
> sponsors will have at least a look on it.

Please, dive in, there's quite a lot of work still needed, so the more
hands the better.

Allison
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Re: [Debconf-team] Website restyle

[Allison Randal]

On 11/01/2012 09:25 PM, Michael Banck wrote:
> 
> I (and somebody I talked to about Debconf13 today) noticed that the
> schedule link is 404.  Of course we don't have a schedule or CfP yet,
> but I think it would look better if there are no dead links but a
> "coming soon" page instead.
> 
> Just posting this here, I guess this was already an issue before the
> restyle.

I've removed the links for the talk schedule for now, I'll add them back
when we have something to see there.

Thanks for the contribution!

Allison
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Re: [Debconf-team] [DC14] Portland team: DebConf in the USA

[Allison Randal]

On 03/15/2013 06:26 PM, Gunnar Wolf wrote:
> 
> Proposed venue
> ==
> 
> I feel the proposed work rooms you mention for the venue somewhat
> small. Quoting from the Wiki:
> 
> One main plenary room with capacity for 200. This room has
> removable partitions that convert it into two talk rooms during
> sessions, one @ 98 places, one @ 70 places.
> One additional talk room @ 48 places.
> Two hacklabs, one @ 90 places and one @ 54 places, for a combined
> capacity of 144. 
> 
> If attendance is higher than expected, we will have the option of
> reserving more or larger rooms closer to the date of the event
> (subject to availability). 
> 
> But, if we are looking at a >300 people attendance, there will be many
> saturation moments. Do you have an idea of those additional spaces'
> fees and capacities?

The room pricing is posted on their website:

http://www.pdx.edu/conferences/sites/www.pdx.edu.conferences/files/SMSU%20Room%20Rental%20Rates%20and%20Capacities_5.pdf

The options for larger rooms are:

- Hoffman Hall, auditorium seating for 350, at $150/hr or $900/day

- Ballroom, auditorium seating for 650, at $250/hr or $1,500/day

Allison
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Re: [Debconf-team] [DC14] Portland team: DebConf in the USA

[Allison Randal]

On 03/16/2013 10:27 AM, Daniel Pocock wrote:
> 
> The bid itself doesn't specify anything about the above, it just gives a
> link to DC10, which leaves me feeling that the bid team has
> underestimated the seriousness of these issues.
> https://www.debconf.org/wiki/DebConf10/VisaAndBorderIssues

The DebConf10 wiki page covered it thoroughly (including commentary from
different perspectives), so linking to that page seemed more sensible
than repeating all the info in the DebConf14 proposal.

I ran a 3000 attendee free software conference in the US from 2005-2010,
and have helped organize other smaller US-based free software
conferences for over a decade, and visas have never been a statistically
significant factor. There are a few odd cases, it's true, but they're rare.

It helps to have a letter of invitation from the conference, and I'm
happy to put in the extra hours to draft those for anyone who wants them.

Allison
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[Debconf-team] [DC14] Portland team: historical cost comparison

[Allison Randal]

I've run a more detailed cost comparison for the Portland bid,
projecting for 200 attendees and 350 attendees separately, so it's
easier to see the base costs, and also incorporating some changes from
the discussion feedback. See the attached ODS file. (The cost per
attendee seems radically lower than previous years, but these are base
costs, and don't include incidentals like printing signs/badges and
t-shirts, video equipment shipping, or optional costs like travel
sponsorships.)

The "Comparison" tab is using the 4-day figures from the "Rooms" and
"Food" tabs. This is based on a projection of sessions Mon-Tue and
Thu-Fri, with the Day Trip on Wednesday. But, in previous years DebConf
has run sessions Mon-Tue and Thu-Sat, that is, 5 total days of sessions.
So, the 5-day projections are included on the "Rooms" and "Food" tabs.

The actual food reservations will be made much closer to the event,
based on counts of registered attendees, so these are just broad estimates.

In general, if confidence is high that DebConf14 will have attendance of
at least 250-300, then we recommend including the larger Ballroom in the
initial venue reservation. These projections are using a full-day price
for the large Ballroom, rather than specific hours for opening/closing
plenaries, so the actual venue rental total is likely to be a bit
cheaper. (The Ballroom is preferable to Hoffman Hall, because it's in
the same building as the smaller session rooms and hacklabs.)


We're figuring the decision about whether to run DebCamp will be made
later, after sponsorships start to come in. We've talked a bit about
alternatives that could provide hacking time at a lower cost than the
traditional two-week schedule (all with DayTrip on Wed):

* Two full days of DebCamp on Sunday before and Saturday after DebConf

* Combine DebCamp/DebConf to run simultaneously Saturday-Saturday

* DebCamp on the two Saturdays, and DebCamp/DebConf combo on Sun-Fri


At the moment, we're guessing that DebConf14 won't have a Debian Day,
but again, figure the wider DebConf team will make that decision
partially based on sponsorships.

HTH,
Allison


debconf14_cost_comparison.ods
Description: application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.spreadsheet
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Re: [Debconf-team] [Debian-portland-soc] [DC14] Portland team: DebConf in the USA

[Allison Randal]

On 03/18/2013 01:37 PM, Steve Langasek wrote:
> 
> If the Committee wants us to refine the venue cost estimates for a different
> configuration before making a decision, I'm happy to do that.  FWIW, if we
> had to rent the Ballroom for the whole week that would double our venue
> costs - but to rent it for, say, 3 hours at the beginning of the week and 3
> hours at the end would only increase the total venue expense by about 10%,
> and less than that if we used Hoffmann Hall instead of the Ballroom.

Let me know if it'd be helpful for the venue discussion to rerun the
projections with Hoffman Hall or Ballroom reserved only for
opening/closing plenaries.

Allison
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Re: [Debconf-team] [DC14] Portland team: historical cost comparison

[Allison Randal]

On 03/18/2013 03:12 PM, Steve Langasek wrote:
> 
> FWIW, looking this over I realize there was a mistake in the bid page: the
> $66/night listed for The Broadway was per-room, not per-person.  I've fixed
> this now in the wiki page.

Ah, okay, updated in the spreadsheet too.

> I'm not sure how the totals are arrived on the Comparison page; the numbers
> look low to me even without including the venue and other non-per-person
> costs.  Can you elaborate on the math here?

Venue rental for 4 days plus food for 4 days, divided by total attendees.

> For 200 people @ $20/day for food, $16,000 comes out to 4 days.  But that
> covers only the days talks are running, and we probably need to figure one
> additional day of food to cover the arrival/departure days, as well as
> breakfast on the day trip day and some costs (TBD) for food on the day trip.

Yes, that's the 4-day estimate from the "Food" tab. I'll change to a
7-day estimate instead, just to be on the safe side. Though, with so
many good cheap food options nearby, will people want to be eating at
the cafeteria for breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day? I guess they
might if it's free.

I'll add a separate tab for the Day Trip when we have estimates for that.

> The room total I can't reverse-engineer at all.  $9840/$28 -> 351.43
> person-nights.  While not everyone who attends DebConf has sponsored
> accomodation costs, 351.43 person-nights @ 6 nights -> 58.57 people.  So I'm
> not sure what's going on there.  :-)

Those are venue room totals from the "Rooms" tab, not lodging room
totals. I've changed the spreadsheet to consistently use "venue" for
session/plenary rooms to be clearer. :)

> And for consistency with https://wiki.debconf.org/wiki/PriceComparison, the
> "total spent" should at least include the known venue costs.

Yes. Do we need to include lodging rooms in the total base price? That
is, are we paying any fixed up-front amount for lodging, or is lodging
paid by attendees as they register (or once we decide if it's possible
to sponsor travel/lodging)?


I had already tweaked the projections to reflect venue reservation of
the large Ballroom for opening/closing plenaries only, so that change is
also in the attached updated spreadsheet. (The full-day price for the
Ballroom is still in the "Venue" tab for comparison.)

Allison


debconf14_cost_comparison.ods
Description: application/vnd.oasis.opendocument.spreadsheet
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Re: [Debconf-team] [Debian-portland-soc] [DC14] Portland team: historical cost comparison

[Allison Randal]

On 03/18/2013 05:49 PM, Steve Langasek wrote:
> On Mon, Mar 18, 2013 at 03:45:07PM -0700, Allison Randal wrote:
> 
> Probably not - we can mine the data from past conferences to get a better
> model for what percentage of attendees will be eating the cafeteria food at
> any given time.  (We'll want this anyway for purposes of giving estimated
> headcounts to the cafeteria staff.)

Good idea.

>> Do we need to include lodging rooms in the total base price? That
>> is, are we paying any fixed up-front amount for lodging, or is lodging
>> paid by attendees as they register (or once we decide if it's possible
>> to sponsor travel/lodging)?
> 
> I don't know that there's any fixed up-front price, but sponsored attendance
> at DebConf includes both food and accomodation.  So for the big picture of
> "how much money does DebConf spend", this is very relevant.

I'll start a tab for projecting sponsored attendance. At the moment, I'm
assuming we'd start at 0 sponsored attendees, and expand as incoming
sponsorship increased beyond costs. Do people have a sense of an "ideal"
number of sponsored attendees? As in "If funding is available, ideally
we'd like to sponsor X number or Y percentage of attendees."

And, I'll start with:

- Accommodation: $28/person/day
- Food: $20/person/day
- Flight: $1000/person

Aiming for an approximate average on flight price, figuring US/Canada
flights could be as low as $300, while international flights could be
$2000 or higher. (Numbers from past years will be helpful in these
projections too.)

Allison
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Re: [Debconf-team] [Debian-portland-soc] [DC14] Portland team: historical cost comparison

[Allison Randal]

On 03/19/2013 09:13 AM, Gunnar Wolf wrote:
> 
> Right. and for this, I would look at similar cities - e.g. I expect
> the Portland food offer (and university cafeteria quality) to be much
> closer to New York or Edinburgh more than to most of our other past
> venues.

Portland is generally cheaper for the same quality food than New York:

http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/compare_cities.jsp?country1=United+States&city1=New+York%2C+NY&country2=United+States&city2=Portland%2C+OR

So, overall, we can anticipate the food bid for Portland will be about
1/3 lower than New York.

Allison
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Re: [Debconf-team] [Debian-portland-soc] [DC14] Portland team: historical cost comparison

[Allison Randal]

On 03/19/2013 09:29 AM, Gunnar Wolf wrote:
> Allison Randal dijo [Mon, Mar 18, 2013 at 06:24:11PM -0700]:
>>
>> Aiming for an approximate average on flight price, figuring US/Canada
>> flights could be as low as $300, while international flights could be
>> $2000 or higher. (Numbers from past years will be helpful in these
>> projections too.)
> 
> I expected flight prices to be quite lower. Still, for DebConf10 (I
> expect numbers to be closest to what we had at New York), 88 out of
> 306 attendees (marked as reconfirmed and arrived) were from within the
> USA (and the second most popular country was "not selected" ;-) ). I
> was surprised to see that, for July, ticket prices from Paris and
> Frankfurt are at ~US$1500, quite higher than what I expected.
> 
> This following query does *not* mean the requested travel sponsorship
> was fulfilled, but requested, and that the person attended, and was
> labeled as "the amount needed for you to travel" (need_travel_cost):
> 
>  acronym |  avg  
> -+---
>  dc7 |  574.9236
>  dc8 | 1070.1224489795918367
>  dc9 |  435.2346428571428571
>  dc10|  819.61275000
>  dc11|  612.6257142857142857
>  dc12|  981.0483870967741935

Ah, excellent! I'll go with $800 for approximate average flight
sponsorship cost, since New York is geographically closest. It's
possible that we'd get more local applications that lower the average,
or more international applications that raise the average, but it's a
good first approximation.

So, that comes to a sponsorship total of $1,136 per person for
accommodation, food, and travel. Or, approximately every $1,000 of
incoming sponsorship above costs would mean we could sponsor one
additional attendee.

Allison
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Re: [Debconf-team] [Debian-portland-soc] [DC14] Portland team: historical cost comparison

[Allison Randal]

On 03/19/2013 10:19 AM, Steve Langasek wrote:
> 
> Right - the price should be lower, but in terms of availability of outside
> food (and therefore the frequency with which people choose to eat outside
> the conference), New York and Edinburgh are probably good models for what
> we'll find.  Banja Luka may as well, since the conference was fairly central
> in the city with a number of restaurants around.

Ah, got it. So, in terms of projecting head-counts for the cafeteria,
numbers from those past DebConfs will provide the most accurate
approximation. If, say, 40% of attendees skipped the conference-provided
dinner in those cities, then we can build that same percentage into our
projections with a fair degree of confidence. Sounds good.

Allison
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Re: [Debconf-team] [DC14] Portland team: questions after reading the bid

[Allison Randal]

On 03/19/2013 03:12 PM, Ana Guerrero wrote:
> 
> * Airport / Transport
> 
> Portland International Airport doesn't have too many international connections
> so some attendees might land in the USA via Seattle Airport or even Vancouver 
> (Canada), and then continue by land (because personal preference or price 
> difference).
> What are the transport possibilities from these cities to Portland?

In my experience (with extensive international travel), the connecting
flight to Portland rarely adds much to the cost of the flight. So,
attendees should do a price comparison first, before choosing other
transportation from Seattle or Vancouver.

Seattle is 280km from Portland, it's 4 hours by train (fare $33-$50,
amtrak.com) or a 3 hour drive. I've taken this trip many times, by both
train or car. Most of the trains have free WiFi. The LINK light-rail
service connects the Seattle airport to the main Seattle train station.

Vancouver is 500km from Portland, it's 9 hours by train (fare $79-$92,
amtrak.com) or a 5 hour drive.

Once attendees reach Union Station (the main train station) in Portland,
it's a 10 minute ride (fare $2.50, trimet.org) on the MAX light-rail
"Green Line to City Center/PSU", getting off at the "PSU/SW 5th" stop.

> How difficult and expensive is to go from the airport to PSU?

PSU is directly on the MAX light-rail service, and so is the airport.
It's a 55 minute ride (fare $2.50, trimet.org), with one change from the
"Red Line" to the "Green Line".

> * Visas
> 
> I'm assuming we would send invitation letters to known people who want to 
> attend DebConf as we do every year.
> Can we count with the help of somebody specialized in visas and/or from the 
> Government to help us in some of the difficult cases?

I'd like to find out if the service used in New York is available again
(and what those costs were). If not, or if it's better to have someone
local in Portland, then we can arrange a local immigration specialist.
It's good to have the connection established just in case. And, I
definitely want the template for the invitation letters reviewed by an
immigration lawyer.

Allison
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Re: [Debconf-team] [DC14] Portland team: questions after reading the bid

[Allison Randal]

On 03/20/2013 10:02 AM, Allison Randal wrote:
> 
> In my experience (with extensive international travel), the connecting
> flight to Portland rarely adds much to the cost of the flight. So,
> attendees should do a price comparison first, before choosing other
> transportation from Seattle or Vancouver.

That is to say, don't book a flight to Seattle or Vancouver and then a
separate flight to Portland. Just book the flight straight to Portland
and let the airline figure out the optimal transfer point. From
Mexico/South America/Australia, it's likely to be via Los Angeles. From
Europe it's likely to be via New York/Chicago/Minneapolis. From
China/Japan it may be Seattle or Vancouver, but it's more likely to be
via Tokyo with a direct flight Tokyo->Portland.

Allison
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Re: [Debconf-team] [DC14] Portland team: questions after reading the bid

[Allison Randal]

On 03/20/2013 10:01 PM, Steve Langasek wrote:
> On Tue, Mar 19, 2013 at 11:12:30PM +0100, Ana Guerrero wrote:
> 
>> * Backup plan
> 
>> Imagine a bad scenario, where we don't decide until mid-April and the
>> University is not available any more.  What is your backup plan?  Or what
>> are the possibilities that you would look at?
> 
> We are early enough in the university's planning calendar that I do not
> expect a decision in April to cause a problem for the university's
> availability.  We have a tentative hold on the accomodation space until the
> end of April, which is the hardest piece of the puzzle - even if we have to
> go with a different on-campus venue than the memorial union, or have to
> change dates, we should still be able to have the conference at PSU even in
> the "fallback" case.
> 
> If the decision actually goes so late that we lose PSU as an option, things
> become much more expensive rather quickly.  Portland has played host to many
> Free Software conferences over the years and there are many hotels in the
> Portland area that are equipped to handle high-tech conferences (including
> the University Place and the Marriott Downtown Waterfront), but none of
> these are going to be a match for the university in terms of its favorable
> pricing and technical capacity.  If it comes to that, the team should give
> serious reconsideration to Venezuela as the venue instead, as such a delay
> is likely to wipe out any advantage Portland might have over Puerto La Cruz.
> 
> On a personal note, I think a late venue decision would result in so much
> added work/stress on the local team to attempt to secure an alternative
> venue (and a poorer alternative at that), that I would be disinclined to
> pursue these alternatives even if that was the DebConf committee's
> preference.  However, other members of the local team feel differently, so I
> have been dissuaded from representing this as the bid team's position.

I'm among those who aren't stressed about switching to another venue,
partly because I ran conferences in Portland for so many years that I'm
comfortable with any of the many wonderful venues in Portland. But also,
PSU is eager to have us, and I'm confident that they'd find some way to
accommodate us even if the decision came down as late as December, for
some bizarre reason. We might not get the exact rooms we want or the
exact weeks we want, but they'd find a way.

But, it's worth repeating Steve's point, which is that the Portland bid
team can control many factors, but entirely can't control the speed of
the location decision. It's not really our fault if the committee delays
the decision for 6 months or something, and we lose PSU as an option, so
the venue price doubles or triples. I mean, hey, it happens, we'd live
and still have a great conference. It'd just be a missed opportunity.

Allison
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[Debconf-team] getting started on the DebConf14 website

[Allison Randal]

Hi all,

One thing that came up in the sponsors-team meeting today is that it's 
incredibly valuable for sponsors to have at least a one-page website for 
the conference before we start actively reaching out to them. The target 
for this would be October 31st.


I did the initial site for DebConf13, and am happy to do the one for 
DebConf14, but I'm also happy to recruit any other or additional 
voluteers. :)


All we really need to kick it off are a "theme" to seed the logo and 
color pallette. The structural templates were almost identical from 2012 
to 2013, despite the radically different look, and can easily serve 
another year with another reskin.


A few things that come to mind, for a flavor of Portland or more 
generally Pacific Northwest:


- bridges
- city skyline
- Mt. Hood (though 2013 was mountains, so aim for distinction)
- evergreens
- bicycles

And leaning toward an "organic" pallette of greens, blues, browns, and a 
touch of the Debian pink.


Anyone have other thematic elements, colors, or thoughts on the website 
or logo? I can start playing with a few "style tiles" and pass them 
around for people to comment on.


Allison
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Re: [Debconf-team] Proposal for sponsorship levels (and registration fees) for DC14

[Allison Randal]

On 10/24/2013 01:49 PM, Steve Langasek wrote:


FWIW as a personal data point, I now have too many DebConf messenger bags
and not enough DebConf reusable grocery bags... so I'd be in favor of the
reusable grocery bag style again from DebConf 10. ;)


+1, and very appropriate for Portland.

Allison
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Re: [Debconf-team] getting started on the DebConf14 website

[Allison Randal]

On 10/23/2013 03:10 PM, Allison Randal wrote:

A few things that come to mind, for a flavor of Portland or more
generally Pacific Northwest:

- bridges
- city skyline
- Mt. Hood (though 2013 was mountains, so aim for distinction)
- evergreens
- bicycles

And leaning toward an "organic" pallette of greens, blues, browns, and a
touch of the Debian pink.

Anyone have other thematic elements, colors, or thoughts on the website
or logo? I can start playing with a few "style tiles" and pass them
around for people to comment on.



Here are a few variants. Just rough sketches, enough to get the general 
idea. When we hit on a favorite, I'll do it up properly.


http://www.lohutok.net/gallery/debconf14/squared_style_tile.png

http://www.lohutok.net/gallery/debconf14/sky_style_tile.png

http://www.lohutok.net/gallery/debconf14/abstract_style_tile.png

Thanks for any comments or thoughts,
Allison
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Re: [Debconf-team] getting started on the DebConf14 website

[Allison Randal]

On 10/28/2013 09:24 AM, Patty Langasek wrote:

On Mon, Oct 28, 2013 at 09:55:33AM -0600, Bdale Garbee wrote:

Allison Randal  writes:



Here are a few variants. Just rough sketches, enough to get the general
idea. When we hit on a favorite, I'll do it up properly.



I like the sky style one best, personally, but I like the swirl to the
left of the banner text on the squared tile one.  The abstract one
doesn't do anything for me.


+1 - I *love* the sky one; is it possible to incorporate the swirl logo into
that style with Mt Hood and the Douglas Firs? <3


Indeed, easy enough. I originally had the debian swirl rising like the 
sun over Mt. Hood, but it ended up looking kind of dorky, so I removed 
it. But, just setting the swirl off to the side like the others will 
work out well. I'll send a preview shortly.


Allison
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Re: [Debconf-team] getting started on the DebConf14 website

[Allison Randal]

On 10/28/2013 09:31 AM, Allison Randal wrote:

Indeed, easy enough. I originally had the debian swirl rising like the
sun over Mt. Hood, but it ended up looking kind of dorky, so I removed
it. But, just setting the swirl off to the side like the others will
work out well. I'll send a preview shortly.


Updated:

http://www.lohutok.net/gallery/debconf14/sky_swirl_style_tile.png

Allison
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Re: [Debconf-team] getting started on the DebConf14 website

[Allison Randal]

On 10/28/2013 10:37 AM, Patty Langasek wrote:



http://www.lohutok.net/gallery/debconf14/sky_swirl_style_tile.png


Looks good! Print it!


The full site launched Thursday night.

http://debconf14.debconf.org

I'd appreciate any eyes to check out the pages, verify dates and 
details, especially sponsorship levels (which I pulled from the 
brochure-in-progress), or look for bad links.


A couple of things I'd like to add:

 - I think the "debian rosebud" from the full logo would look great in 
the big dark-blue-box-banner on the main page. (Filling the same slot as 
the bird in the dc12 pages.) I could use a copy of the original Inkscape 
doc, so I can extract the rosebud from the logo cleanly.


 - I'd like to add a square "Become a Sponsor" banner into the sponsors 
sidebar, to fill the space, and encourage sponsors to join.


Allison
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Re: [Debconf-team] getting started on the DebConf14 website

[Allison Randal]

On 11/06/2013 09:44 AM, Patty Langasek wrote:

  - I think the "debian rosebud" from the full logo would look great
in the big dark-blue-box-banner on the main page. (Filling the same
slot as the bird in the dc12 pages.) I could use a copy of the
original Inkscape doc, so I can extract the rosebud from the logo
cleanly.


Got it, thanks!


Eventually, we'll be adding in more info about the conference proper
(information about Portland, transportation, fun activities as well as
registration information, which may be a 2 step process this year).  I
imagine most of this will be on the wiki,but don't forget to plan space for
that at the very least.


Definitely. I stripped out most of the tabs from the top of the page for 
the first iteration of the site, but we'll repopulate that as we have 
content available to share.


Allison
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Re: [Debconf-team] HP-Sponsored Social Gathering at Marriott City Center on Tuesday

[Allison Randal]

Hi Rocky,

What time does the event start?

Thanks,
Allison

On 08/22/2014 10:59 AM, Rocky Craig wrote:
> Greetings,
> 
> HP is sponsoring a cocktail hour with OPEN BAR Tuesday at
> "The DEN" at the Marriott City Center.   An HP director,
> Steve Geary, will announce how we've co-opted Debian for
> HP's OpenStack Helion.   He'll then accept his ALS Ice Bucket
> Challenge from HP CTO Martin Fink.
> 
> How can I get this advertised in the schedule, "diversions",
> general announcments.
> 
> Thanks,
> Rocky Craig
> hLinux Architect and DebConf attendee "guest-coloroco"
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Re: [Debconf-team] Reducing the bandwidth of -announce?

[Allison Randal]

I'm kind of curious why we have two lists? I know one has more free
permissions for posting, but it seems like a single list with open
posting would be sufficient.

On 08/26/2014 05:54 PM, Didier 'OdyX' Raboud wrote:
> People,
> 
> We've sent 8 (+1) mails to -announce today, I'm wondering if we could 
> maybe reserve our most important announces for that list to keep our 
> attendees focused on what really matters to them?
> 
> Please consider directing your "general informations" to -discuss.
> 
> (Yes, I've been playing that game too, the merchandise information 
> should've gone to -discuss instead).
> 
> Cheers,
> OdyX
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[Debconf-team] tear-down schedule - HARD STOP 6pm Sunday

[Allison Randal]

Hi everyone,

The last session on Sunday ends at 16:15, and the building closes at
18:00 (regular weekend hours). This means we need to have everything
cleared out of the building in that time. The session rooms will close
out today (338 at 14:14, and 327/8 and 329 after 20:00). That'll leave
remaining spaces to be cleared: the Ballroom, the Hack Labs, front desk,
and equipment, storage, and random clutter from the NOC (staff room).

Steve and Patty have agreed to keep lost items for a couple of weeks
after the conference, but please be kind to them and collect your
belongings. :)

BTW, there are still staff and video shirts available in various sizes,
so feel free to pick up some extras.

Allison
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[Debconf-team] survey of CRM options

[Allison Randal]

Last weekend I worked on a survey of available CRM tools under a FLOSS
license. My full notes are here:

https://titanpad.com/hHhmrGb7uY

My ultimate conclusion is that none of the options provide enough of an
advantage over sponsors-table (for sponsor contact workflow) and RT (for
sponsor invoicing workflow), to be worth trying to make a switch right
now, as we're spinning up for the next year.

Where a CRM would provide a substantial advantage right now, is in a
persistent, searchable record of sponsors from all previous years. So my
suggestion is to set up a CRM during the dc15 cycle, and beginning to
use it as an archive of past data. (I'm happy to import data from
sponsors-table for previous years.)

My top preference of the available options was ERPNext (though it would
have been koalixcrm, if that codebase was actively maintained). Tryton
has some interest (gobby-style client/server, rather than a web interface).

Allison

(That's email 3 of 3 I promised in the sponsors team meeting earlier
this week.)
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Re: [Debconf-team] [Debconf-sponsors-team] survey of CRM options

[Allison Randal]

On 09/20/2014 02:13 PM, Richard Hartmann wrote:
> Did you also look at sugarcrm?
> 
> It's what we use at work and it is reasonally unshite.

I did, yeah, but excluded it as having an overly-proprietary licensing
model. If we were choosing between SugarCRM and CiviCRM (the two main
PHP options), CiviCRM is the better choice for us.

Allison
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Re: [Debconf-team] Report from the talks team

[Allison Randal]

On 09/21/2014 10:15 AM, Steve McIntyre wrote:
> 
> I'll suggest something contrary here - I *don't* think we should even
> try. DebConf is *not* a typical academic conference where people are
> presenting state-of-the-art research to a very wide community who are
> otherwise disinterested. It's a meetup for Debian people to share what
> they've been doing and generate ideas together for future stuff. We
> already get slides and stuff for most of our talks. I'm trying to
> encourage other people to post write-ups of their sessions to -devel
> etc. later, which I think is much more valuable than a dead
> "proceedings" document which is outside the normal Debian workflow.

I have to agree. There was a time when "proceedings" were a common
feature of FLOSS conferences, but these conferences all rejected the
proceedings model around the same time DebConf did, in favor of
promoting a more participatory and conversational model.

We need to be very conscious of the outcomes we're trying to achieve
with DebConf. At its core, DebConf has a sustaining function for the
heart of the Debian community. It's a place where we gather, reconnect,
and get inspired for a new year of involvement. A set of talks that
dryly recite papers prepared months before the event is not a good fit
for DebConf, it's not what we need as a community.

Allison
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Re: [Debconf-team] General schedule proposal for dc15

[Allison Randal]

On 09/21/2014 09:00 AM, Margarita Manterola wrote:
> On Sun, Sep 21, 2014 at 1:35 PM, Michael Banck  wrote:
> 
>> Finally, there was the idea of having a 10:00-10:30 plenary slot every
>> morning for announcements and raffles,
> 
> This hasn't been agreed on.  I do agree on the raffle and the
> announcements and stuff, but not on devoting half an hour for that.  I
> strongly doubt we will have 30 minutes of announcements and raffling
> will definitely not take that long.  I'd do it 15 minutes before the
> first session, without reducing the time (i.e. 9:45)

The best time for this kind of segment is right after lunch. The change
of pace helps people recover from the post-lunch "food coma". And unlike
mornings (where people straggle in depending on how late they stayed
out), people tend to be draw in to lunch anyway, so you naturally have a
larger gathered audience.

Allison
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Re: [Debconf-team] General schedule proposal for dc15

[Allison Randal]

On 09/21/2014 12:47 PM, Steve Langasek wrote:
> On Sun, Sep 21, 2014 at 08:55:37PM +0200, martin f krafft wrote:
>> also sprach Allison Randal  [2014-09-21 20:06 +0200]:
>>> The best time for this kind of segment is right after lunch
>>> [...], so you naturally have a larger gathered audience.
> 
>> Interesting suggestion, which leaves only the aspect that these
>> sessions could also serve to provide an incentive for people to show
>> up and pay courtesy to the first speaker of the day.
> 
> There's also the aspect that morning is the optimal time to communicate
> new information that's come to light overnight.  You can't use an after
> lunch slot to communicate information to attendees that's relevant to the
> morning sessions.

 It's something that varies a lot with the culture of the
conference. For this particular conference, after sitting at the front
desk every day of DC14, and watching the traffic patterns of session
attendance, if I were setting a schedule, I would put hacking time in
the morning, and scheduled sessions in the afternoon. Totally not my
call though, and I won't mention it again. :)

Whatever the schedule, make sure you repeat any important information
from verbal announcements on the debconf-discuss or debconf-announce
mailing list.

Allison
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Re: [Debconf-team] General schedule proposal for dc15

[Allison Randal]

On 09/21/2014 05:51 PM, Steve Langasek wrote:
> Giving
> attendees another way to get their information - in addition to the mailing
> lists, which we ought to continue using in parallel - seems to me like all
> win.

+1

Allison
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Re: [Debconf-team] DebConf14 wrap-up blog post

[Allison Randal]

On 09/26/2014 02:45 PM, martin f krafft wrote:
> also sprach Paul Wise  [2014-09-16 13:16 +0200]:
>> The Debian publicity team prepared a wrap-up DPN entry about DebConf14.
>> We would like to publish it on the DebConf blog (Martin Krafft
>> volunteered to do so) but would like some input from DebConf14 folks
>> before doing so. Hopefully you are still subscribed to the list :)
>>
>> https://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/publicity/dpn/en/2014/13/index.wml?view=markup
> 
> I will publish this blog post on Sunday night.
> Come on guys, silence is not an answer! ;)

+1

And, really pleased to see so much public traffic during and after the
event.

Allison
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Re: [Debconf-team] Q for Cape Town bid: local team

[Allison Randal]

On 01/05/2015 09:26 AM, Martín Ferrari wrote:
> 
> So, my questions:
> * What would be the list of people we can really consider local (as
> opposed to regular orga folk that are really interested in this bid), and

The truly local people represent a good mix of Debian experience and
local conference organization experience:

- Bernelle Verster (extensive experience organizing conferences in Cape
Town (TEDx), partner is DM so she's a lot more familiar with Debian
culture than it might appear at first glance)
- Graham Inggs (DM, on IT staff at first choice facility)
- Jonathan Carter (Debian package maintainer)
- Nigel Kukard (DM)
- Raoul Snyman (DM)
- Neil Muller (Debian package maintainer)
- Simon Cross (organized PyConZA in Cape Town)
- Adrianna Pińska (part of Cape Town LUG organizing committee)
- Marc Welz
- Jan Groenewald

Remote:
- Stefano Rivera (DD)
- Allison Randal (DM)
- Nattie Mayer-Hutchings (NM process)
- Martin Krafft (DD)
- Hannes von Haugwitz (DD)

> * Who are the people driving this effort. (I would appreciate if
> Montreal also answers this last question).

Everyone listed above has been involved in the bid in one way or
another. The most active drivers are Bernelle, Graham, Jonathan,
Stefano, and Allison.

Bernelle, I have to say, has been an absolute rock star through the
whole process. I wouldn't be at all surprised to see her come in as a
non-uploading DD in a couple of years, like Nattie and Patty Langasek
before her. So, don't forget how many people have become key community
members in Debian by organizing a DebConf, even if they weren't
well-known before. :)

Allison
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[Debconf-team] generic timeline template for DCX (was Reminder: DC15 meeting today at 20:00 UTC)

[Allison Randal]

On 01/05/2015 01:55 PM, martin f krafft wrote:
> Since our TODO list only starts at X-8 months, I think we should
> charge the DC16 & DC17 teams to collaboratively create a complete
> timeline.

Here's a start, mostly just a generic version of the DC15 one to start,
but I'll add to it (and others are welcome too):

https://wiki.debconf.org/wiki/Timeline

I *really* wished for something like this last year.

> Btw, I find https://github.com/PyCon/2015/wiki/PyCon-2015-Checklist
> intriguing but also incredibly inspiring and it's already helped me
> with another conference I helped organise. It's detailed, but having
> a DebConf timeline include e.g. ideas about what kind of blog posts
> one could write or what sort of arrangements to make early could
> really benefit us in the future.

Very useful, I'll dig through and apply relevant bits to the DebConf
timeline.

Allison
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Re: [Debconf-team] Questions about the Cape Town bid

[Allison Randal]

On 01/17/2015 09:49 AM, Richard Hartmann wrote:
> Dear all,
> 
> do I understand correctly that save for the day trip and conference
> dinner, UCT Upper Campus is self-contained and would allow us to stay
> on-campus 24/7?

Yes, it's totally possible. Since the center of town is so close, with
hundreds of interesting restaurants and pubs, I suspect a number of
people will wander off-campus for dinner, and then end the evening with
final drinks at the on-campus pub. (This is our thinking in planning
conference-supplied shuttles on free evenings.)

> How far are Jammie Hall, Leslie 2a, and Snape LT1 by foot and other means?

Walking from the residences to the main building (Chemical Engineering)
you will pass both Leslie and Snape. Snape is adjacent to the main
building. Leslie is just below Snape, so about 2.5 minutes from the
residences and 2.5 minutes from the main building.

Jammie Hall is also about half-way between the residences and the main
building, along a slightly different route.

> I don't think it's good to have per-user logins managed by the
> university; can we get confirmation that setting up our own eduroam
> realm would be OK?
> Even better if we could establish our own SSID on their infrastructure.
> 
> Is it possible to get firewall exemptions? At least for our servers,
> better for just everyone.

Graham Inggs, who is on the dc16 Cape Town bid team, is the UCT
Engineering faculty sysadmin. It sounds like we have quite a bit of
flexibility to do just about anything we need to the network during our
period of use, including rewiring the ports in some rooms onto a
separate network. We have talked about the possibility of dropping in
our own dedicated 5.2GHz wifi network (all the access points in the
building have secondary slots for 5.2GHz cards which are currently
empty). Graham is still investigating what's possible.

> Are the same assumptions/answers correct for UCT Breakwater?

We would likely have less flexibility to modify the network at UCT
Breakwater or TechnoPark, about equivalent what we'd get at any hotel.

> How does external catering compare to in-house catering, price-wise?
> It seems as if external is quite a bit more expensive. Is this due to
> missing infrastructure or just negotiations? To put it another way,
> what is a realistic guess of food cost for UCT Upper Campus?

External catering will ultimately be about equal or cheaper than the
in-house catering options. It's faster to pin down a set price with
in-house catering, but we have less flexibility to shop around for
cheaper options and more variety. We're still collecting bids, but the
lowest so far comes in at about 15 Euros per day, per person.

> If you could choose the DebConf date freely, would UCT Upper Campus be
> available during other times as well?

The dates of availability for UCT main campus are strictly limited by
school holidays. TechnoPark or UCT Breakwater would be available at any
time we choose.

> In general, I think you have a preference order of
> 
> 1) UCT Upper Campus
> 2) TechnoPark
> 3) UCT Breakwater
> 
> is this correct?

I think that'd be Bernelle's order of preference. I'd probably put UCT
Breakwater above TechnoPark, because it's located right in the center of
one of Cape Town's busiest areas for restaurants, bars, and fun family
activities. But, they are otherwise pretty much equivalently good.

> How likely are you to work on developing 2) and 3)? Are they backups
> in case UCT Upper Campus does not work out or are they possibilities
> in their own right?

The two alternates are both possibilities in their own right. The main
reasons UCT main campus is top of the list is because of connections
with staff at the university, which give us free use of the venue, and
more flexibility with network setup in the venue building.

Thanks,
Allison
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Re: [Debconf-team] Draft of the "Call for Proposals"

[Allison Randal]

On 03/04/2015 01:43 PM, Michael Banck wrote:

On Tue, Mar 03, 2015 at 03:21:02PM +0100, martin f krafft wrote:

Second, do you see any way to move the deadline earlier, e.g. end of
April?

Not only would this help with press releases and attract attention.
It also helps people to know a vague schedule before registering.
Not all of us can just go to DebConf for its entire duration without
knowing what will be on offer when.


Last year we accepted quite a few talks early, and I think we should do
this again.  So I think we should also mention this in the CfP, like "we
plain to accept a first round talks by April 15th" or whatever date we
come up with. Depending on how many submissions we get, we could even do
a second round, filling up 50-70% of the slots.


Accepting a first round of talks is a good approach. Early notification 
is helpful to speakers who need to get permission to attend, and an 
early round of accepted talks published to the schedule is helpful for 
attendees who are trying to convince their managers it's worth the time 
off, and helpful for fundraising convincing companies it's worth sponsoring.


Really, it would probably be better to move the whole proposal 
submission deadline earlier, but if that's too much for this year, we 
can think about it next year.


Allison
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Re: [Debconf-team] CoC, "Be aware." section

[Allison Randal]

On 04/01/2015 09:21 AM, Enrico Zini wrote:
> 
> Is the source of the page somewhere accessible? I can create a quick
> collab-maint git repo to work on it.

It's in the git repo for the main website:

git.debian.org/git/debconf-data/www

or

http://anonscm.debian.org/cgit/debconf-data/www.git/tree/website/codeofconduct.shtml

Allison
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Re: [Debconf-team] Buttons for DC16 at DebConf15: what to do?

[Allison Randal]

On 08/15/2015 03:47 AM, martin f krafft wrote:
> also sprach Bernelle Verster  [2015-08-14 17:29 +0200]:
>> I paid for these, so if we don't get budget for this eventually,
>> I'll be sponsoring them. They're beautiful, I don't mind. :)
> 
> I also think we should just pass them out, and we can surely
> reimburse you for this.

Scattering them around on public tables like easter eggs is brilliant!
Thanks to whoever had the idea. :)

Allison
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Re: [Debconf-team] Patch to DebConf orgateam structure

[Allison Randal]

On 08/27/2015 01:31 PM, Margarita Manterola wrote:
> 
> DC16 team, can you please elaborate on this?  I've been a fierce
> supporter of the existence of the local team, as it gives people that
> are local and are new to DebConf a space to which they can feel like
> they belong and in my experience it makes for a much better DebConf if
> there's an involved local team.  I'd like to hear your reasons for not
> wanting a local team.

The chairs presented the idea of establishing a "local team" to the
group of us who currently live or have lived in Cape Town. They gave a
list of supporting reasons, and we all discussed them. Our responses
roughly came down to the following, and we all left the meeting with a
feeling of relaxed and happy consensus.

- The distinction between local and global is an artificial one, and
causes unnecessary tension. We are one unified DebConf team. Some people
have more or less experience with DebConf, and some people live in
closer or more distant proximity to the physical location of DebConf in
a particular year. We (CapeTownians) consider several members to be part
of "our" team, even though they've been organizing DebConf for many
years and have never been to Cape Town. Likewise, there shouldn't be any
obstacle to any individual participating in any subteam of DebConf, no
matter how experienced they are or where they live.

- One supporting reason was to improve collaboration between new/local
DebConf team members and experienced/global DebConf team members, but
splitting off a "local team" doesn't actually solve that. We'd prefer to
solve the problem by working on communication and collaboration as a
unified team.

- Another supporting reason was to give an identity to "local" folks,
but we're quite happy with the identity of "DebConf organizers".

- Another supporting reason was to clearly define who would be working
on social activities like the day trip and evening events, but there's
no reason that has to be exclusively local people, so it made more sense
to just create a Social Activities team. We had a similar conversation
around budget and facilities, where it makes more sense to combine
people with varying levels of experience and proximity, rather than
artificially segmenting the work.


Chill out, feel the beat of the African drums, pour a glass of Pinotage,
and join the fun. It's going to be a great year. :)

Allison
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Re: [Debconf-team] Patch to DebConf orgateam structure

[Allison Randal]

On 08/29/2015 03:01 AM, Margarita Manterola wrote:
> 
> When I advocate for the local team it's not for these people, but for
> the volunteers that will show up along the way.  For those volunteers,
> joining debconf-team is traumatic. There's too many flamewars, too
> many things going on at the same time, and they have no idea how to
> fit into the already existing structures, they just want to help.

One thing we need to work on is reducing those flamewars. They're not
helpful to anyone. We absolutely need to improve communication and
collaboration in the whole team. Remember, long-term team members aren't
immune to being driven away by an unhealthy environment.

> We need those volunteers, we need to be able to delegate stuff towards
> them, otherwise the DC16 organizing team has too big of a burden.  But
> asking those volunteers to join debconf-team, follow the tons of
> discussions, follow the IRC meeting on #debconf-team, etc, has been
> proven to be too much. They just don't, which makes it much harder to
> integrate them so there's a high chance that you'll lose them.
> 
> Of course, if any new recruits that join that local team feel like
> they want to integrate into the global structure they are totally
> welcome to join. It's not like being part of the local team precludes
> taking part in content, fundraising, or any other teams. It's just
> that it's not a pre-requisite to understand and fit into the structure
> in order to volunteer for working towards DC16.

That point was mentioned too. But again, all that requires is for local
members of the DebConf team to make local volunteers feel welcome.
Defining a "local team" doesn't help with that.

Allison
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Re: [Debconf-team] DebConf meetings this week

[Allison Randal]

On 09/22/2015 02:27 AM, Jonathan Carter wrote:
> 
> I tried to follow your advice and forget it, but to be honest I'm quite
> hurt by it. To form a coordination team in private and in secrecy so
> that "things can get done" is pretty awful and not conducive to having
> an open and transparent community.
> 
> I'm sorry that a 'kerfuffle' about this is uncomfortable for those
> responsible for this, but doing such things is a violation of trust and
> I couldn't just turn a blind eye to it.

Saying "forget about it" isn't trying to sweep it under the carpet. It's
saying it was a mistake and won't happen again.

Allison
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[Debconf-team] DC16 fundraising sprint this Thu Oct 22 (1500UTC, 1700CEST/SAST, 1100EST, 0800PST)

[Allison Randal]

Hi all,

The sponsors sprint last week was quite productive, so we're doing a
repeat this week, same time, same place. Check your local time here if
not listed in the subject:
http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?iso=20151022T15

The sprint will be on IRC in the #debconf-sponsors OFTC channel, and
will last for three hours. Feel free to join for all or part of the
sprint.

Prior to the sprint, please review the resources section of the
following wiki page.:
https://wiki.debconf.org/wiki/Teams/Fundraising

In particular please try to set up git access via alioth ahead of time,
if you don't have it yet.

Remember, when discussing sponsors or potential sponsors please don't
do so in public channels. If you must talk to the full debconf-team
about a particular fundraising issue, please discuss it in the generic
sense.

Brian and I plan to be there for the sprint. We'll also be around to
answer questions.

Allison
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Re: [Debconf-team] Deadline (Re: Collaboratively drafting the next DebConf delegation)

[Allison Randal]

On 10/20/2015 01:01 PM, Steve Langasek wrote:
> On Tue, Oct 20, 2015 at 07:27:54AM -0400, Brian Gupta wrote:
>> For the record. I am completely opposed to these changes and put forth
>> as an alternative the text of the original delegation from 2011. [1]
> 
> I agree with this, and with the objections to the process by which this
> proposal has been drafted.

I'm good with that description from 2011. No idea how we ended up where
we are today from that point, it was so sane and sensible.

Allison
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[Debconf-team] I get by with a little help from my friends

[Allison Randal]

Hi all,

Things are a bit up in the air at the moment, but the day-to-day
practicalities of DebConf are pretty much the same as always. It would
help me enormously to briefly hear what folks are planning to work on in
the coming months. I'm not concerned about structure or teams or
whatever. Out of all the ordinary tasks we have to do every year, where
do you think you'll spend your time?

I'll start. I plan to work on:
- Fundraising
- Maybe content if we need the help
- On-site general assistance, wherever help is needed (pickup coffee and
printer paper? sure!)

Thanks,
Allison
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Re: [Debconf-team] DebConf17 bids - DebConf Committee

[Allison Randal]

On 12/19/2015 01:09 PM, Daniel Pocock wrote:
> On 18/12/15 14:48, Didier 'OdyX' Raboud wrote:
>>
>> Given the general "DebConf Team" situation, I would really like us to 
>> focus on using the existing structures for what they got built, rather 
>> than having meta-discussions, which will only delay the DC17 decision. I 
>> don't see value in postponing the DC17 decision until after the DebConf 
>> governance tensions have been relaxed.

Yes, I agree, focusing on the practicalities and keeping things running
is the best way through this. Where we have existing structure, let's
keep using it. Where we don't, fill in as needed.

> I feel there is a real danger that if this is done without the new
> chairs, then some people may not volunteer to participate as a chair at
> all, feeling that a significant decision has already been made without
> them and now they are just being roped in to implement it.

Hmmm... anyone petty enough to turn up their nose because we ran ahead
with practical decisions when the sky fell down, really isn't someone I
want as chair anyway.

> Freezing the decision process may also be a practical way of emphasizing
> to the wider community that DebConf would welcome more contributions.

Our blocker right now isn't really the wider Debian community, so this
isn't putting pressure on the right point. The best approach may be to
say that the DPL is acting DebConf chair until he puts a new delegation
in place. That both gives us an established authority figure to slot in
place for immediate needs, and also encourages him to hurry up on
forming the delegation, so he doesn't have to spend the time on
day-to-day DebConf management.

Allison
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Re: [Debconf-team] I get by with a little help from my friends

[Allison Randal]

-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-
Hash: SHA256

On 01/20/2016 10:24 AM, Michael Banck wrote:
> 
> I'm still willing to help with content selection and maybe CfP
> drafting, but I certainly won't be able to drive the invited
> speakers track as I did for DebConf15 (if we still want that).
> 
> The content needs a new lead I think, and Allison is right person
> in my opinion.

Thanks! We just talked about this on IRC in the team meeting, and I'm
happy to act as content lead this year, if folks are okay with that.

It's worth mentioning that I haven't served on the content team for
previous DebConfs, though I've run content for plenty of other tech
conferences (including OSCON, which is such a bear to schedule, it
makes DebConf look like a walk in the park). I'll aim to preserve the
traditions of DebConf, but will be relying on folks to let me know if
I seem to be missing something important.

Allison
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Re: [Debconf-team] I get by with a little help from my friends

[Allison Randal]

On 01/20/2016 06:05 PM, Gunnar Wolf wrote:
> 
> I am interested in being a part of the Content team, although I asked
> *not* to lead, as my time is severely limited. But if you agree, I can
> work with you as the Supreme Conservative Power¹ ;-)

All help cheerfully accepted!

> ¹ For a while in the XIX century, there actually was a fourth branch
>   in Mexico's government with that name, with powers to overrule some
>   decisions by Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches. Of
>   course, I am joking on this. I just want to lend a hand :)

Sounds like a name created by the "Department of Redundancy Department",
or perhaps "Internal Paradox Affairs". :)

Allison
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Re: [Debconf-team] I get by with a little help from my friends

[Allison Randal]

On 01/20/2016 10:01 PM, René Mayorga wrote:
> 
> Saying that, I'm happy helping to lurk on the alias, rate talks if need
> it and give input when I find is pertinent.

Great!

Allison
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Re: [Debconf-team] pre-registration or registation opens and CfP announcements

[Allison Randal]

On 03/04/2016 07:23 AM, Laura Arjona Reina wrote:

Dear DebConf and DebConf Content teams:

If you want to announce Call for Proposals when registration (or
pre-registration) is open, we may should begin to draft the Call for
Proposals.


Here's a draft in progress, starting with the DC15 CFP as a base:

https://titanpad.com/1YVOp0C6vG


Then, some things should be decided in order to publish DC16 Call:

* If we provide a page with explanation about the registration process


Registration is no longer necessary to submit an event (that was an 
implementation detail of summit), we can remove that text from the CFP.



* If we stick to 20 or 45 minutes long sessions
* When the first batch of accepted proposals will be announced.
* Deadline for proposals.


Sticking with approximately the same schedule as last year would mean:

* First batch of approvals in April
* Final deadline for event submissions May 1st


* Topics and tracks (if any)


The discussion we've had on the team list so far indicates that we don't 
have the capacity to organize formal tracks this year. Suggested topics 
are helpful, we can leave those in the CFP. And, tags can be added 
during review and scheduling if we decide they're useful.


Maybe not ideal, but we have to accept that we're running in a resource 
constrained year, and keep a practical focus on getting things done.



* Is cont...@debconf.org an alias to the current people in charge?


Yes.


Finally, we can decide to just open pre-registration or registration
first, and then the CfP when it's ready. If this is what we want, I
would propose to microblog the "(pre)-registration open" as soon as it's
open, and keep the blog post for the CfP. (No two blog posts).


Yes, CFP and registration are entirely independent, so launch whatever 
is ready, whenever it is ready. (Again, practical focus, just get it done.)


Allison
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Re: [Debconf-team] pre-registration or registation opens and CfP announcements

[Allison Randal]

Missed one.

On 03/04/2016 01:11 PM, Allison Randal wrote:

On 03/04/2016 07:23 AM, Laura Arjona Reina wrote:


* If we stick to 20 or 45 minutes long sessions


Yes, that seems to be the consensus.

TBH, in several decades of conference organizing and attending, I've 
found 20 minute slots are too short to be useful for anything more than 
"hey, I had this crazy idea...". But for a new speaker, filling 45 
minutes can seem really daunting, so it makes sense to offer both 
options, and let the speaker decide what they can handle, and what will 
be adequate time to do their topic justice.


20 and 45 minute lengths allow us to keep a regular schedule, always 
starting talks on the :00 or :30 marks, which is good for attendee sanity.


Allison
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Re: [Debconf-team] blogpost in bits.debian.org about Platinum Sponsor

[Allison Randal]

On 03/07/2016 01:14 PM, Laura Arjona Reina wrote:


Reviews, comments, fixes... are welcome.


Looks great, thanks!

A typical pattern for abbreviations would be to use the full name and 
abbreviation in the first line, like "Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)", 
and then consistently use the abbreviation through the rest of the post. 
Starting with the abbreviation on the first line, and then mostly using 
the full name through the rest of the post is a bit confusing, though 
it's fine to re-use the full name several times in the post where it 
seems like it needs it. It's also fine to only use the full name, and 
never use the abbreviation, though that can start to seem a little 
awkward, with such a lengthy full name.


Allison
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Re: [Debconf-team] Open Weekend and some notes

[Allison Randal]

On 03/17/2016 11:02 AM, Bernelle Verster wrote:


I'm thinking about coming back as poker/emailey person, but I'll
probably still lose my temper occasionally. If you can't deal with that,
tell me now and I'll go away again.


That role has been filled, but many thanks for the offer. I know the 
role ended up taking a toll on you, so you are incredibly kind and 
generous to even consider taking it on again.


I love your ideas for Open Weekend! I know you mentioned quite early on 
in the bid process for DebConf that the Open Weekend was your main 
interest in the conference. I told Stefano yesterday that if you weren't 
interested in running the program for the weekend anymore, we might just 
skip it entirely. So, I'm thrilled to see your renewed enthusiasm. :)


Allison

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Re: [Debconf-team] Registration Feature Request: Organization / Company Name field

[Allison Randal]

On 03/16/2016 11:36 AM, Holger Levsen wrote:

Hi,

On Wed, Mar 16, 2016 at 10:24:40AM -0500, Carl Karsten wrote:

Don't label it "organization"
call it "badge line 2" or "your add here"

So that people know they can put whatever text they want to show off on
their badge.


/me likes this idea very much. Please do that!


If we're doing that, perhaps we should also provide a "badge line 1" 
field? Also optional, and if they leave it blank we'll default to their 
full name from the system. Some people prefer to have their IRC nick big 
and bold, for example.


Allison
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Re: [Debconf-team] Suggestion for DC17+ fundraising brochure: advertising service vs. ad space

[Allison Randal]

On 04/12/2016 06:20 AM, Holger Levsen wrote:
> On Tue, Apr 12, 2016 at 11:54:17AM +0200, martin f krafft wrote:
>>
>> You're obviously free to disagree and assume a different view of
>> what we're doing, but please don't stop other people's efforts just
>> because you don't see their value.
> 
> why the agression?

Yeah, touch of overreaction there, Martin. Chill. We're just having a
conversation.

Allison
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Re: [Debconf-team] Rooms and video available for planning the schedule

[Allison Randal]

On 04/26/2016 10:15 PM, Louis-Philippe Véronneau wrote:
> On 2016-04-26 12:18, Santiago Ruano Rincón wrote:
> 
>> How many rooms will have video coverage? How many of them simultaneously?
> 
> Video team decided to stream 3 rooms (2 mains + 1 BoF). We will test a
> new system in the BoF room, so we can _guaranty_ we will record it, but
> we will try as hard as possible to do it.

Yes, I reviewed this with tumbleweed. What this means practically for
content planning is that the "1 BoF room" may end up being a mixture of
talks and BoFs, depending on what we need. There will also be additional
rooms available for BoFs, they just won't be recorded.

Allison
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[Debconf-team] timing for sessions

[Allison Randal]

Different countries have different ideas of civilized hours for running
conference sessions. Taking a look at PyCon ZA, what do you all think of
the following schedule for the main DebConf session days:


9:30-10:15am First Talk/BoF

10:15-11:00am Morning Tea/Coffee Break

11:00-11:45am Third Talk/BoF

12:00pm-1:00pm Lunch Break

1:00pm-1:45pm Fourth Talk/BoF

2:00pm-2:45pm Fifth Talk/BoF

2:45pm-3:30pm Afternoon Tea/Coffee Break

3:30pm-4:15pm Sixth Talk/BoF

4:30-5:15pm Seventh Talk/BoF


We're planning 3 streaming video rooms for Talks/BofS (we'll also have
some smaller rooms with no video for additional BoFs). So, over 4 days
that gives us 7 x 3 x 4 = 84 full-length session slots (where some will
be split into 20 min blocks and others combined into 2 hour workshops).

We currently have 51 proposals:

11 Talks (20 min)
17 Talks (45 min)
3 Workshops
20 BoFs

I'm sure we'll get more BoF proposals closer to the event, and some of
them may even be more "talk-like". But, we'll have plenty of time to
accommodate all the content, with no need to create a frantically paced
schedule of sessions starting at the crack of dawn and crammed into
every minute. I'll also note that the social side of DebConf often runs
until 4am or beyond, so keeping the morning light and putting more
content in the afternoon works well.

Thoughts, comments, and suggestions welcome,
Allison
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Re: [Debconf-team] timing for sessions

[Allison Randal]

On 04/30/2016 07:43 PM, Allison Randal wrote:
> 9:30-10:15am First Talk/BoF
> 
> 10:15-11:00am Morning Tea/Coffee Break
> 
> 11:00-11:45am Third Talk/BoF
> 
> 12:00pm-1:00pm Lunch Break
> 
> 1:00pm-1:45pm Fourth Talk/BoF
> 
> 2:00pm-2:45pm Fifth Talk/BoF
> 
> 2:45pm-3:30pm Afternoon Tea/Coffee Break
> 
> 3:30pm-4:15pm Sixth Talk/BoF
> 
> 4:30-5:15pm Seventh Talk/BoF

Right, off-by-one error because I originally had 3 talks scheduled in
the morning.

Before I fix that, can someone remind me if noon or 1pm is a more normal
time for lunch in South Africa?

Allison
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Re: [Debconf-team] timing for sessions

[Allison Randal]

Trying a resend, since my reply got DNS MX bounced yesterday.

On 05/02/2016 01:34 PM, Allison Randal wrote:
> On 05/02/2016 01:05 PM, Gunnar Wolf wrote:
>>
>> Given what we have always seen at DebConf, I would:
>>
>> - Start a bit later. Starting at 10AM feels more natural.
>>
>> - Having the first break after just one session lowers IMO motivation
>>   for waking up early — Arriving at 11AM means only one talk lost?
>>   Then people will sleep late. If we are having lunch at 12:00, I
>>   would skip the formal morning coffee break (people can grab a coffee
>>   in the 15 minutes between talks).
>>
>>   So, I'd say first talk 10:00-10:45, second talk 11:00-11:45, and
>>   we're set in time for the (horribly early, but who's me to judge?)
>>   lunch.
>>
>> - Lunch break should be 2h instead of 1h, so people can eat and talk
>>   relaxed and with good time. I'd return by 2PM.
>>
>> - And then, yes, two sessions, break, two sessions; 14:00-14:45,
>>   15:00-15:45, 16:30-17:15, 17:30-18:15.
>>
>>   I would even be happy if we jammed in one more session, be it
>>   two-break-three or three-break-two, if there's enough demand
>>   (i.e. enough talk submissions). Finishing the formal activities for
>>   dinner at 19:15 sounds quite doable, and we are often starved for
>>   sessions more than for dinner! ;-)
> 
> That's very close to what I came to last night:
> 
> 10:00-10:45am First Talk/BoF
> 
> 10:45-11:15am Morning Tea/Coffee Break
> 
> 11:15-12:00pm Second Talk/BoF
> 
> 12:00pm-2:00pm Lunch Break
> 
> 2:00pm-2:45pm Third Talk/BoF
> 
> 3:00pm-3:45pm Fourth Talk/BoF
> 
> 3:45pm-4:15pm Afternoon Tea/Coffee Break
> 
> 4:15pm-5:00pm Fifth Talk/BoF
> 
> 5:15pm-6:00pm Sixth Talk/BoF
> 
> The big difference is just that I made the morning coffee break longer,
> so the second session ends at noon, and made the afternoon coffee break
> shorter, so the final session of the day ends at 6pm. But, I think it
> makes sense to actually serve tea/coffee for a full hour at each break,
> from 10:30-11:30 and 3:30-4:30. Not everyone will be in sessions, so it
> makes sense to make the pace of service a bit more relaxed and not try
> to cram everyone into the 30 minute breaks.
> 
>> Your point is good. But then, we could pick up from the scheduling we
>> had in Portland, and leave unallocated "hacking sessions" halfway
>> through so that people are more at leisure.
> 
> That can be arranged, if people want it. Though, since we are having a
> full week of DebCamp ahead of time, it seems less necessary. We're only
> going to have 4 days of full-sessions.
> 
> We could also drop the final session, to end each day at 5pm, so there's
> plenty of time for hacking and socializing outside of sessions. or, just
> have no planned sessions in the final hour and leave it only for BoFs.
> 
>> Spaces with no video coverage can be probably self-scheduled by having
>> a blackboard or poster at the door where people pin or write their
>> intended activities?
> 
> That's fine too, but people always end up asking for their "spontaneous"
> BoFs to appear on the schedule, so we might as well plan to make it
> possible. It's not difficult, and keeping some lightweight
> centralization helps people find which rooms are still available.
> 
> Allison
> 
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Re: [Debconf-team] timing for sessions

[Allison Randal]

On 05/04/2016 08:37 AM, Bernelle Verster wrote:
> On Wed, May 4, 2016 at 8:54 AM, martin f krafft  wrote:
>>
>> Do we really need a break after the first session of the day, when
>> breakfast has just ended and lunch is about to begin?
> 
> I do think the breaks are important, this is where the real value of a
> conference happens. I understand that it is very hard for organisers
> to not cram as many talks in as possible, because we feel that this is
> what people pay money for, but it's only part of the reason. I think
> having lots of breaks to share ideas and discuss the sessions that
> just happened is an amazing opportunity to grow relationships. And if
> there's only one session then a break, that's fine too, in my opinion.

Also, at DebConf, many people will drift in late, and desperately want
coffee. So, offering coffee and tea at that hour is important. It
doesn't matter much if we start the second session at 11:00 or 11:15,
but it does seem quite silly to start lunch at 11:45, so we might as
well use the 15 minutes for a morning coffee break.

Allison
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[Debconf-team] double-checking: content on July 9th?

[Allison Randal]

The DebConf16 website says that the conference runs "from Saturday, 2
July to Saturday, 9 July 2016". Are people expecting to have sessions on
Saturday the 9th?

I'm setting up the schedule now in wafer, and here's what I've got:

DebCamp: June 23rd - July 1st
Open Weekend: July 2nd and 3rd
DebConf Sessions: July 4th, 5th, 7th, and 8th
Day Trip: July 6th

I'm not scheduling anything on the 9th. If this is not what you expect,
now is the time to mention it. It's still easy to spread out the content
over that extra day, but will be hard once we've notified people of when
their talks are scheduled.

We could also have the 9th as a bonus sprint day at the end, instead of
scheduling it with sessions.

Allison


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Re: [Debconf-team] double-checking: content on July 9th?

[Allison Randal]

On 06/07/2016 05:04 PM, Daniel Lange wrote:
> The 9th should be a normal conference day. I'd let it end a bit earlier
> (e.g. closing ceremony after lunch) but Sunday 10th is explicitly the
> departure day (cf. https://debconf16.debconf.org/about/dates/). The
> advantage of doing so is that we can call people to action during the
> closing ceremony and have many hands to move things back where they
> belong, remove posters, pack boxes for storage, clean up etc. Once we're
> done with this I expect a dinner with plenty of fun and according to
> attendee stats still ~150 people around.
> As only ~50 people feel they need to leave on Saturday before the
> evening, I'd use at least the Saturday morning still for regular
> schedules and - again - push the closing ceremony to the afternoon right
> after lunch for logistics reasons.

Okay, done! :)

(See, I told you it was easy.)

Allison
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Re: [Debconf-team] Highly Likely Not Able to Present the Talk 18 About Android Tools

[Allison Randal]

Hi Kai-Chung,

Sorry to hear about the delay. It's not a problem, we can keep you on
the schedule for now. If you don't receive a visa in the next 2 weeks,
or receive a rejection notice, let us know and we can cancel your talk,
even as late as the 6th.

Thanks for letting us know,
Allison

On 06/21/2016 10:42 AM, 殷啟聰 wrote:
> Dear DebConf Team,
> 
> Unfortunately my visa has not been approved so far. And I have a talk
> about Android Tools [1] on 7 July 11:10-11:30. The visa is not
> rejected but just pending, and it has been 3 weeks. What should I do?
> 
> I am very sorry to bring you trouble. :(
> 
> Regards,
> Kai-Chung Yan
> 
> [1]: https://debconf16.debconf.org/talks/18
> 
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Re: [Debconf-team] Daily check in meetings 9:30am (local time), orga room

[Allison Randal]

On 06/30/2016 04:11 AM, Bernelle Verster wrote:
> local team to volunteer as 'bus-captains'

I won't be able to go on any of the Day Trips (too active for my broken
foot), but I can hang around on campus, answer the front desk phone,
etc. as needed.

Allison
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Re: [Debconf-team] Highly Likely Not Able to Present the Talk 18 About Android Tools

[Allison Randal]

That's great news, I'm so glad it worked out! :)

On 07/01/2016 02:49 AM, 殷啟聰 wrote:
> Hi Allison,
> 
> My visa is finally approved and I am arriving in Cape Town in July 5,
> I can still make it to the talk.
> 
> Cheers,
> Kai-Chung Yan
> 
> 2016-06-21 22:50 GMT+08:00 Allison Randal :
>> Hi Kai-Chung,
>>
>> Sorry to hear about the delay. It's not a problem, we can keep you on
>> the schedule for now. If you don't receive a visa in the next 2 weeks,
>> or receive a rejection notice, let us know and we can cancel your talk,
>> even as late as the 6th.
>>
>> Thanks for letting us know,
>> Allison
>>
>> On 06/21/2016 10:42 AM, 殷啟聰 wrote:
>>> Dear DebConf Team,
>>>
>>> Unfortunately my visa has not been approved so far. And I have a talk
>>> about Android Tools [1] on 7 July 11:10-11:30. The visa is not
>>> rejected but just pending, and it has been 3 weeks. What should I do?
>>>
>>> I am very sorry to bring you trouble. :(
>>>
>>> Regards,
>>> Kai-Chung Yan
>>>
>>> [1]: https://debconf16.debconf.org/talks/18
>>>
> 
> 
> 
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Re: [Debconf-team] Ad-Hoc sessions

[Allison Randal]

On 07/01/2016 11:09 AM, Michael Banck wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> is there a plan for ad-hoc sessions already? If not, we should start
> thinking about it.
> 
> I'd propose we allow them from Monday on, in BoF room 1 and 2, unless
> there will be more BoF rooms possibly be added later on (maybe if there
> is a lot of demand?)
> 
> I also suggest we go with Flipcharts (or whiteboards?) for signup again,
> it worked well enough last year. The already scheduled BoFs would be
> written into the flipchart schedule up front.
> 
> An important questions would be where to put the flipcharts/whiteboards?
> Probably near front-desk would be good, what do you think?
> 
> Me or some other volunteer from the content team will then add the
> ad-hoc sessions to wafer for online schedule display on a best-effort
> basis (but hopefully at least daily for the next day).
> 
> Anybody have any objections or suggestions?

Really, it's best if they submit ad-hoc sessions as BoFs through the web
form. It takes me 2 minutes to add a session to the main schedule, makes
it more visible for attendees to join the session, and saves us so much
pain trying to cross-reference from paper to electronic schedules.

Allison
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Re: [Debconf-team] Ad-Hoc sessions

[Allison Randal]

On 07/01/2016 01:39 PM, Michael Banck wrote:
> Well ok, but then we need to notify them of scheduling and resolve any
> conflicts.  I guess it'd work, but self-scheduling might be easier.
> Maybe we can tell them to put preferred timeslots into the comments to
> content?
> 
> I'm fine either way.

Yes, they can suggest a time slot in the notes, and I'll only email to
confirm it's scheduled, or to resolve conflicts if multiple people
request the same time slot. They can even ping me on IRC to make sure
they're first to request a slot.

Allison
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Re: [Debconf-team] Ad-Hoc sessions

[Allison Randal]

On 07/02/2016 08:29 AM, Michael Banck wrote:
> On Fri, Jul 01, 2016 at 04:13:09PM -0400, Allison Randal wrote:
>> Yes, they can suggest a time slot in the notes, and I'll only email to
>> confirm it's scheduled, or to resolve conflicts if multiple people
>> request the same time slot. They can even ping me on IRC to make sure
>> they're first to request a slot.
> 
> Well, we want them to publicize their ad-hoc sessions on -discuss etc.
> so they need to know it's going to happen.  So I think a quick mail to
> their address like "it's scheduled" to confirm to them would be best.

Yes, that's what I meant by "email to confirm it's scheduled". :)

> I came up with the following draft for the next annoucement, please
> review and/or modify on https://titanpad.com/fjRNfCdwvt 

Looks great, thanks!

Allison

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