Re: [Debconf-team] Potential hardware loan from BelWue
Hi Richard (2014.11.21_01:05:31_+0200) > 8 x HP 2824 20x 1000Base-T + 4 GBIC > 4 x WS-c2950SX-24 (*) 24x 100Base-T + 4 1000Base-SX > 2 x WS-c2950G-24-EI 24x 100Base-T + 2 GBIC > 2 x WS-c2950G-48-EI 48x 100Base-T + 2 GBIC Sounds good for our needs. The gigabit HPs are especially useful for the video team. We need the core video switch to be gigabit. > I don't know how loud the fans of those switches are, but I have been > told that it should be OK for putting on a desk. Yeah, we may not want any of them in the talk rooms. 4-8 port fanless gigabit switches are generally good for that. SR -- Stefano Rivera http://tumbleweed.org.za/ +1 415 683 3272 ___ Debconf-team mailing list Debconf-team@lists.debconf.org http://lists.debconf.org/mailman/listinfo/debconf-team
Re: [Debconf-team] DC16 bid submission deadline is close - How are the bids doing?
Hi Margarita (2014.11.27_19:38:16_+0200) > We'd like to know who is out there preparing to submit a bid for DC16, > and how you all are doing. Remember that the deadline is the end of > this year. The Cape Town team has been beavering away merrily. We hope to have a fairly complete bid page up by the end of the weekend. We have a few strong venue options, some more prepared than others. The top choices are on the University of Cape Town campus, which would give us great connectivity, and affordable accommodation. https://wiki.debconf.org/wiki/DebConf16/Bids/Cape_Town > If you have questions, doubts, suggestions or need any kind of > guidance, please feel free to ask. We have a few people with experience on the team. Nothing I can think of, right now. SR -- Stefano Rivera http://tumbleweed.org.za/ +1 415 683 3272 ___ Debconf-team mailing list Debconf-team@lists.debconf.org http://lists.debconf.org/mailman/listinfo/debconf-team
[Debconf-team] DC16 Cape Town bid announcement
Hi, We are declaring our intention to bid for hosting DebConf16 in Cape Town, South Africa. Cape Town, also known as "The Mother City", is Africa's southern most city with a population of nearly 4 million people. It's technologically developed with a Mediterranean climate and many natural attractions throughout the city and in the greater Western Cape province. It's the second-most populous city in South Africa after Johannesburg. We believe that Cape Town would make a good host city for a DebConf, and is the perfect city for the first DebConf in Africa. It is a truly beautiful part of the world, and if we are lucky with weather, attendees will be in for a treat. We are bidding with 3 options that we consider viable. There is a strong preference towards the first venue, in the upper campus of University of Cape Town. This would be free of cost us, and provide very affordable accommodation, saving the majority of the budget for good food, transport, and travel sponsorship. It is set in a beautiful location, on the slopes of Devil's Peak, surrounded by the mountain (national park) on 3 sides. There is another UCT campus that we could consider - Breakwater Lodge, which is situated in the V&A Waterfront, near many shops, hotels, and restaurants. This is run as a professional conference hotel, by UCT business students, and we'd have to pay for these services. We have managed to negotiate discounts, but not enough to make this a better choice than upper campus, yet. The UCT choices provide excellent Internet connectivity - they're on a 10Gbps academic fibre ring. Finally, we have an option that isn't affiliated with UCT - the Protea hotel in Technopark, outside the university town of Stellenbosch. This would be a far more remote venue, an hour's walk from town, in wine country. Again, this is a dedicated conference hotel, and it wouldn't be cheap, but would require very little organisation from our side. Most of our preparatory effort has gone into our primary choice, UCT Upper Campus. There are quite a few unknowns for the backup venues, but we will try to flesh them out over the upcoming weeks. Herewith, the bid: https://wiki.debconf.org/wiki/DebConf16/Bids/Cape_Town SR -- Stefano Rivera http://tumbleweed.org.za/ +1 415 683 3272 signature.asc Description: Digital signature ___ Debconf-team mailing list Debconf-team@lists.debconf.org http://lists.debconf.org/mailman/listinfo/debconf-team
Re: [Debconf-team] Bootstrapping the DebConf infrastructure team
Hi martin (2014.12.05_12:06:38_+0200) > 10 — turn Django into a multi-conference platform so that it can > serve debconfX.debconf.org/conf for multiple years, but ideally so > that we can make changes to the schema for DC16 without having to > touch DC15. Bonus points for a staging site that would allow us > to test out changes easily. See also prio 4 below. What has worked quite successfully for pycon.za is to use django-medusa [0] to render the conference site down to static HTML, after the conference has wound up. It took a little bit of effort to modify our conference management system (wafer [1]) to support this, but not that much. [0]: https://github.com/mtigas/django-medusa [1]: https://github.com/CTPUG/wafer This means you can only need to have one year's conference served from Django, at a time, so you don't have to maintain ancient conferences forever, and can move ahead with backwards-incompatible changes. SR -- Stefano Rivera http://tumbleweed.org.za/ +1 415 683 3272 ___ Debconf-team mailing list Debconf-team@lists.debconf.org http://lists.debconf.org/mailman/listinfo/debconf-team
Re: [Debconf-team] Q for Cape Town bid: attendees safety outside the venue
Hi Lucas (2014.12.17_19:48:27_+0200) > However, one thing that worries me a bit in the context of DebConf is > the safety of attendees when outside the venue (e.g. walking between the > venue and accomodation). My understanding from back then is that it was > absolutely not recommended to walk alone or in small groups at night. > Some conference attendees had quite frightening (but harmless in the > end, AFAIK) experiences. There is no easy place to draw the line on what is safe, and what isn't. Walking alone at at night isn't dangerous per se. But there are places that I would avoid at night. And yes, you're safer in a group. In the context of our proposed venues: UCT upper campus is reasonably safe at all hours. Yes it's unfenced, and open to the public. There are open areas, and there probably won't be many people around in the middle of the holidays. The campus is patrolled by security guards, and has monitored CCTV covering most public areas. Paths through middle campus are lit at night, and there are brightly lit panic button pillars along the more remote paths. The accommodation and conference venue would both be on upper campus, just a few buildings away from each other. I wouldn't be concerned about safety here. The V&A Waterfront (where Breakwater campus is located) is a very busy tourist areas, with many shops and hotels. Again, there is private security, and public areas are well lit. Getting between the venue, hotel rooms, and restaurants / pubs should be about as safe as it gets. Technopark is an office park, outside Stellenbosch. The park has security, and we'd be entirely inside the hotel. Looking at crime reports at UCT, and the waterfront, there are several muggings every year. Mostly for cash and cellphones. This is what we would be most worried about, and the best protection is to be aware of your surroundings. We'd probably want to provide some transport into town in the evenings, and this is where people would need to be a little more careful. Walking through a busy part of town is fine. Wandering through desolate areas, on your own, is less so. > I don't know how much the situation improved since then (maybe the world > cup caused an increase of crime rate at the time) I would imagine that the world cup caused a temporary decrease in crime, rather than an increase. The was a huge crack-down, and a massive increase in policing, for the event. Crime stats I've seen since, show a marked (70% in some areas) decrease in crime during the world cup. That said, a lot of South Africa's violent crime isn't something we need to be concerned with. I feel perfectly safe in all of the venues that we propose. We want our attendees to be safe, and have a good experience. We can certainly help this by providing transport to off-campus entertainment areas in the evenings. SR -- Stefano Rivera http://tumbleweed.org.za/ +1 415 683 3272 ___ Debconf-team mailing list Debconf-team@lists.debconf.org http://lists.debconf.org/mailman/listinfo/debconf-team
Re: [Debconf-team] Q for Cape Town bid: attendees safety outside the venue
Hi Martín (2014.12.19_05:29:36_+0200) > I get the impression from what you say that we will need to be pretty > sheltered to be safe. Not at all. If you want to *guarantee* safety, you should offer shelter. If people are a little bit careful, they can go off on their own, and have a lot of fun. > I know Debian people like to wander and observe what happens outside > of the conference, and I cannot imagine asking the people to never > wander away on their own. We wouldn't need to do that. We just need to remind people to be aware that they are in a country with a lot of crime. They'll almost certainly be fine, anywhere in the city. SR -- Stefano Rivera http://tumbleweed.org.za/ +1 415 683 3272 ___ Debconf-team mailing list Debconf-team@lists.debconf.org http://lists.debconf.org/mailman/listinfo/debconf-team
Re: [Debconf-team] Q for Cape Town bid: attendees safety outside the venue
Hi David (2014.12.19_11:46:23_+0200) > Can someone who was in Managua (Jonathan?) compare the security > situation with Managua? I found everyone I talked to in Managua friendly > and helpful, but there was a great deal of warnings about walking alone > around campus that made me a bit nervous. I was in Managua, too. I felt pretty safe in Managua, just as I do in Cape Town. I didn't explore that much, beyond the hotel, conference venues, and the local mall. I was just too busy. There's pretty much nowhere I won't walk in Cape Town, alone. There are areas I won't feel safe, walking in, but I'll still do it, and just be a little more aware of my surroundings. SR -- Stefano Rivera http://tumbleweed.org.za/ +1 415 683 3272 ___ Debconf-team mailing list Debconf-team@lists.debconf.org http://lists.debconf.org/mailman/listinfo/debconf-team
Re: [Debconf-team] Question to Cape Town team: transportation to/from the venue
Hi Margarita (2015.01.17_19:52:09_+0200) > For the UCT venue (the first choice venue) the current location > information says: > "Venue is about 7 minutes from the city centre, by car (no traffic). > 45 minutes walk to the nearest bus stop. The venue is free, so budget > for nightly chartered bus is reasonable" > > 45 minutes to the bus stop is really not something doable, i.e. we > will likely ignore said bus. Yes. It's not particularly useful to us. Cape Town has a great new bus system, but it doesn't quite reach as far as UCT, yet. They would be useful for the UCT Breakwater (V&A waterfront) venue, though. > So, instead of this piece of unhelpful information, I'd like to > request that you add information as to how to get to and from the > venue, both for the airport and for going into the city center. If we > are going to be taking taxis, please add info as to how much they > would cost and how we would get them (i.e. are there any caveats at > taking taxis at the airport, do they just go by the venue or would we > need to call them, etc). Sure, we can improve this. SR -- Stefano Rivera http://tumbleweed.org.za/ +1 415 683 3272 ___ Debconf-team mailing list Debconf-team@lists.debconf.org http://lists.debconf.org/mailman/listinfo/debconf-team
Re: [Debconf-team] Using the BTS as a summit issue tracker
Hi martin (2015.01.21_21:31:55_+0200) > > I would prefer if we had an actual package, but a pseudo one will do > > fine for now. > > While it would be good to have summit in Debian, of course, you > would also want to have a place to track DebConf-specific issues. +1 to the BTS, and yes, a summit.debconf.org pseudo-package sounds like what we'd want. Running entirely from a packaged summit is probably a long way off, if even possible. SR -- Stefano Rivera http://tumbleweed.org.za/ +1 415 683 3272 ___ Debconf-team mailing list Debconf-team@lists.debconf.org http://lists.debconf.org/mailman/listinfo/debconf-team
Re: [Debconf-team] decentralization of travel sponsorship
Hi David (2015.01.24_21:01:46_+0200) > a) As part of each year's budget process, allocate a budget amount to >each team for funding of volunteers. Presumably this amount would be >chosen in consultation with the relevent team leads, and people on >their teams. Because this process is new (and the DebConf structure is new), I don't think team leads have a good handle on what budget they'd need. I have no idea how many video team volunteers require sponsorship, and what it usually costs. But I guess some people on the bursaries team, know, from previous years, and can help set a sane budget. SR -- Stefano Rivera http://tumbleweed.org.za/ +1 415 683 3272 ___ Debconf-team mailing list Debconf-team@lists.debconf.org http://lists.debconf.org/mailman/listinfo/debconf-team
Re: [Debconf-team] Question to Cape Town team: transportation to/from the venue
Hi Margarita (2015.01.17_19:52:09_+0200) > So, instead of this piece of unhelpful information, I'd like to > request that you add information as to how to get to and from the > venue, both for the airport and for going into the city center. The bus sentence has been removed, and the public transport section of the page, beefed up. https://wiki.debconf.org/wiki/DebConf16/Bids/Cape_Town#Public_Transport > If we are going to be taking taxis, please add info as to how much > they would cost and how we would get them (i.e. are there any caveats > at taking taxis at the airport, do they just go by the venue or would > we need to call them, etc). No caveats. It's an airport with a taxi rank. Uber estimates R100-150, (€7-11) to UCT upper campus. This will be competitive with local taxis. I wouldn't expect to may more than R200 (€16), unless you arrive in morning rush hour. We have got several quotes for shuttles: https://wiki.debconf.org/wiki/DebConf16/Bids/Cape_Town/venue_details#Transport_jottings Our preferred option would probably be UCT's own student shuttle system (Jammie shuttles), but we haven't managed to get a meeting with them. SR -- Stefano Rivera http://tumbleweed.org.za/ +1 415 683 3272 ___ Debconf-team mailing list Debconf-team@lists.debconf.org http://lists.debconf.org/mailman/listinfo/debconf-team
Re: [Debconf-team] Question to Cape Town team: transportation to/from the venue
Hi Richard (2015.01.18_02:13:13_+0200) > Will the Jammie buses run while we are on site? If not, could we rent > those when need be? This is not yet known. They do usually run on a reduced schedule during holidays, though. SR -- Stefano Rivera http://tumbleweed.org.za/ +1 415 683 3272 ___ Debconf-team mailing list Debconf-team@lists.debconf.org http://lists.debconf.org/mailman/listinfo/debconf-team
Re: [Debconf-team] Questions about the Cape Town bid
Hi Richard (2015.01.18_02:17:08_+0200) > If those are Cisco APs on a Cisco AC, simply adding a new SSID > "DebConf" and dropping that as a VLAN would probably be easiest. > > Getting confirmation if that would work would be interesting. Also, as > they seem to have enough IPv4 space, could we get a /20 or so without > firewalling to use as we please? I don't know how easy it would be for them to deploy an SSID for us, but we are going to try and investigate this. We can certainly get some un-firewalled IPs. How big a block, I don't know, yet. SR -- Stefano Rivera http://tumbleweed.org.za/ +1 415 683 3272 ___ Debconf-team mailing list Debconf-team@lists.debconf.org http://lists.debconf.org/mailman/listinfo/debconf-team
Re: [Debconf-team] DC16 - Question to Cape Town: Supermarket(s) near Upper Campus
Hi Margarita (2015.01.24_18:17:34_+0200) > Regarding the Upper Campus venue, the wiki says "15 minutes walk to > closest off-campus restaurant", but I can't find anything regarding > supermarkets. This is documented on the venue-specific page https://wiki.debconf.org/wiki/DebConf16/Bids/Cape_Town/Venues/UCT_ChemEng#How_far_is_it_to_the_nearest_convenience_stores_.2F_all-night_restaurants.3F > Could you state how far or how close the closest supermarket is? Also, > are those 15 minutes enough to reach a bunch of restaurants, or just > one? There are several restaurants and bars clustered around the shopping centres. There's a wide variety of food, mostly cheap, open late, and catering to students. The one exception is the Hussars Grill - a fancier steak house. SR -- Stefano Rivera http://tumbleweed.org.za/ +1 415 683 3272 ___ Debconf-team mailing list Debconf-team@lists.debconf.org http://lists.debconf.org/mailman/listinfo/debconf-team
Re: [Debconf-team] DC16 - Flight prices comparison
Hi Margarita (2015.01.24_19:25:38_+0200) > Cape Town: 1000 USD (! 500 USD cheaper than the other way round !?) Spot the tourism destination. (Airline pricing is horrifically complicated. Where you book from also matters.) SR -- Stefano Rivera http://tumbleweed.org.za/ +1 415 683 3272 ___ Debconf-team mailing list Debconf-team@lists.debconf.org http://lists.debconf.org/mailman/listinfo/debconf-team
Re: [Debconf-team] Question to Cape Town team: transportation to/from the venue
Hi Gunnar (2015.01.27_15:28:26_+0200) > This brings another questions: If walking after dark is dangerous, and > people don't take public transport either after dark, how safe are > taxis? For context: Many people in my country (Mexico) rely on having > the phone number of a known taxi base, as they don't trust grabbing a > random taxi on the street. How is that subject in South Africa? There are people who feel the same way in South Africa. There are a few big taxi companies that you can carry the phone number for. I generally feel comfortable hailing a random taxi. > > We did obtain quotes for 'dinner shuttles' - 14 seater buses to be used ad > > hoc > > Right, although that would constrain us to meeting at specific > times. A good help, of course, but still likely to leave people > stranded. This is the nature of any city that doesn't have excellent public transport. However, taxis are cheap enough that missing a shuttle wouldn't be the end of the world. I see R50-80 (€4-6) estimated for an Uber between UCT and Long St in town (the central night-life street). SR -- Stefano Rivera http://tumbleweed.org.za/ +1 415 683 3272 ___ Debconf-team mailing list Debconf-team@lists.debconf.org http://lists.debconf.org/mailman/listinfo/debconf-team
Re: [Debconf-team] Question to Cape Town team: transportation to/from the venue
Hi Martín (2015.01.27_17:14:51_+0200) > I meant that many people like to go exploring after the talks are over, > maybe to sample the local beer production, or to have dinner in a nice > restaurant, etc. There are many options in town, but as Bernelle said, also scattered all over the rest of the city. Cape Town has a phenomenal number of restaurants to choose from. The brewery that's worth visiting is fairly close by (probably not walkable, but a €2-3 taxi ride away) http://devilspeakbrewing.co.za/taproom/ > > amenities (Cape Town team please correct me or elaborate?). The > > university campus is also walking distance from amenities, getting back > > to the venue just has a steep uphill. It's just getting to town proper > > I was checking the maps, and I don't seem to find many amenities around > campus. There seems to be a couple of fast food places in Main rd, but > that's the only I've found, and it is 1.3km from the venue... Is there > more stuff that I am missing? Is there some kind of village nearby? OpenStreetmap's street coverage of Cape Town is very good (thanks to open government data), but the business coverage isn't. Google street view might give you a better idea. Basically, the section of Main road from Rustenburg Avenue through to Rosendale Road is the local "village". There are a couple of pubs, probably 10 places that serve food, and 3 major supermarkets. Many students find everything they need in this area. After that, things start getting a bit more spread out again, but you'll find food, bars, and shops scattered along the whole of Main Road. There's another (smaller) cluster about 6 blocks south on Main Road (after passing couple of things on the way), where Main Street meets Dean Street. And again, when Main Street crosses Kildare. And a huge shopping centre south of that - Cavendish Square. It has some restaurants around it. If you were to have walked North along Main Road, instead, after crossing the N2 (Settler's way) Lower Main Road breaks off to the right. This has restaurants and bars all the way down it, to Station Road. There's a lot around. Not all in the immediate vicinity, but quite walkable. And a very cheap taxi ride away. SR -- Stefano Rivera http://tumbleweed.org.za/ +1 415 683 3272 ___ Debconf-team mailing list Debconf-team@lists.debconf.org http://lists.debconf.org/mailman/listinfo/debconf-team
Re: [Debconf-team] Questions about DebConf bids
Cate asked: > Late arrival: do the accommodation (for venues) allow very late arrivals? So, for Cape Town: We haven't figured out all the details of registration, yet. But there should be no difficulty with this. We'll be the only people using the residence hall that we're accommodating attendees in. However, not many international flights arrive in the evening, they usually arrive in the morning. > Do we have a 24h hacklab? Yes, we should. We may have to issue attendees with access cards, as some buildings require access cards to enter, at all times of day. If we do this, 24hr access would be no issue at all. > What about dressing standards e.g. barefoot, shirtless at venue? Cape Town tends to be quite relaxed, but some places are more formal than others. In general, you won't be served alcohol or food without a shirt, and often not let into a bar, without shoes. I went through most of my time at UCT (8 years or so) barefoot in summer, and shod in winter. It was occasionally an issue (laboratories tended to require shores, and building sites too). But generally not. In Cape Town, open sandals / flip flops usually qualify as shoes :) > Age restrictions (without parents) in venues? in bar/restaurants? > [18 is IMHO enough, 16 better]. 18, but there's nobody at the door who'll check. Only night clubs / busy bars have bouncers checking ID. > Are children (with parents) welcome in the venue? Yes! And there is on-campus child care, too. > Are there public holidays on proposed dates? Special big events? Elections? No. > Identifications: Should people wear a badge inside campus? (with photo?) No, but we may have to carry university ID cards, for self-service access control. These usually have photos, but for an event like this, they may not. ROT13 this entire section. DebConf's mail server is being difficult: > Zbarl: ner gurer NGZ arneol? Ubj qvssvphyg vf gb znxr cnlzrag jvgu > perqvg pneqf (be jvgubhg perqvg pneqf) ? Gurer ner NGZf sbe nyy gur znwbe Fbhgu Nsevpna onaxf ba gur HPG hccre pnzchf (5 zvaf jnyx sebz naljurer lbh'yy or). Gurl nyy npprcg sbervta IVFN naq ZnfgrePneqf. Nzrevpna Rkcerff vfa'g jvqryl npprcgrq. Fbzrgvzrf ng erfghnenagf, ohg eneryl. Naq arvgure vf QVFPBIRE - V qba'g guvax V'ir rire frra vg npprcgrq. Zbfg erfgnhenagf naq fubcf npprcg perqvg pneqf. Gnkvf naq vasbezny fryyref trarenyyl jba'g. Rirelobql npprcgf pnfu. Crgeby trarenyyl pna'g or obhtug ba perqvg pneqf, bayl pnfu, qrovg pneqf, be Fbhgu Nsevpna crgeby pneqf. Ohg fbzr crgeby fgngvbaf npprcg perqvg pneqf. Fbhgu Nsevpn hfrf Puvc&Cva pneqf, ohg fubhyq fgvyy npprcg nzrevpna fvtangher-bayl chepunfrf. SR -- Stefano Rivera http://tumbleweed.org.za/ +1 415 683 3272 ___ Debconf-team mailing list Debconf-team@lists.debconf.org http://lists.debconf.org/mailman/listinfo/debconf-team
Re: [Debconf-team] DC16 Costs
Hi Philipp (2015.01.27_20:49:36_+0200) > Food: > * 33 USD/day (current quote, on the higher side according to local team) > Accomodation: > * Hotels: 50USD/double room/night > * Dorms: 20USD/p/night > Venue: > * Upper Campus: free > * Breakwater: ? From http://anonscm.debian.org/cgit/debconf-data/bid-capetown.git/plain/venue_info/debconf16_cost_comparison.ods We estimate R9000 per day for 200 people and R15000 per day for 300 for the conference facilities at Breakwater campus. SR -- Stefano Rivera http://tumbleweed.org.za/ +1 415 683 3272 ___ Debconf-team mailing list Debconf-team@lists.debconf.org http://lists.debconf.org/mailman/listinfo/debconf-team
Re: [Debconf-team] DC16 Decision Meeting - Second take
A status update from the Cape Town bid: * Displayed the team's primary venue and backup venue status on the bid page. * Confirmed availability of, described, and priced family accommodation at UCT. * Got more details on the UCT upper campus residence bathrooms. * Got a price for full food and board at UCT that comes to less than R100 (€8) per person per day for 3 meals. Compared to our fancier (and healthier) caterers who quoted 3x as much. * Added estimated venue and accommodation costs to the pages for the UCT Breakwater and TechnoPark venues. Previously these were only visible in a spreadsheet in git. * Described other hotels in walking distance from TechnoPark. * Summarised bus hire quotes we've received. * Fleshed out the exchange control laws section. * Wrote up our investigation of umbrella organization options. You can find deep links into the appropriate wiki page for each of those here: https://wiki.debconf.org/wiki/DebConf16/Bids/Cape_Town/Status#Since_the_first_meeting If anyone has any more questions that you'd like addressed before the meeting, please let us know. SR -- Stefano Rivera http://tumbleweed.org.za/ +1 415 683 3272 ___ Debconf-team mailing list Debconf-team@lists.debconf.org http://lists.debconf.org/mailman/listinfo/debconf-team
Re: [Debconf-team] DC16 Decision Meeting - Second take
Hi Gunnar (2015.02.13_19:23:04_+0200) > This section now says that basically all attendees can enter without > worrying about their personal money. Yes, I mentioned exchange control, because it may affect the conference organization, but of course, people then panic. It really shouldn't affect attendees. > However, what would it mean to DebConf's operative money? We work with > quite a high budget, and we receive (and spend) it throughout many > months. Also, that transfers over R1m have to pay 10% tax. What would > this mean for our finances? 10% tax on all money we use for paying > expenses in South Africa? (i.e. most of our budget, aside from travel > sponsorship) These aren't hard and fixed taxes, as far as I know. Large transfers require reserve bank approval, and that may be contingent on a tax. I'm fairly sure money coming *into* the country won't be an issue, it's moving it out, that concerns the reserve bank. I think we'd want to avoid having Debian make a loan to DebConf, that has to be paid back, from funds raised in South Africa. If we need a loan within South Africa, for cash flow, it may be cheaper not to get this from Debian. Obviously we'll take more financial advice, when we are committed to hosting the conference. But I'm suspecting, that if we can keep transport bursaries out of the country, and we only have to deal with other expenses, we should go under the reserve bank's radar. We should also not expect to be able to make instant international transfers. Some times they will be immediate, sometimes they may take a few days. SR -- Stefano Rivera http://tumbleweed.org.za/ +1 415 683 3272 ___ Debconf-team mailing list Debconf-team@lists.debconf.org http://lists.debconf.org/mailman/listinfo/debconf-team
Re: [Debconf-team] registration sprint video
Hi Wouter (2015.08.14_13:48:12_+0200) > I probably need to talk to Holger to be able to upload those videos to > video.debian.net, but for now you can access them directly from the > encoding server. I can do that. SR -- Stefano Rivera http://tumbleweed.org.za/ +1 415 683 3272 ___ Debconf-team mailing list Debconf-team@lists.debconf.org http://lists.debconf.org/mailman/listinfo/debconf-team
Re: [Debconf-team] Leftovers from venue - debian.ch stuff, french power strips etc
Hi Wouter (2015.09.03_20:39:39_+0200) > > https://ivanova.notwork.de/~mh/stuff/leftovers.jpg shows what was left ofter > > at the venue after the last parcel truck left. The two french (?) power > > strips are labeled video team, > > They're CEE 7 type E, yes. They probably should have been shipped to > Paris, with the rest of the gear that got shipped there. They were donated to the infra team, because we hadn't bought any power strips yet, when they set up the server room. At the end of the debconf, the video team abducted a large number of the power strips that had been bought, so we've more than replenished our supplies :) You're welcome to do whatever you want with them, the video team doesn't need them. SR -- Stefano Rivera http://tumbleweed.org.za/ +1 415 683 3272 ___ Debconf-team mailing list Debconf-team@lists.debconf.org http://lists.debconf.org/mailman/listinfo/debconf-team
[Debconf-team] Scheduling DC16 meetings
While work on the DC15 final report continues, our focus starts to shift to the next DebConf, DC16. Until now, the DC16 team has been meeting on Wednesdays at 18:30 UTC. However, that may not work for the rest of the broader DebConf team, so we are re-polling on the best time for meetings: https://dudle.inf.tu-dresden.de/xwrd6g9h/ If you've already seen this poll, please check it again. New time options have been added, several times, since it was first announced. These meetings will be held in #debconf-team. I think we should try to reduce use of the dc16 mailing list and IRC channel, and keep everything central. (Having to CC both lists, like this, is especially annoying) I think the normal pattern will be that only the coordination team is expected to attend the meetings. Other team leads short report in, maybe once a month, or when necessary. There will be one more meeting on the old schedule: #debconf16-capetown, at 18:30 UTC on Wednesday 9th: https://wiki.debconf.org/wiki/DebConf16/Meetings/2015-09-09 Hopefully we can announce the new schedule by the end of this week. SR -- Stefano Rivera http://tumbleweed.org.za/ +1 415 683 3272 ___ Debconf-team mailing list Debconf-team@lists.debconf.org http://lists.debconf.org/mailman/listinfo/debconf-team
Re: [Debconf-team] Scheduling DC16 meetings
Hi Bernelle (2015.09.15_12:54:48_+0200) > It looks like Wednesdays 19:00 UTC (21:00 SAST/local event time) still > seems good. If there's no massive objections, can we then make the > meeting tomorrow night? Please add agenda items on the wiki (currently > still blank) [1]. Yeah, that sounds fine. > (21:00 SAST, which is 19:00 UTC and 20:00UTC after DST...) UTC is not affected by daylight savings. Are you suggesting we move to 20:00 UTC (an hour later in ZA) when the northern hemisphere does its DST thing? SR -- Stefano Rivera http://tumbleweed.org.za/ +1 415 683 3272 ___ Debconf-team mailing list Debconf-team@lists.debconf.org http://lists.debconf.org/mailman/listinfo/debconf-team
Re: [Debconf-team] Scheduling DC16 meetings
Hi Jonathan (2015.09.15_13:33:45_+0200) > *ahem*, make that "Alternating between Wednesday and Thursday sounds > reasonable". So, looking at the dudle, 2 chairs who can make Wednesdays can't make Thursdays. And the only person that seems to benefit from Thursday is Jan-Marek. Is the complication of the two meeting times worth it? SR -- Stefano Rivera http://tumbleweed.org.za/ +1 415 683 3272 ___ Debconf-team mailing list Debconf-team@lists.debconf.org http://lists.debconf.org/mailman/listinfo/debconf-team
Re: [Debconf-team] DebConf meetings this week
Hi Bernelle (2015.09.21_12:16:11_+0200) > Noted, awaiting someone from coord to confirm a new day/time. Err, we went through the whole dudle for scheduling meetings and got Wednseday. I don't know where the Monday thing comes from. Last week's Monday meeting was clearly a one-off. SR -- Stefano Rivera http://tumbleweed.org.za/ +1 415 683 3272 ___ Debconf-team mailing list Debconf-team@lists.debconf.org http://lists.debconf.org/mailman/listinfo/debconf-team
Re: [Debconf-team] DebConf meetings this week
Hi Philip (2015.09.21_22:29:32_+0200) > > Last week's Monday meeting was clearly a one-off. > > Obviously I missed the relevant memo. No, it was an intentionally private meeting, to try to form the core of the coordination team. The privateness of it has already caused a kerfuffle. I'd recommend forgetting about it. > Could someone explain the purpose of the co-ordination team? I'd say, to keep on top of the important issues, and make sure DebConf happens. But everyone will probably give you a different definition. SR -- Stefano Rivera http://tumbleweed.org.za/ +1 415 683 3272 ___ Debconf-team mailing list Debconf-team@lists.debconf.org http://lists.debconf.org/mailman/listinfo/debconf-team
Re: [Debconf-team] 'meeting' tonight: General discussion
Hi Brian (2015.11.04_17:32:30_+0200) > > * The website is coming along well - is the current one on wafer already? > > [3] > > There is talk of a sprint in January, which may involve flying people > > to Cape Town. Stefano knows more here, we should discuss the options. > > Is this for just DC16, or would this work be applied to future > DebConfs? Also how much budget are we discussing? It would be useful for future. Simon said he was considering taking some leave, to sprint on wafer. If he does that, I'd be keen to support that, and try to coordinate it with a trip to Cape Town. We haven't really discussed this with anyone else, yet. So, I don't know if anyone else would be keen. If I can just tack this on to a holiday in Cape Town, I wouldn't need any funding. SR -- Stefano Rivera http://tumbleweed.org.za/ +1 415 683 3272 ___ Debconf-team mailing list Debconf-team@lists.debconf.org http://lists.debconf.org/mailman/listinfo/debconf-team
[Debconf-team] Meeting 2015-11-25 18:30 UTC
Weekly meeting reminder. Agenda: http://deb.li/DC16meet1 - please edit Past minutes: https://wiki.debconf.org/wiki/DebConf16/Meetings SR -- Stefano Rivera http://tumbleweed.org.za/ +1 415 683 3272 ___ Debconf-team mailing list Debconf-team@lists.debconf.org http://lists.debconf.org/mailman/listinfo/debconf-team
[Debconf-team] Meeting reminder: 6 January 18:30 UTC
The holidays for most people are winding down, and it's time to start having weekly meetings again. Agenda: http://deb.li/DC16meet1 So far, off the top of my head: * Venue status (must hastle them now that they're getting back from holidays) * Fundraising status (some promising leads, but we generally need more of that) * DC17 status SR -- Stefano Rivera http://tumbleweed.org.za/ +1 415 683 3272 ___ Debconf-team mailing list Debconf-team@lists.debconf.org http://lists.debconf.org/mailman/listinfo/debconf-team
Re: [Debconf-team] Questions / Information for pre-registration, please review
Hi Daniel (2016.02.03_21:30:45_+0200) > We plan to do a pre-registration soonish (to get a feel for the amount of > attendees we can expect and to get people in early that may require > sponsorship), then a formal registration/re-confirmation in April/May and a > CFP (call for papers) in the same timeframe. I think we've ended up with the typical result from a design-by-committee :) A list of far too many questions. For budgeting purposes, wouldn't the following be sufficient? [ ] Plan to attend DebCamp [ ] Plan to attend DebConf [ ] Will require sponsorship This gives us an idea of percentages of attendees wanting to attend DebCamp, and percentages needing sponsorship. That's about the best we're going to get out of pre-reg, right? And then some question about accompanying family members. I'm imagining that this is going to have to be a list of email addresses. Those would then get promoted to full-blown accounts later, if they need it, and we implement it. Requiring e-mail addreses for babies sucks. But for a faraway DC16, I'm guessing there won't be many. And implementation-wise, it's the simplest. SR -- Stefano Rivera http://tumbleweed.org.za/ +1 415 683 3272 ___ Debconf-team mailing list Debconf-team@lists.debconf.org http://lists.debconf.org/mailman/listinfo/debconf-team
Re: [Debconf-team] Questions / Information for pre-registration, please review
Hi David (2016.02.04_04:06:22_+0200) > We do eventually need to know who wants sponsorship _for DebCamp_, at > least if the plan is follow last years model and have bursaries decide > sponsorship of debcamp seperately. But I have no idea if you need/want > that information for pre-reg. Yes, and we'll need to know if people want travel sponsorship, etc. We don't plan to be making any of these decisions based on purely pre-registration, though, do we? SR -- Stefano Rivera http://tumbleweed.org.za/ +1 415 683 3272 ___ Debconf-team mailing list Debconf-team@lists.debconf.org http://lists.debconf.org/mailman/listinfo/debconf-team
Re: [Debconf-team] Questions / Information for pre-registration, please review
Hi debconf-team (2016.02.04_02:49:04_+0200) > [ ] Will require sponsorship This could require a bit of clarification. Do we consider "free attendance" to be requiring sponsorship? I think most of us do, but presumably some attendees don't. SR -- Stefano Rivera http://tumbleweed.org.za/ +1 415 683 3272 ___ Debconf-team mailing list Debconf-team@lists.debconf.org http://lists.debconf.org/mailman/listinfo/debconf-team
Re: [Debconf-team] Day Trips
Hi Tammy (2016.05.04_18:39:31_+0200) We've kind of forgotten about this a bit. A few of us sat down and looked through the options, and here's what I think is a reasonable short list: Robben Island (prison + penguins) + V&A Waterfront Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens - with optional hikes Cape Point Nature Reserve (baboons, ostriches, antelope) + Boulders Beach Spice route: Wine, beer, grappa, chocolate tasting + optional Fairview (walking distance away) Table Mountain Cable Car - can't really think what to combine it with Is that still too many options? I don't think DebConf attendees will be *that* interested in the more professional tours (at least, that's not normally the kind of thing we offer). But these options are great for people who are looking to do something outside DebConf, and we should make that more obvious, to them, on the wiki. SR -- Stefano Rivera http://tumbleweed.org.za/ +1 415 683 3272 ___ Debconf-team mailing list Debconf-team@lists.debconf.org http://lists.debconf.org/mailman/listinfo/debconf-team
Re: [Debconf-team] Custom made, Conference Bags
Hi Tammy (2016.05.30_13:17:50_+0200) > There are a couple of Colour options, Plain or Multicoloured. They look great. A quick poll on IRC says everyone likes option 2 for the liner. SR -- Stefano Rivera http://tumbleweed.org.za/ +1 415 683 3272 ___ Debconf-team mailing list Debconf-team@lists.debconf.org http://lists.debconf.org/mailman/listinfo/debconf-team
Re: [Debconf-team] Banners
Hi Tammy (2016.05.30_21:44:21_+0200) > 3) How many Podiums are there, for us to add banners? 3 Talk rooms with video coverage. There'll be a few BoF rooms too, but I bet they don't need banners. SR -- Stefano Rivera http://tumbleweed.org.za/ +1 415 683 3272 ___ Debconf-team mailing list Debconf-team@lists.debconf.org http://lists.debconf.org/mailman/listinfo/debconf-team
Re: [Debconf-team] Swag, extension cords, and Open weekend PC's
Hi Bernelle (2016.06.30_18:09:55_+0200) > * Extension cords: > There are two double plugs (that I saw) in the Menzies open area. > We need power for Hetzner (TV) and Aleph Objects (3D printer and > supporting PCs). Hetzner cannot be placed close to the power plug as > this will obstruct the entrance. > We could probably place Aleph Objects close to the power point below > the notice board screens. > We could look at how this all works tomorrow, I don't see this as a > crisis at this point. Video team has extension cords, borrowed from Computer Science. Check the video NOC (Menzies 11A). SR -- Stefano Rivera http://tumbleweed.org.za/ +27 72 419 8559 +1 415 683 3272 ___ Debconf-team mailing list Debconf-team@lists.debconf.org http://lists.debconf.org/mailman/listinfo/debconf-team
Re: [Debconf-team] Some questions
Hi Martin (2016.07.03_12:18:50_+0200) > I spoke with him and while the situation is not ideal (especially the > way up to menzies, isn't there maybe a route through buildings with > elevators for which we could get keys? ) There are no buildings with elevators that can take you down to residence road. The best he can get is down to university avenue, through the leslie buildings. These will be more open during the week. Or Graham can get him a 3rd party access card? :) SR -- Stefano Rivera http://tumbleweed.org.za/ +27 72 419 8559 +1 415 683 3272 ___ Debconf-team mailing list Debconf-team@lists.debconf.org http://lists.debconf.org/mailman/listinfo/debconf-team
[Debconf-team] Handover BoF moved to Saturday
Due to a clash with Penguins at the aquarium, we've moved the Handover BoF to 11:10am on Saturday. SR -- Stefano Rivera http://tumbleweed.org.za/ +27 72 419 8559 +1 415 683 3272 ___ Debconf-team mailing list Debconf-team@lists.debconf.org http://lists.debconf.org/mailman/listinfo/debconf-team
Re: [Debconf-team] DebConf16
Hi Tammy (2016.07.11_11:57:38_+0200) > Is there anything we need to do post-debConf? Apart from the final report? I'd like to wrap up the ZA financial side this week, if possible. Tammy, can you give us an invoice for the things we owe you for. Can everyone who spent their own money on DebConf check that your reimbursements are listed in journal.ledger [0] [0]: https://anonscm.debian.org/cgit/debconf-data/dc16.git/tree/budget/journal.ledger SR -- Stefano Rivera http://tumbleweed.org.za/ +27 72 419 8559 +1 415 683 3272 ___ Debconf-team mailing list Debconf-team@lists.debconf.org http://lists.debconf.org/mailman/listinfo/debconf-team
[Debconf-team] DC16 Financial Report
Daniel and I sat down at DebCamp 17, and finished the DC16 bookings into ledger. DC16 made a total profit of about 35 000 USD (500 000 ZAR). The ledger journal and invoices are in dc16's git repo [0]. [0]: https://anonscm.debian.org/cgit/debconf-data/dc16.git/tree/budget $ ledger -f journal.ledger --price-db forex.db balance income expenses liabilities -X USD 151,721.65 USD expenses 329.66 USDadvisory:misc 41,955.78 USDattendees:travel-sponsorship 8,716.86 USDconfdinner 476.81 USDcorrection 7,555.03 USDdiscretionary 3,715.92 USDfees 424.46 USDinsurance:video-equipment 251.82 USDlaundry 752.00 USDnetwork:misc 67,868.72 USDroomboard 11,702.78 USD debcamp 3,368.48 USD debconf 10,336.67 USDswag 4,101.65 USD bags 137.87 USD lanyards 6,097.15 USD tshirts 1,721.44 USDvenue:hire:hacklabs 7,616.48 USDvideo 5,475.99 USD rental 2,054.00 USD shipping -187,315.26 USD income -40.16 USDadhoc -44,764.92 USDattendees -947.25 USDdaytrips -602.65 USD cape-point -269.63 USD safari-glen -74.97 USD table-mountain -62.93 USDlaptop-donations -5,000.00 USDoutreachy:expected -136,500.00 USDsponsors:committed -35,593.61 USD $ ledger -f journal.ledger --price-db forex.db balance income expenses liabilities -X ZAR 2,266,584.86 ZAR expenses 4,924.80 ZARadvisory:misc 626,781.54 ZARattendees:travel-sponsorship 130,222.06 ZARconfdinner 7,123.12 ZARcorrection 112,865.40 ZARdiscretionary 55,512.54 ZARfees 6,341.00 ZARinsurance:video-equipment 3,762.00 ZARlaundry 11,234.17 ZARnetwork:misc 1,013,897.57 ZARroomboard 174,828.97 ZAR debcamp 50,322.00 ZAR debconf 154,420.59 ZARswag 61,275.00 ZAR bags 2,059.59 ZAR lanyards 91,086.00 ZAR tshirts 25,716.75 ZARvenue:hire:hacklabs 113,783.32 ZARvideo 81,806.40 ZAR rental 30,684.91 ZAR shipping -2,798,321.40 ZAR income -600.00 ZARadhoc -668,747.65 ZARattendees -14,151.00 ZARdaytrips -9,003.00 ZAR cape-point -4,028.00 ZAR safari-glen -1,120.00 ZAR table-mountain -940.10 ZARlaptop-donations -74,695.50 ZARoutreachy:expected -2,039,187.15 ZARsponsors:committed -531,736.54 ZAR SR -- Stefano Rivera http://tumbleweed.org.za/ +1 415 683 3272 ___ Debconf-team mailing list Debconf-team@lists.debconf.org http://lists.debconf.org/mailman/listinfo/debconf-team
Re: [Debconf-team] DC16 Financial Report
Hi Chris (2017.08.04_18:42:47_+0200) > > DC16 made a total profit of about 35 000 USD (500 000 ZAR). > > (Can you clarify what happens to this?) The money is in the Trusted Organisations. It was collected into multiple TOs - the most convenient one for each sponsor. SPI reported [0] a loss of USD 16k for DebConf16. The balance will be income to SPI (service fees, money transfer cost) and income to our accounts in other TOs. All the DebConf16 expenses were paid through SPI, and money collected in South Africa (from sponsors and attendees). [0] http://spi-inc.org/corporate/annual-reports/2016.pdf > Can you briefly expand on the following two items for me? > > > 476.81 USDcorrection We are missing 2 invoices, which we have made correction bookings for. > > 7,555.03 USDdiscretionary The budget covered the large foreseeable expenses and everything else was booked as discretionary. This included things like bus hire for the day trips, front desk expenses, network cable, and a full team (DPL-authorised) farewell dinner. SR -- Stefano Rivera http://tumbleweed.org.za/ +1 415 683 3272 ___ Debconf-team mailing list Debconf-team@lists.debconf.org http://lists.debconf.org/mailman/listinfo/debconf-team
Re: [Debconf-team] Dear wafer-masters, please add to stylesheet...
Hi Gunnar (2017.08.07_05:53:26_+0200) > In order to (easily!) print out the room schedules in the morning, we > would be most grateful if you could add the following to Wafer's CSS: Sorry, I experimented with this a bit at the time, but never got it to work. FWIW, this is being tracked upstream at https://github.com/CTPUG/wafer/issues/141 SR -- Stefano Rivera http://tumbleweed.org.za/ +1 415 683 3272 ___ Debconf-team mailing list Debconf-team@lists.debconf.org http://lists.debconf.org/mailman/listinfo/debconf-team
Re: [Debconf-team] [debconf-team] Weekly meeting (Monday Aug 21 14:00 UTC), and polling for next meeting time
Hi ChangZhuo (2017.09.10_17:10:17_+0200) > Looks like the following 3 slots are all good for meeting: > > * Sep 12, 13h > * Sep 13, 13h > * Sep 14, 13h Sorry, I missed the second poll while I was on holiday. I can't make any of the 13:00 slots. Can I suggest that we alternate between 13:00 and 01:00 so that everyone can attend? And schedule website related discussion in the 01:00 meetings. I struggled to stay in sync with the dc17 local team, once they moved meetings too early for me to be awake. I would like to avoid a repeat of that. SR -- Stefano Rivera http://tumbleweed.org.za/ +1 415 683 3272 ___ Debconf-team mailing list Debconf-team@lists.debconf.org http://lists.debconf.org/mailman/listinfo/debconf-team
