FOSS4G2007 Workshops

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Introduction
The FOSS4G2007 Workshop Committee is responsible for the organization of both Workshops and Labs. Workshops are 3-hour classroom sessions, and Labs are 90-minute classes. The committee reports to the FOSS4G2007 Conference Committee.

FOSS4G Workshop Committee Members

 * Aaron Racicot
 * Dave Patton (chair)
 * David Percy
 * Jason Birch
 * Jeff McKenna
 * Jody Garnett
 * Perry Nacionales

Next Committee Meeting

 * date: 2007/07/31
 * time: 10:30AM PDT
 * via: conference call
 * Agenda:
 * 1) Select chair for this meeting
 * 2) Set date/time for next meeting
 * 3) Lab-08
 * 4) Replace or not
 * 5) the "top 120" presentations(i.e. their titles) don't mention Chameleon, but 5 of them mention uDig - should we therefore keep Lab-08?
 * 6) If replace, with what
 * 7) Pre-conference setup at VCC
 * 8) Friday, September 21, Noon-4PM
 * 9) * this is when Vernon will deliver all their rental PCs
 * 10) * this is to be confirmed - this may take place Sunday morning instead
 * 11) * do we need to supervise this?
 * 12) Saturday, September 22
 * 13) * when/where/how are the Nanaimo PCs being delivered?
 * 14) Sunday, September 23, Noon-?
 * 15) * move the Vernon rental PCs from storage into the Workshop classrooms, and assemble/test them
 * 16) * who will be able to help with this?
 * 17) * how do we handle the Nanaimo PCs?
 * 18) * who will do the testing of the AV setup for Instructors, and how/when?
 * 19) * onsite Early Registration opens at 3PM
 * 20) * should we plan for a meeting with the "Room Monitors"(volunteers) to go over their duties?
 * 21) During the conference:
 * 22) Monday, September 24, after 4PM
 * 23) * at "the end of the day", the Vernon rental PCs not being used for Labs have to be dismantled/moved
 * 24) * who will be able to help with this?
 * 25) * when will we do this? AGM is 4:30PM-6PM, and then the Reception starts at the Pub
 * 26) * where do we put the dismantled Vernon rental PCs?
 * 27) * do we keep any extra rental PCs as spares for the Labs?
 * 28) Tuesday, September 25, 9AM-Noon
 * 29) * this is when Vernon will pickup their rental PCs that we are not keeping for Labs
 * 30) * do we need to supervise this?
 * 31) * this is also the timeslot for the Opening Plenary
 * 32) Tuesday, September 25, 1PM through Thursday, September 27, Noon
 * 33) * this is the time period for Labs (and Presentations, Posters, BOFs, Reception, etc.)
 * 34) * what things can we anticipate that we will have to do during this time?
 * 35) * should we schedule short (daily?) meetings to make sure everything is on track?
 * 36) Thursday, September 27, 3PM-5PM
 * 37) * who can help dismantle/move Vernon rental PCs from Lab classroom(s)?
 * 38) * one classroom will have the Nanaimo PCs - how will they be handled?
 * 39) * where do we put the dismantled Vernon rental PCs?
 * 40) Friday, September 28, 9AM-Noon
 * 41) * this is when Vernon will pickup their remaining rental PCs that were used for Labs
 * 42) * do we need to supervise this?
 * 43) Printed Materials for Workshops/Labs
 * 44) * deadline will be midnight on Friday September 7th
 * 45) * Refractions staff will handle making "master copies", and getting them duplicated
 * 46) * Refractions staff will deliver all the pre-printed material to the registration desk by 2PM Sep 23
 * 47) VCC Infrastructure
 * 48) * LAN drops for Instructors(e.g. need 2 for Arnulf's notebooks)
 * 49) * Sharps will supply Y cables to drive monitor+projector, so Instructor PCs can be the same as the classroom PCs
 * 50) PC Hardware
 * 51) * we can 'hold back' a few rental PCs that were used for the Workshops to act as 'spares' for the Labs
 * 52) * Vernon normally provides 'a few' extra rental PCs to act as spares(i.e for the Workshops) - is 5 enough?
 * 53) PC OS
 * 54) * Windows XP comes with the PCs
 * 55) * LiveCD
 * 56) ** the rental PCs have CDROM drives, not DVD drives
 * 57) ** W-11 indicated they would use LiveDVD
 * 58) ** how much time will be needed for Instructors to boot their room's PCs from the LiveCD?
 * 59) * Virtual Machines
 * 60) ** install VMWare Player on all PCs?
 * 61) ** Instructors could supply VMs ahead of time, to be put onto "master PCs"
 * 62) ** Instructors could load, and boot, their VM just before the Workshop/Lab, just like for a LiveCD
 * 63) ** Instructor-supplied VM, with unpublished password, eases security concerns?
 * 64) PC Software
 * 65) * we should 'poke' the Instructors to speak up re the list of Software, and version number
 * 66) * how do we deal with the situation where software install is part of a Workshop/Lab?
 * 67) Data for Workshops/Labs
 * 68) * need mechanism, dates, who
 * 69) Master PCs
 * 70) * who is going to install & configure the Application & Utility software?
 * 71) * 2-3 "master PCs" from Vernon are to be delivered by August 24th
 * 72) * 2-3 "master PCs" from Vernon are to be returned to them by September 12th
 * 73) * remote access to these master PCs?

2007/07/03

 * IRC Log
 * Agenda:
 * 1) Select chair for this meeting
 * 2) Set date/time for next meeting
 * 3) Establish checklist and timetable for preparations for Workshops and Labs

2007/03/26

 * IRC Log
 * Agenda: this is an "informal meeting"

2007/03/12

 * IRC Log
 * Agenda:
 * 1) Select chair for this meeting
 * 2) Set date/time for next meeting
 * 3) Criteria selection
 * 4) Discuss the criteria to be used for the workshop submissions review process
 * 5) Vote on the suggested criteria, to establish the criteria list for use by the workshop committee
 * 6) Criteria importance
 * 7) Discuss whether all criteria should have equal 'weight', or whether some need a 'multiplier' to add/subtract their effect
 * 8) Vote on any suggestions for 'criteria weightings'
 * 9) Scoring
 * 10) How to 'score' a workshop submission based on the selected criteria
 * 11) Format of recommendations
 * 12) list of workshop submissions that are not recommended
 * 13) issue of limitations on the number of workshops
 * 14) ranked list of workshop submissions
 * 15) Timetable
 * 16) Half-day workshops
 * 17) 90-minute workshops

2007/03/06

 * IRC Log
 * Agenda:
 * 1) Select chair for this meeting
 * 2) Set date/time for next meeting
 * 3) Process for reviewing the workshop submissions
 * 4) How to do the review process
 * 5) private vs public
 * 6) who will be involved in the review
 * 7) collaboration methods (e.g. IRC, mailing list)
 * 8) A possible approach for the Workshop Committee to use when reviewing the workshop submissions
 * 9) Plans for dealing with 'late submissions'
 * 10) will submissions not already received be considered for the review?
 * 11) workshop submissions for key topics that aren't covered ("filling in the holes")
 * 12) Dates
 * 13) deadline for finishing review process is March 20th (due to organizing committee meeting March 22nd)
 * 14) if clarification of a workshop submission's details is needed, how long to wait for a response - March 11th?
 * 15) timetable for review process
 * 16) March 6 - March 11:
 * 17) committee members review submissions
 * 18) discussion amongst committee members about submissions
 * 19) committee members assign 'scores'
 * 20) March 12: 'scores' are tabulated
 * 21) March 13:
 * 22) committee meets to review/adjust 'ranked lists'
 * 23) 'ranked lists' of the workshop submissions are made available to the public (e.g. locked wiki page)
 * 24) March 14 - March 19: public can use mailing lists and IRC to comment on 'ranked lists'
 * 25) March 20:
 * 26) committee meets to review/adjust 'ranked lists'
 * 27) committee forwards final 'ranked lists' to the conference organizing committee
 * 28) Results of review process
 * 29) separate recommendations for half-day vs 90-minute workshops?
 * 30) what does the review produce:
 * 31) * two lists - recommended & not recommended?
 * 32) * an explanation for each submission that wasn't recommended?
 * 33) * one list, with a 'ranking' or 'score' for each submission?
 * 34) Workshop review criteria
 * 35) Decisions
 * 36) workshop committee to make recommendations
 * 37) final decisions made by conference organizing committee
 * 38) Objective criteria
 * 39) does the submission clearly not fall within the conference mandate
 * 40) can submission's technical requirements be met by the conference facilities?
 * 41) has the same workshop been presented at prior FOSS4G conferences? (this could be a plus or a minus)
 * 42) Subjective criteria
 * 43) expected level of interest in the workshop topic
 * 44) expertise of the workshop presenter in the workshop subject matter
 * 45) ability of the workshop presenter to present a 'good' workshop
 * 46) is there 'too much' overlap between multiple submissions
 * 47) geographical representation
 * 48) any relevant input from workshop evaluations collect by FOSS4G2006
 * 49) the "free" debate

2007/03/02

 * IRC Log
 * Action Items arising from meeting:
 * action: dave to phone Paul re making workshop selection process public, and deadline for finishing workshop submission review process
 * Agenda:
 * 1) Select chair for this meeting
 * 2) Committee membership
 * 3) invite David Percy to the committee
 * 4) status of Olivier?
 * 5) Set date/time for next meeting
 * 6) Review goals for number of workshops
 * 7) For "Workshops Day" (Monday September 24)
 * 8) Concurrent with presentations (Tuesday PM, Wednesday AM/PM, Thursday AM)
 * 9) Workshop Submissions - process summary
 * 10) have there been any comments on, or issues with, the submission process?
 * 11) are we aware of any submissions that are 'in the works', but which haven't been received?
 * 12) clarify "workshop" vs "lab" (e.g. half-day vs 90-minutes? Monday vs Tuesday-Thursday?)
 * 13) should 'workshops' that have no requirements for computers be considered "presentations"?
 * 14) Current status (as of 1:00PM Friday, 30 minutes before this meeting: total of 45 submissions)
 * 15) Number of submissions for half-day workshops = 28 (Beginner=9, Intermediate=2, Advanced=5, Developer=12)
 * 16) Number of submissions for 90-minute workshops = 17 (Beginner=7, Advanced=3, Developer=7)
 * 17) Number of half-day submissions that indicated they could be shortened to 90 minutes = 2
 * 18) Number of 90-minute submissions that indicated no need for computers = 5
 * 19) Technical Requirements:
 * 20) Provided Windows XP workstations = 21
 * 21) Multiple options, or ambiguous = 8
 * 22) Participants bring their own Laptop = 5
 * 23) Provided Linux VMWare machine = 5
 * 24) Instructor-provided LiveCD = 4
 * 25) None = 2
 * 26) Workshop selection process
 * 27) How to do the selection process - who, collaboration methods, etc.
 * 28) Plans re "filling in the holes" - how to get workshop submissions for key topics that aren't covered so far
 * 29) Dates
 * 30) Confirm current submission deadline(March 2), or select new deadline
 * 31) deadline for finishing review process
 * 32) Workshop selection criteria
 * 33) Decisions
 * 34) workshop committee to make recommendations
 * 35) final decisions made by conference organizing committee
 * 36) Objective criteria
 * 37) can submission's technical requirements be met by the conference facilities?
 * 38) Subjective criteria
 * 39) expected level of interest in the workshop topic
 * 40) expertise of the workshop presenter in the workshop subject matter
 * 41) ability of the workshop presenter to present a 'good' workshop

2007/02/23

 * IRC Log
 * Action Items arising from meeting:
 * action: dave - send out reminder later today about next week's meeting
 * DONE: Dave to email Frank a reminder announcement for the workshop submission deadline
 * action: dave to start wiki page re guidelines for workshops
 * Agenda:
 * 1) Select chair for this meeting
 * 2) Set date/time for next meeting
 * 3) review Action Items from 2007/02/09 meeting:
 * 4) ACTION: Aaron: talk to David Percy before next meeting
 * 5) OBSOLETE: Dave: need to find out from Olivier re use of INDICO
 * 6) ACTION: Jason to follow up with Jody
 * 7) ACTION: Dave to start developing the list of local print shops
 * 8) DONE: Dave to make agenda for next meeting
 * 9) review committee membership
 * 10) Jeff McKenna resigned from the committee due to work commitments, but will hopefully be able to help 'later on'
 * 11) Olivier Ertz hasn't been on IRC for about 3 weeks - anyone know his status?
 * 12) do we need more committee members?
 * 13) nominate and confirm new committee chair
 * 14) video of conference - confirm that this has been ruled out?
 * 15) Workshops
 * 16) Status of workshop submissions
 * 17) workshop materials
 * 18) who pays, and for what
 * 19) guidelines for workshop presenters:
 * 20) make a guideline based on the "top 5/10 rated workshops" from the prior conference( s )?
 * 21) guidelines for what? Format of workshop handouts? Size/length of handouts? Type of presentation?
 * 22) when accepting workshops, provide the presenters with the guidelines
 * 23) where/when to indicate to workshop presenters (or for workshop proposals?) to check with project steering committees?
 * 24) New Business
 * 25) estimated maximum bandwidth demand for a single workshop
 * 26) review of workshop evaluations from FOSS4G2007

2007/02/09

 * IRC Log
 * Action Items arising from meeting:
 * ACTION: Aaron: talk to David Percy before next meeting
 * ACTION: Dave: need to find out from Olivier re use of INDICO
 * ACTION: Jason to follow up with Jody
 * ACTION: Dave to start developing the list of local print shops
 * ACTION: Dave to make agenda for next meeting
 * Agenda:
 * 1) Select chair for this meeting
 * 2) Set date/time for next meeting
 * 3) Old Business
 * 4) review Action Items from 2007/02/02 meeting:
 * 5) DONE: Jason: send meeting reminders 1 day and 1 hour before meetings
 * 6) ACTION: Aaron: talk to David Percy before next meeting
 * 7) DONE: Jason: send out message to re-review the call and requirements by noon tomorrow PST
 * 8) ACTION: Dave: need to find out from Olivier re use of INDICO
 * 9) DONE: Dave: email Lorenzo re attending next week's meeting to discuss use of LiveCD
 * 10) DONE: Dave: review action items from earlier in the meeting
 * 11) DONE: Dave: prepare agenda for next week's meeting
 * 12) Status of help from Jody
 * 13) need a way to track the submissions like last year's INDICO system
 * 14) possibility of some sort of "facility" at the conference where workshop presenters can arrive and get help (financially and technically) getting copies, CD's, etc
 * 15) video of conference - is there an 'external resource' that could be used to manage this?
 * 16) Ominiverdi LiveCD: mailing list email from Lorenzo
 * 17) New Business
 * 18) nominate and confirm new committee chair
 * 19) review committee membership
 * 20) Status of workshop call, announcements, and feedback so far
 * 21) Policies & Procedures for workshop materials:
 * 22) who pays for workshop materials
 * 23) financial support by conference for workshop materials preparation
 * 24) guidelines for workshop materials (format, length, etc)
 * 25) Guidelines for types of workshop: from #osgeo, 2007/02/06  12:54:38 jgarnett:  aside: #geoserver meeting trying to come up with workshop topics   12:54:59 jgarnett:  how "advanced" should workshops go?
 * 26) Specs for rental computers
 * 27) Other New Business

2007/02/02

 * IRC Log
 * Action Items arising from meeting:
 * ACTION: Jason: send meeting reminders 1 day and 1 hour before meetings
 * ACTION: Aaron: talk to David Percy before next meeting
 * ACTION: Jason: send out message to re-review the call and requirements by noon tomorrow PST
 * ACTION: -: need to find out from Olivier re use of INDICO
 * ACTION: Dave: email Lorenzo re attending next week's meeting to discuss use of LiveCD
 * ACTION: Dave: review action items from earlier in the meeting
 * ACTION: Dave: prepare agenda for next week's meeting
 * Agenda:
 * 1) Select Meeting chair
 * 2) Set date/time for next meeting
 * 3) Old Business (based on Log from 2007/01/26 meeting)
 * 4) Jason: did you get in contact with Jody (jgarnett)?
 * 5) who will send out meeting reminders, and when
 * 6) Aaron: did you get in contact with David Percy?
 * 7) do we have a "set of questions/needs for the full committee to answer"?
 * 8) theme rooms, and creating tracks after workshop submissions received
 * 9) in 2006, workshops were 3.5 hours, including 30 minute break
 * 10) What about podcast/video of the workshops and presentations
 * 11) workshop details needed before call for abstracts (room sizes, number of machines, etc.)
 * 12) need a way to track the submissions like last year's INDICO system
 * 13) Olivier: did you contact the 2006 local committee re setting up an instance of INDICO for use for 2007 (for workshop submission tracking)?
 * 14) possibilities re adding more workshop time at the start/end of the conference?
 * 15) New Business
 * 16) for any "to do" items that come up in meetings, use "ACTION: name" on IRC to flag who is to take care of that item
 * 17) review Call For Workshops Content:
 * 18) Hyperbole
 * 19) Submission Requirements
 * 20) Ominiverdi LiveCD: mailing list email from Lorenzo
 * 21) date when call for workshops will be ready for announcement
 * 22) rooms for workshops - establish minimum allocations Workshop Rooms
 * 23) computer resources - current availability, and desired target Computers

2007/01/26

 * IRC Log
 * Agenda: There was no set agenda

List of workshop submissions
FOSS4G2007_Workshop_Submissions

Criteria used by the workshop committee to review workshop submissions

 * 1) meets conference mandate:
 * 2) matches with the themes of the conference
 * 3) makes use of software that is both "free" and "open source"
 * 4) submission's technical requirements can be met by the conference facilities
 * 5) likelyhood of a quality workshop:
 * 6) successful workshop presented at prior FOSS4G conference
 * 7) expertise of the workshop presenter in the workshop subject matter
 * 8) any relevant input from workshop evaluations collected by FOSS4G2006, or personal experience of workshops presented by the presenter(s) at other conferences
 * 9) demonstrates practical applications
 * 10) expected level of interest in the workshop topic

Scoring
The range of scores to be used is 0 through 5: 0 = does not meet any of the criteria 1 = barely meets some of the criteria, and doesn't meet some of the criteria 3 = average 5 = meets or exceeds all of the criteria The goal is to end up with a score in the range of 0-5 for the workshop. Two ways to do the scoring:
 * 1) Use the provided spreadsheet, which allows for a score for each criterion. Divide the "Total Score" by 4 to get the 'score for the workshop'. Doing it this way makes it easy to see any workshops that received a zero for any criterion. Despite the 'total score', workshops that have a zero score for any criterion deserve further examination as to their suitability for the conference.
 * 2) Use the provided spreadsheet, but just assign an overall score of 0-5 for the workshop. If, as part of doing this, you think a workshop would score zero on any criterion, make a note, and bring it up in the discussions, because workshops that have a zero score for any criterion deserve further examination as to their suitability for the conference.

Timetable for workshop submissions review process
A private mailing list ("the list") was setup March 7, 2007 for use by the workshop committee.
 * 1) March 7 to 11
 * 2) * on the list, discussions about the review process
 * 3) * all committee members review the documents and get familiar with the workshop submissions
 * 4) March 12
 * 5) * IRC meeting to finalize review criteria and the 'scoring' system
 * 6) * committee members start 'scoring' the workshops listed in the "FOSS4G2007 Workshop Submissions-Half Day" spreadsheet
 * 7) March 15, midnight PDT
 * 8) * deadline for committee members to provide their 'score' for each of the half-day workshops
 * 9) March 16
 * 10) * committee chair creates a summary spreadsheet of the half-day workshop submissions showing each committee member's score for each workshop, and a cumulative 'total score', with the worksheet sorted by 'total score', and make that spreadsheet available to the committee members via Google Docs
 * 11) * committee members start 'scoring' the workshops in the "FOSS4G2007 Workshop Submissions-90-Minute" spreadsheet
 * 12) * start discussions, if needed, to adjust the ranked list of half-day workshops
 * 13) March 18, midnight PDT
 * 14) * deadline for committee members to provide their 'score' for each of the 90-minute workshops
 * 15) March 19
 * 16) * committee chair creates a summary spreadsheet of the 90-minute workshop submissions showing each committee member's score for each workshop, and a cumulative 'total score', with the worksheet sorted by 'total score', and make that spreadsheet available to the committee members via Google Docs
 * 17) * start discussions, if needed, to adjust the ranked list of 90-minute workshops
 * 18) March 20, noon PDT
 * 19) * final deadline for any 'tweaking' of the ranked lists of the half-day and 90-minute workshop submissions
 * 20) * committee chair prepares the final versions of the relevant documents/spreadsheets, which will be forwarded to the conference organizing committee so they have time to review before their meeting on March 22nd

Workshops Notes
Note: Some of the information below is out of date.

Workshop Duration and Scheduling
http://www.foss4g2007.org/program_overview.html

Hardware

 * 40 computers in the rental budget
 * another 20 slated as loaners from Nanaimo
 * other options? (bring-your-own etc.)

Room Availability
?

Software Installation

 * LiveCD for Linux
 * MS4W installer for Windows
 * other?
 * attendees come with laptops and software installed?

Other

 * local person to deal with venue's tech staff?

Questions for Organising Committee

 * Number and dimension of rooms, tables (how many PCs /people can we fit in a room)

Feedback from Past Conferences (things to note)

 * overcrowded workshops are bad
 * registrants could possibly list their "top 4" workshop selections
 * LiveCD for linux workshops very successful
 * grouping workshops by room "theme" successful (MapServer room, GRASS room, ...)
 * foss4g2006 workshops wiki : http://wiki.osgeo.org/index.php/Foss4g2006_wks
 * foss4g2006 workshops rooms : http://wiki.osgeo.org/index.php/FOSS4G2006#Rooms
 * foss4g2006 number of attendees per workshop : http://www.foss4g2006.org/site/pdf/WksNbOfAttendees.pdf