Re: FOSDEM 2007 organization - just 4 weeks left!!!

[Nicolas Roard]

On 1/25/07, Helge Hess <helge.hess@opengroupware.org> wrote:
> On Jan 22, 2007, at 09:03, hns@computer.org wrote:
> > Please look at http://wiki.gnustep.org/index.php/FOSDEM_2007 what is
> > still needed and provide support!
>
> Not having a lot of time, just a few notes.
> - Stand Overview
>    - do you have a banner?

I think we can reuse the banner we printed last year -- quentin have
it I believe ? (at worse it wouldn't take much effort to print it
again)

>    - you have *one* desk, the other desk is OpenGroupware.org (though we
>      certainly don't mind mixing things ;-)

:-)

> - merchandise
>    - its unusual to take $$ for give-aways, unless its really cool
>    - do you have organized any merchandise?
>      - if not, you might want to drop the task from the wiki or put it
>        down as nice-to-have

if nothing is ready for the merchandise, it's probably not worth
taking time on it, really... the only merchandise we really need is
the live cd, and possibly a few leaflets...

I just checked and I have a dozen or so hard cover color leaflets from
two years ago that richard printed; plus a bit of black/white ones.
I'll bring them with me, but obviously it's not enough. Though it's
frankly not a problem to print things even in Bruxelles if we need to.
I think there's some booklets and leaflets left from last year too ?

> - demos
>    - who provides the hardware, do you already have organized that?
>      - looks like a wishlist which you didn't discuss with anyone
>      - most people in the past brought Macs

Ok, imho that's really the part we need to focus on : the booth and the demos.
Else people come over, see a bunch of guys playing on their own
computers with a few leaflets on the desk, and they leave -- nothing
to see, move along ! :)

the devroom talks are interesting, but they are only really
interesting if people outside of ourselves come to hear the talks :-)

So we should really focus on booth demos I think.

Ideally, we should have 3 machines *always* available on the stand --
one running windows, one running some unix, one running OS X, and all
with some gnustep apps.

But that's only ideally :) -- I doubt we can have as much machines. So
the first thing, before wishful thinking, is to know *what* hardware
we can have.

>        - Nicolas had the coolest demos, I don't even know whether he
>          comes to FOSDEM?

I should be here, normally. Need to take my train ticket though :)
For those interested, a few étoilé persons will be here
thursday/friday, if everything goes well.

>    - BTW: there is FOSDEM insurance for hardware, you just need to apply
> - books
>    - don't get the point

well, I'm not sure I get the point either -- why not, just to show
what kind of books people can buy, but.. we aren't selling them
anyway..

> - posters
>    - who provides them? Looks like you just put up some ideas w/o having
>      someone taking care
> - questions
>    - valuable devices: FOSDEM insurance
>    - payments: just do not take payments, who is supposed to organize
> that
>    - request a dev room: well, I said its overkill from the beginning

why ? I think it's useful, and people come to the talks... though well
it depends what presentation we'll do :) -- doesn't look like there's
much volunteers for the moment !
(we don't need a huge devroom of course)

>    - additional presentation: would be cool.
>    - booth tables: same like last year, for sure
>    - ...
>
> This Wiki page needs a serious cleanup to reflect reality, not
> wishful dreaming. IMHO.

well, it's good to start with some wishful dreaming, but as the date
for the fosdem comes closer, we indeed need to deal with reality :)

> > Otherwise, I fear that our participation will more harm the public
> > impression of GNUstep than help.
>
> I'm certainly quite angry on that kind of comment!!! :-/

> The only other thing I would love to see completed is the attendence.

yes.. I added myself, quentin and jesse to the list.

--
Nicolas Roard
"La perfection, ce n'est pas quand il n'y a plus rien à ajouter, c'est
quand il n'y a plus rien à retrancher." -- Antoine de St-Exupéry