Re: FOSDEM 2019

[Ricardo Wurmus]

Hi,

> On 2018-08-30 20:20, Pjotr Prins wrote:
>> Just to clarify, we will organize a two day Guix conference before
>> FOSDEM. That is pretty much in the box. We have room at ICAB, the place
>> we were last year.
>>
>>   http://icab.be/
>
> About the specifically guix event, maybe it's a good time to organize
> an install party. Also, let's be clear upfront if that the fringe event
> can include those kind of work: poster, workshop, tutorial... anything
> else to add?

We haven’t really discussed the kind of event we would like to have, and
it’s true that we should find consensus on how to organize the event.

In my opinion, an install party may not be the best use of time for the
Guix meeting, because the target audience is Guix developers who
probably already have Guix installed.  (If not we can help them get it
installed via the installer script, but I would not want to focus too
much on this part.)

We haven’t discussed the kind of event we would like to have, so here
are some thoughts.  I think it would be a good idea to use this
opportunity to facilitate small group projects.  We could start by
having everyone think of a small Guix-related project, decide on 5 of
them (so that everyone has something they find interesting), then head
off into separate group work for half an hour with an option to extend
for another half hour (or moving to another group).

At the end of each session one person from each group shares with the
other attending people the results of their session.  (No more than a
few minutes each.)

Another fun thing we could do is a skill share session where people
volunteer to teach one thing to anyone who would like to listen.
(E.g. how to review patch submissions on Debbugs effectively; or how to
use git rebase without misery; using Geiser with Guix; how to contribute
translations; little IRC tricks; etc.)

This model of facilitating smaller sessions worked pretty well for the
Reproducible Builds summits in the past, and I think we could spend some
of the time doing this.  It ensures that people can collaborate
effectively and with purpose, and it gives everyone a chance to speak
and shape the meeting.

I would like to keep the number of talks to a minimum and leave out
introductory talks completely (that would be more suited for a general
FOSDEM audience).  Instead I’d like to see more active
self-organisation.

What do y’all think about this?

--
Ricardo