FOSS4G2007 Workshops

FOSS4G 2007 Workshops Committee

Members

• Jeff McKenna (chair)
• Jason Birch
• Aaron Racicot
• Olivier Ertz
• Dave Patton

Next Committee Meeting

• date: 2007/02/09
  
• time: 1:30PM PST
  
• IRC Channel: #foss4g2007 on irc.freenode.net (or via Web: http://irc.telascience.org/cgi-bin/irc.cgi)
• Agenda:

1. Select Meeting chair
2. Set date/time for next meeting
3. Old Business
   1. review Action Items from 2007/02/02 meeting
   2. Status of help from Jody
   3. need a way to track the submissions like last year's INDICO system
   4. 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
   5. video of conference - is there an 'external resource' that could be used to manage this?
   6. Ominiverdi LiveCD: mailing list email from Lorenzo
4. New Business
   1. confirm, or reassign, committee chairmanship
   2. Status of workshop call, announcements, and feedback so far
   3. Policies & Procedures for workshop materials:
      1. who pays for workshop materials
      2. financial support by conference for workshop materials preparation
      3. guidelines for workshop materials (format, length, etc)

Previous Committee Meetings

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)
   1. Jason: did you get in contact with Jody (jgarnett)?
   2. who will send out meeting reminders, and when
   3. Aaron: did you get in contact with David Percy?
   4. do we have a "set of questions/needs for the full committee to answer"?
   5. theme rooms, and creating tracks after workshop submissions received
   6. in 2006, workshops were 3.5 hours, including 30 minute break
   7. What about podcast/video of the workshops and presentations
   8. workshop details needed before call for abstracts (room sizes, number of machines, etc.)
   9. need a way to track the submissions like last year's INDICO system
   10. Olivier: did you contact the 2006 local committee re setting up an instance of INDICO for use for 2007 (for workshop submission tracking)?
   11. possibilities re adding more workshop time at the start/end of the conference?
4. New Business
   1. 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
   2. review Call For Workshops Content:
      1. Hyperbole
      2. Submission Requirements
   3. Ominiverdi LiveCD: mailing list email from Lorenzo
   4. date when call for workshops will be ready for announcement
   5. rooms for workshops - establish minimum allocations Workshop Rooms
   6. computer resources - current availability, and desired target Computers

2007/01/26

• IRC Log
• Agenda: There was no set agenda

FOSS4G 2007 Workshops Notes

Call For Workshops Content

Hyperbole

The FOSS4G (Free and Open Source Software for Geospatial) conference is pleased to announce the Call for Workshops for the 2007 conference, being held September 24-27 in beautiful Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.

FOSS4G is the premier conference for the open source geospatial community, providing a meeting place for developers, users, and people new to open source geospatial to get a full-immersion experience in both established and leading edge geospatial technologies.

This is your chance to showcase your favorite application, integration solution, or other topic. You will use your superior classroom skills to lead a group of attendees through your chosen topic in either a half-day or ninety minute lab or classroom format. Half-day workshops will be delivered on Monday, September 24 (the Workshops day), while the ninety minute workshops will run concurrently with the presentations during the remainder of the conference.

While we are open to workshops on a wide range of topics, we strongly encourage workshop submissions on the following topics:

• Practical Introduction to ___________
• Interoperability
• NeoGeography and NovelGeography
• Using a Software Stack
• 3D Worlds

In the tradition of previous FOSS4G events, we expect that the majority of workshops will be "hands on", with participants seated in front computers and able to follow along with the instructor, working directly with the software and applications under discussion.

Be prepared to spend considerable effort in creating your workshop. Past experience has shown that a high quality workshop requires about three days of preparation for each hour of presentation time. As part of this preparation you will be expected to develop material for attendees to take away with them, such as handouts, a 'workbook', CDROM, etc.

In recognition of this effort, workshop presenters will receive a reduction in the price of conference registration:

• free registration for delivering a half-day workshop
• half-price registration for delivering a 90-minute workshop

Because of limited space, you may want to consider submitting two versions of your topic, one for each length format.

The deadline for workshop submissions is February 28, 2007 - submit early, submit often!

Submission Requirements

This is in-progress, and is not official. Once the submission requirements are finalized, they will be posted on the FOSS4G2007 website, along with instructions on how to make your workshop submission.

For your workshop submission to be considered for the Free and Open Source for Geospatial (FOSS4G) 2007 Conference, please fill out the following fields as clearly as possible. All workshops are to be delivered in English.

Workshop Title (70 characters):

Short Description (50 words):

Long Description (400 words):

Format (choose one):

• 3 hour lab (with computers), on Monday September 24th (Workshops day)
• 3 hour class (no computers), on Monday September 24th (Workshops day)
• 1.5 hour lab (with computers), to run during the conference (September 25-27)
• 1.5 hour class (no computers), to run during the conference (September 25-27)

Technical Requirements (choose one):

• Provided Windows XP workstations
• Provided Linux VMWare machine
• Instructor-provided LiveCD
• Participants bring their own Laptop
• None

User Level (choose one):

• Beginner
• Advanced
• Developer

User Prerequisites (platform, applications, development languages, etc.):

Presenter Name:

Presenter Affiliation (if any):

Presenter Coordinates (Country):

Presenter Biography (200 words):

Links to any material relevant to your workshop submission:
This could include things such as slides used in this or similar workshops that you have previously presented, additional biographical material, etc.

---

Items for Discussion

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

?

Call for Abstracts

• by when?
• interface for abstract submission? (something similar to FOSS4G2006's Indico?)

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, ...)