Difference between revisions of "LOC conference call Feb 8, 2011"

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* ''' Peter Batty
 
* ''' Peter Batty
* ''' Tyler Erickson
 
 
* ''' James Fee
 
* ''' James Fee
 
* ''' Jeff McKenna
 
* ''' Jeff McKenna
* ''' Tyler Mitchell
 
* ''' Henry Rosales
 
 
* ''' James Sakamoto
 
* ''' James Sakamoto
 
* ''' Ben Tuttle
 
* ''' Ben Tuttle
 +
* ''' Hurricane McEwen
  
 
==  LOC members and roles ==
 
==  LOC members and roles ==
Line 24: Line 22:
 
* Review of sponsor prospect list and status of those that are likely / confirmed
 
* Review of sponsor prospect list and status of those that are likely / confirmed
  
 +
''' We are now up to 12 bronze sponsors (+ 1 silver, 2 gold, 1 platinum)
  
 
== Workshops (Ben Tuttle)  ==
 
== Workshops (Ben Tuttle)  ==
 
* Ready to start review process
 
* Ready to start review process
 
* Announcement of accepted proposals on 16 Feb 2011
 
* Announcement of accepted proposals on 16 Feb 2011
 +
 +
''' We have a good set of proposals submitted (33 for workshops and 25 for tutorials)
 +
''' How many tutorials do we want to do? Ben is thinking maybe 20. We need to consider how this impacts the number of comps we give out, and also how it impacts the number of presentations we can have (for every tutorial we have 3 fewer regular presentations). Since the overall shape of the program isn't decide yet (number / length of plenary sessions, etc), we may need to be a little conservative about choosing tutorials. Possibly confirm 10 now and say that we may select additional ones at a later date?
 +
 +
''' We have agreed on 24 workshops. The one possible caveat on this is that we need space for the "newcomers' events", and in the worst case we could remove two workshops to accommodate these. But there are various options so that is unlikely.
 +
 +
''' Agreed number of comps is (up to) 1.5 per workshop and 0.5 per tutorial.
 +
 +
'''We agreed that the workshop committee will all vote on the submissions by end of day Thursday, and will have a conference call Friday to discuss.
  
 
== Academic Track (Rafael Moreno) ==
 
== Academic Track (Rafael Moreno) ==
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== Program (James Fee)  ==
 
== Program (James Fee)  ==
  
James Fee (lead), Brian Timoney (newcomer focus), Matt Krusemark (open data focus), Tyler Erickson (govt focus)
+
''' We agreed on 30 minutes for sessions - while everyone is generally in favor of short (20 minute) presentations, with multiple tracks we really need at least 5 minutes to switch, ideally a little more. Squeezing to 25 minute sessions makes all the timings more complicated. So we will have 30 minute sessions including time for changeover - presentations 20 mins max, intro and Q&A 5 mins max.
  
* How long should presentations be?
+
''' On keynote speakers, Peter has acceptance from Peter ter Haar of Ordnance Survey to talk about their experience with opening up their data. We also agreed to confirm Steve Coast as a keynote speaker, again on the open data theme obviously. And Peter has emailed Tim Berners-Lee to invite him to talk on the topic of open data, waiting to hear back.
  
*Answer the following question from Adrian Custer on the mailing list:
+
''' James F will take a first pass at sketching out the general shape of the program - how long we have plenaries for and when, etc. We need to combine this with the number of rooms to work out how many slots we have for papers and/or tutorials.
<blockquote>Some questions below about whether you have settled on an explicit focus for your conference. It seems your choices during your organization work will invariably influence the nature of this conference as mainly either a gathering of free software hackers for fun and cooperation or as a platform for those of us vending our software projects. I wonder how much thinking and conscious decision making you have made on this issue. (''My high level answer: we aim to address needs of both groups'') </blockquote><blockquote>Will there be any limits on talks from the same organization, from the same vendor, or from members of the organizing and selection committees? In particular, how does this work in that sponsors at the $most_precious_metal sponsorship level are already guaranteed one slot? (''My suggestion, let's dioscuss: not hard pre-defined limits but we will review number of papers accepted per company before finalizing the program and may make adjustments if we feel it is appropriate''). </blockquote><blockquote>Does anyone know what the policy has been (if any) in previous years? Also, are talk proposals once again going to be submitted to a popularity vote? In my analysis, that resulted in getting many talks from the well known projects and well known personalities rather than getting a wide distribution of talks favouring the, possibly whacky, smaller projects. All are interesting, of course, but lead to a different flavour for the gathering so I am wondering what you are hoping to produce. (''Yes we plan to do a vote but intend for the final program to be a mix of papers selected by the vote and papers selected by the organizing committee''). </blockquote>
 
*Keynote speakers ... are we planning to get any "external" keynote speakers (people outside those we would expect to submit abstracts)? If so need to start on getting those identified and signed up now. Examples might include well known figures from the broader open source world, maybe some to address the "open data" theme. Steve Coast would be one candidate there. I might be able to get John Hickenlooper, the Colorado Governor, to do a short welcome address - he is a good speaker and has some geo background. On the open data theme, Tim Berners Lee might be a good if ambitious choice to pursue ... he has been widely credited with pressuring get the UK government to open up its data, including geospatial data. He's known to be a fan of OpenStreetMap too.
 
  
''' Some discussion about topics, which James commented hadn't changed in the past few years. We agreed it was okay to mix these up a bit. We need to add open data as a topic, and explain a bit more about what we're looking for there.
+
''' Peter suggested we should write something emphasizing the open data theme more strongly. James agreed to take a pass at this.
  
 
== Registration / Pricing (Tyler Mitchell) ==
 
== Registration / Pricing (Tyler Mitchell) ==
  
* Does proposed 2011 pricing need adjustment? Current proposal is $499 for early and $649 for late.
+
'''We had brief discussion on the fact that someone last week expressed a strong opinion that we should charge $500 versus $499.  Nobody this week had strong opinions, and also nobody was quite sure who had this opinion ... by a process of elimination it seems likely to be Tyler E! Henry based on his experience leans to $499, there was general support for going with Henry's view.
* Need to establish policies for any discounted registration categories (students??), policy for comp registrations, etc (not today but reasonably soon)
 
 
 
'''Peter, Tyler and Henry will follow up on that.
 
  
 
== Social Events (Peter / other volunteers?) ==
 
== Social Events (Peter / other volunteers?) ==
  
'''Peter has made initial contact with the Wynkoop Brewing Company, Henry has requested information from several venues for the gala dinner. Henry and Peter to visit proposed venues today and tomorrow.
+
'''Peter has made contact with the Wynkoop Brewing Company, still in discussions about how best to fit arrangements into our budget. Henry has requested information from several venues for the gala dinner. Henry and Peter to visit proposed venues today and tomorrow (Opera House, Art Museum and Top of the Hyatt).
  
 
== Marketing (Matt Ball) ==
 
== Marketing (Matt Ball) ==
Line 58: Line 61:
 
== Website (Who owns ??) ==
 
== Website (Who owns ??) ==
  
* Currently hosted on squarespace - seems fine so far for basic content, reasonable control over design etc. Only $20 a month including hosting and all editing tools
+
'''Peter and Tyler still looking for someone to pick this up. Tyler has asked a marketing company he has worked with previously to provide a quote for marketing / identity items (posters, flyers, etc). No change here yet.
* Need to look soon at requirements for doing a nice job of an online conference program, need to evaluate whether squarespace is up to this
 
  
'''Peter and Tyler still looking for someone to pick this up. Tyler has asked a marketing company he has worked with previously to provide a quote for marketing / identity items (posters, flyers, etc).  
+
== SotM coordination ==
 +
 
 +
''' We agreed we will do combined airline ticket discounts - thanks to Hurricane for organizing this! There is a penalty up to $1000 if we don't get to 20 people, seems unlikely that we wouldn't get that.
 +
 
 +
''' Hurricane asked about the possibility of doing a combined registration discount. This was something that had been raised in earlier discussions and strongly rejected by the SotM team. We felt at this point that it would be too big a change to our budget, and also complicated logistically, to accommodate this. But we are keen to continue to cross-promote the events and find ways to collaborate.
  
== SotM coordination ==
 
  
  
 
[[Category:FOSS4G2011]]
 
[[Category:FOSS4G2011]]
[[Category:FOSS4G]]
 

Latest revision as of 04:04, 25 February 2015

Agenda

Meeting notes in bold

Attendees:

  • Peter Batty
  • James Fee
  • Jeff McKenna
  • James Sakamoto
  • Ben Tuttle
  • Hurricane McEwen

LOC members and roles

Peter still needs to chase down a few people and confirm if they are in or out of the LOC

Sponsorship Update (Peter Batty / Tyler Mitchell)

  • Review of sponsor prospect list and status of those that are likely / confirmed

We are now up to 12 bronze sponsors (+ 1 silver, 2 gold, 1 platinum)

Workshops (Ben Tuttle)

  • Ready to start review process
  • Announcement of accepted proposals on 16 Feb 2011

We have a good set of proposals submitted (33 for workshops and 25 for tutorials) How many tutorials do we want to do? Ben is thinking maybe 20. We need to consider how this impacts the number of comps we give out, and also how it impacts the number of presentations we can have (for every tutorial we have 3 fewer regular presentations). Since the overall shape of the program isn't decide yet (number / length of plenary sessions, etc), we may need to be a little conservative about choosing tutorials. Possibly confirm 10 now and say that we may select additional ones at a later date?

We have agreed on 24 workshops. The one possible caveat on this is that we need space for the "newcomers' events", and in the worst case we could remove two workshops to accommodate these. But there are various options so that is unlikely.

Agreed number of comps is (up to) 1.5 per workshop and 0.5 per tutorial.

We agreed that the workshop committee will all vote on the submissions by end of day Thursday, and will have a conference call Friday to discuss.

Academic Track (Rafael Moreno)

Program (James Fee)

We agreed on 30 minutes for sessions - while everyone is generally in favor of short (20 minute) presentations, with multiple tracks we really need at least 5 minutes to switch, ideally a little more. Squeezing to 25 minute sessions makes all the timings more complicated. So we will have 30 minute sessions including time for changeover - presentations 20 mins max, intro and Q&A 5 mins max.

On keynote speakers, Peter has acceptance from Peter ter Haar of Ordnance Survey to talk about their experience with opening up their data. We also agreed to confirm Steve Coast as a keynote speaker, again on the open data theme obviously. And Peter has emailed Tim Berners-Lee to invite him to talk on the topic of open data, waiting to hear back.

James F will take a first pass at sketching out the general shape of the program - how long we have plenaries for and when, etc. We need to combine this with the number of rooms to work out how many slots we have for papers and/or tutorials.

Peter suggested we should write something emphasizing the open data theme more strongly. James agreed to take a pass at this.

Registration / Pricing (Tyler Mitchell)

We had brief discussion on the fact that someone last week expressed a strong opinion that we should charge $500 versus $499. Nobody this week had strong opinions, and also nobody was quite sure who had this opinion ... by a process of elimination it seems likely to be Tyler E! Henry based on his experience leans to $499, there was general support for going with Henry's view.

Social Events (Peter / other volunteers?)

Peter has made contact with the Wynkoop Brewing Company, still in discussions about how best to fit arrangements into our budget. Henry has requested information from several venues for the gala dinner. Henry and Peter to visit proposed venues today and tomorrow (Opera House, Art Museum and Top of the Hyatt).

Marketing (Matt Ball)

Website (Who owns ??)

Peter and Tyler still looking for someone to pick this up. Tyler has asked a marketing company he has worked with previously to provide a quote for marketing / identity items (posters, flyers, etc). No change here yet.

SotM coordination

We agreed we will do combined airline ticket discounts - thanks to Hurricane for organizing this! There is a penalty up to $1000 if we don't get to 20 people, seems unlikely that we wouldn't get that.

Hurricane asked about the possibility of doing a combined registration discount. This was something that had been raised in earlier discussions and strongly rejected by the SotM team. We felt at this point that it would be too big a change to our budget, and also complicated logistically, to accommodate this. But we are keen to continue to cross-promote the events and find ways to collaborate.