FOSS4G 2012 To-Do List

This is the to-do list for the preparation of OSGeo's 2012 global conference, FOSS4G 2012 Beijing.

This page (together with the sub-lists it points to) serves as a detailed list of plans and issues. It's encouraged to add minor issues or notes to this list, but please do your best to keep it clean and organized. For important and stand-alone issues, make sure you post it on the FOSS4G 2012 mailing list as well.

This page is designed primarily for those outside the LOC. The LOC may use other means to keep track of things that must be done locally.

If you're not a member of the community yet but interested in the conference and would like to contribute to the preparation/organizing or any of those related tasks, your kindness would be very much appreciated. Please subscribe to the mailing list mentioned above and introduce yourself to the community first.

Notes:
 * Make the identity of the concerned individual/group clear when necessary. After writing "I am doing ... ", sign your name.
 * When an important issue is solved, do not remove it immediately. Update the status below (some indenting preferred) and leave it there for a while so others can catch up with the progress. It's wiki fashion to use " (✔) " for approval or success, " (✘) " for disapproval or failure, and " (＝) " for neutral or pending.

General and High-Level
Spread the Word
 * The success of FOSS4G 2012 Beijing, as of any public conference, relies heavily upon its attendances. Any one who's interested in open and free geospatial software technology, the current research and development, or its various applications are welcomed to come to the conference, and very importantly, promote FOSS4G 2012 to those who share similar interests. The conference will be successful and inspirational if there are enough people to make it this way.


 * To spread the word, you can:
 * Talk to friends, schoolmates or coworkers about the conference.
 * Use FOSS4G solutions for your work or school, and show people the potential.
 * Write about the conference for your blog or social networking service.
 * Use your power at your business or school to rise the awareness. For example, update you company's internal calendar and add FOSS4G 2012. Make sure that what you do is appropriate and goes well with the regulations of the place.
 * Provide financial or other forms of support if you're in the position to make such decisions.

Add Keynoters, Lecturers, Exhibitors and Workshops
 * _

Get Sponsors
 * The FOSS4G conference needs financial support from sponsors in order to function well. There are many geospatial-related businesses out there who would value such an opportunity to reach a group of active users and developers of geospatial software. But they need to get the message so the cooperation can happen.


 * To get sponsors, you can:
 * Contact potential sponsors to make them aware of the opportunity.
 * Show people how much OSGeo and FOSS4G has achieved in the past.
 * Talk about the plans of this year's conference and potential attendances.
 * Make your own business a sponsor if possible.

FOSS4G 2012 Beijing Website
The official website of FOSS4G 2012 is 2012.foss4g.org. Up-date plans and issues found are listed here.

Need Update or Expansion


 * (✔) We need a platform to manage the submissions abstracts and academic papers.
 * (✔) For the academic papers, Jgrocha configured an OpenConf based platform. It is available at FOSS4G 2012 Academic Track Manager. Administration login and password were sent to [mailto:tomgaoang@gmail.com Gao Ang] and to the [mailto:foss4g2012@lreis.ac.cn official FOSS4G 2012 email address].
 * Abstracts will be selected by the community, as already happened, or by a closed committee?
 * (＝) We will try to provide the platform to manage the submissions for committees. -- Gaoang


 * (＝) We need a submission form also for the workshop proposals and tutorials, to be ranked and selected by workshop committee. Should we use the same OpenConf for this?
 * (＝) We have chosen a cloud conference platform to provide functional components for the website. We will evaluate the compatibility between our platform and OpenConf. -- Gaoang


 * (＝) The submitting form is confusing and difficult to use.
 * The "Category" drop-down is confusing. More explanation ?
 * Where are the "Subject Area" fields mentioned in the description ?
 * PDF files (and some other common formats) are not allowed.
 * The registration e-mail title ("感谢您的报名!") and the submitting button ("上传文件") are in Chinese.


 * (＝) The registration system does not properly handle UTF-8 characters.


 * Paper/abstract submission led to blank page.


 * The page may have mistaken phone number as password when registering a new log-in.

Typo and Minor Issues
 * _

FOSS4G 2012 Code Sprint
Code Sprint is "a group that is using an open source project and wants to see something done". A typical code sprint may last one day long or more, during which a small group goes to a place with all the necessary hardware/software provided, and communicate face-to-face while doing the hacking.

FOSS4G 2012 Code Sprint has no detailed plan yet and we need to work on that.

Other things

 * We need the source images for the logo, to use it on other places, and in our websites, to point to FOSS4G 2012 website.
 * (✔) Vector (SVG) can be found at sdrv.ms/Np3nJv.


 * (＝) Foreign attendances may need invitations from the China side for visa.