IslandWood Code Sprint 2012

Purpose

This is OSGeo's 4th annual "North American Codesprint" -- a time to bring members of OSGeo-related projects together to make decisions and tackle larger problems.

Previous event have been help in Toronto (2009), New York City (2010), and Montreal (2011).

Timing

The event will be held sometime during January-March of 2012.

It will be held during the week, and will likely last four days -- for example, arrive Sunday night, sprint all day Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday, depart Thursday.

Venue

It will be held at IslandWood, a nonprofit retreat center located on Bainbridge Island, an island a few miles west of Seattle in the northwest United States.

Hosts

Rushing in where angels fear to tread, Michael P. Gerlek (mpg) is taking the lead on this event.  CUGOS, the local OSGeo chapter, is the hosting organization.

Local volunteers assisting include:

• Craig Miller (Spatial Minds / CUGOS)
• <add your name here!>

Sponsors

The Montreal sprint had ten $750 sponsors.  We expect to have a similar number this year.

If you think you know of a possible sponsor, or if you are a possible sponsor, contact Michael P. Gerlek (mpg@flaxen.com).

Budget

Details to come, but expected costs include:

• facilities rental (conference rooms, etc)
  
• lodging (on-campus rooms)
  
• meals
  

We expect to cover costs in three ways:

• sponsorships
  
• participant registration fees
  
• surplus from previous years (approx $2K)
  

Partipant Costs

Participants will be responsible for paying their own transportation to and from IslandWood.  In addition, participants will be expected to cover the costs of lodging (comparable to a hotel) and possibly some of their meal costs.

Food

IslandWood has an excellent on-site restaurant/cafeteria that emphasizes local, sustainable, and organic cuisine.

• Breakfast: continental style
  
• Lunch: boxed lunches
  
• Dinner: full meal, choice of entrees, beer/wine available
  
• Snacks: coffee, fruit, cookies, etc, will be provided in the meeting room
  

Accomodation can be made for any dietary restrictions.

Communication

All planning will take place on this wiki, on the tosprint mailing list, and on the #tosprint IRC channel.

Projects

These are the projects will be working on:

• GDAL
• MapServer
• libLAS/PDAL
• <add your project here!>

Participants

If you want to come, please add your name (and project(s)) here and indicate either "I'm interested, but won't know for sure until closer to the time" or "I'll definitely be there, and would be willing to pay the registration fee in advance"

• Michael P. Gerlek (Flaxen Geo) -- libLAS/PDAL -- definite
  
• Michael D. Smith (US Army Corps) -- libLAS/PDAL/MapServer/GDAL -- definite/can pay in advance
  
• Frank Warmerdam (Google) -- tentative
• Daniel Morissette (Mapgears) -- MapServer, GDAL/OGR -- 99% probability

Note that once registration is open, it will be FIRST COME FIRST SERVE.  Space is limited, so those who pay first will be at the front of the line.

Agenda

Something like this:

Sunday

• arrival throughout the day
  
• perhaps dinner provided
  

Monday

• continental breakfast
  
• sprint all morning
  
• boxed lunch
  
• sprint all afternoon
  
• group sit-down dinner
  
• evening open/social time at the lodges
  

Tuesday

• continental breakfast
  
• sprint all morning
  
• boxed lunch
  
• sprint all afternoon
  
• group sit-down dinner
  
• evening open/social time at the lodges
  

Wednesday

• continental breakfast
  
• sprint all morning
  
• boxed lunch
  
• sprint all afternoon
  
• group sit-down dinner
• evening open/social time at the lodges
  

Thursday

• departures throughout the day
  
• continental breakfast
  
• perhaps lunch provided
  

Non-sprint Activities

There will be one formal (but optional) "team building / outdoor fun" event, run for us by the IslandWood staff.  Details tbd.  Dress appropriately.  The event would likely be 2-3 hours, before dinner on either Tuesday or Wednesday.

IslandWood offers lots of trails, ponds, etc, for informal walks / jogs / etc you can explore at any time on your own.

There would likely also be an informal walk down to the beach (2-3 miles, off campus), hosted by mpg.

Transportation

Getting to IslandWood is a 4-step process -- but don't panic, it's actually not as complicated as it sounds:

(1) To SeaTac Airport

Particpants will be responsible for getting themselves to the Seattle airport (SeaTac airport).

(2) From Airport to Seattle Ferry dock

From SeaTac, you will need to get to the Colman ferry dock in downtown Seattle.  Two options:

• a ~$40 cab ride, from airport to dock
  
•  a ~$3 light rail from airport, followed by a walk of a few blocks to the dock
  

(3) From Seattle dock to Bainbridge dock

Take the Seattle/Bainbridge ferry, for about $7.  Ferries leave every hour or less all day long, except between about 1AM and 5AM.

(4) From Bainbridge dock to IslandWood

Cabs are almost always available at the Bainbridge dock -- a trip to IslandWood is about 10 miles, should be ~$15 or so.  (Note that you will likely be sharing a cab with someone else; the island has a limited number of cabs, so they carpool.  Just go with the flow.)

Depending on how things go, I might see if I can arrange a shuttle or something if multiple people are arriving all at once.  Or if you get really stuck, you can call me and I'll just come get you.

(see also this page for more transportation hints)

FAQ

Q: I'm new to open source and OSGeo.  Can I come too?

This is a heads-down-and-laptops-open working meeting, aimed squarely at writing code/documentation and holding serious technical discussions about OSGeo-related projects.  It is a working session for people who are already participants in open source projects. If you're not already participating in one of the projects being worked on, this isn't the event for you.
Q: But, that's not very fair.  How am I supposed to learn about the projects and meet people?

Each project has portals like mailing lists, wikis, and IRC channels for you to start to meet people and get involved. If you really want to participate in the sprint, you should get involved with the project ahead of time.

Q: Will it be possible to give a presentation during this event?

No, this is not a presentation-oriented event. People will get together in small groups and work on areas of mutual interest within their projects.

Q: I'm just a poor student, but I'm an active member of the <whatever> project and I really want to attend.  Are scholarships available?

Maybe -- depends on how our budget turns out.  Contact mpg@flaxen.com and we'll see what we can do.