Past Flock wisdom
by Máirín Duffy
Hi everybody,
I read through the set of blogs posted about last year's Flock to try to
distill all the ideas / suggestions folks had written about for this
year.
(https://communityblog.fedoraproject.org/list-of-flock-blogs-and-more/)
---
Lots of notes on logistics and organization. Highlights:
- Challenge of scheduling Fedora Engineeringteam talks as to not conflict
- 10 sessions canceled; usually only 2-3. Need to figure out why /
manage itto try to avoid so many.
- Remove schedule from booklet, have wall schedule
- Telegram vs. IRC confusion, too many places to monitor."I would
advocate for coming up with an online discussion plan well in advance of
the conference next year and sticking to it."
- Wifi not sufficient to stream all sessions. Recorded sessions and post
after (except for diversity panel which streamed.) Should make a policy
on this probably. (Q: what if we streamed audio-only? Would this save
bandwidth?)
http://jwboyer.livejournal.com/53056.html
---
Takeaway here is to make the transit options really clear. I'm thinking
of making some maps of how to get the airport bus, having a photo fo the
pickup point and also the drop off point in Hyannis.
http://www.colliernotes.com/2016/08/fedora-flock-2016-day-1.html
---
Nice pictures of some collateral, notes about the wallschedule and maybe
we better not put a schedule in the booklet and instead do the wall
schedule as a regular thing:
http://www.ryanlerch.org/blog/flock-2016-krakow/
---
Panels should be more than an hour (not sure about this tho, that seems
excessive to me)
Moderation needs to be stricter in panels so it's not dominated by a few
of the panelists
https://whatamithinks.wordpress.com/2016/08/15/480/
---
Miscommunication situation to avoid with speakers:
"I was a bit relaxed after that and didn’t worry much when there was no
further contact by FLOCK organizers for hotel and travel bookings. But
by early July, I was panicking a lot ! Turns out, I had registered for
FLOCK using a different email id (non f.p.o one) and submitted the talk
using my f.p.o email id and hence was dropped from the list of sponsored
attendees. Anyway, thanks to FLOCK organizers and especially, Joe
Brockmier it all worked out in the end since I was already in Berlin for
my research work and didn’t need a new visa ! So come August 2, I was
all set and ready to fly to FLOCK.."
https://networksfordata.wordpress.com/2016/08/12/flock-diaries-krakow-2016/
---
- flock proxy setup - if we can do this again would be nice, should get
the word out about it well in advance and have it in messaging including
the booklet
- rideshare page - will be good to have this setup for getting folks
from Hyannis station to the hotel
- volunteer organization - we can use volunteers for time reminders for
speakers as well as IRC transcription and video recording
https://www.scrye.com/wordpress/nirik/2013/08/06/flock-notes-of-interest/
Cheers,
~m
6 years, 3 months
Bus ticket logistics
by Máirín Duffy
Hi,
Bex had asked inline on the registration form mockup comments if we
could pre-purchase bus tickets ahead of time.
Yes, butthey only have a paper ticket system right now, which means we'd
be mailing tickets out - I don't think that will work. The other option
is for folks to purchase the tickets (cash only) upon boarding.
However, the bus company is moving to an electronic system where they
can scan tickets on smart phones or provide online ticket purchasing via
PDFs you can print. The system is planned to go live in May. Here is an
article about it -
http://www.capecodtimes.com/business/20170117/bus-line-to-roll-out-tech-u...
So hopefully we'll be able to take advantage of online ticketing.
~m
6 years, 4 months
Flock t-shirt
by Máirín Duffy
Hi,
Mary created a great design for the Flock t-shirt. We'll likely need ~6
weeks to get them produced based on past experience. We're at 10 weeks
out, so we should probably soon figure out what we're going to do WRT
T-shirts:
- Are we going to provide T-shirts or sell them?
- Do we have sponsors to list on the T-shirt? (The SuSE logo on the
mockups is just a stand-in from a previous years' design)
- Do we want sponsors on the shirt?
Options for saving costs include cutting colors (saves you less) and
cutting screens (saves you a little more, eg have a one-sided instead of
2-sided shirt). We can modify the design based on this as well if needed.
~m
6 years, 4 months
Chicken and egg to avoid for next year
by Máirín Duffy
Many speakers (~20) did not register for Flock when submitting their
proposals. They didn't want to register because they weren't going to
come unless their proposal was accepted.
Problem is, we then don't have their funding request info. If decisions
about who is going to be funded are made regardless of whether or not
they proposed a talk or not - if someone is essential, we should
consider their funding, but if they dont register we dont know how much
funding they are asking for.
We should probably separate registration ("Yes, I'm coming") from
funding request ("I'd like to come, can you help fund me?")
Another issue is that there were folks that didn't want to register
until they knew they were accepted because they didn't want to lose the
registration fee. Even though I think we explain we'd refund it. Maybe
we should have some mechanism where you're only asked to pay it once
your funding request is accepted.
~m
6 years, 4 months
Idea about T-shirts + sticker info
by Máirín Duffy
Hi,
T-shirts are $6-7/piece toget printed (Plus shipping. I'm willing to do
local pickup to save $.) For 250 peoplethat is $1500-1750:at least one
fully funded Flock attendee, no?
Idea: TakeT-shirt orders up front during registration, and use the fund
as a way to sponsor an additional contributor. Charge $10/shirt and if
only 100 people out of 250 bought a shirt, that's still $1k, close
enough to mostly fund a contributor. Folks buying a t-shirt for a
reasonable cost also get to feel good about helping another contributor
get to Flock.
Just an idea, anyway. And now you know what T-shirt pricing / budget
would be if we decide to fully cover them. T-shirts are going to need at
least 4 weeks turnaround assuming design is ready to go (it is not right
now)and we know quantities/ sizes (we couldn't know until reg is
finished.) I recommend closing registration for people who want a
T-shirt by July 10.
I priced out stickersheets for Fedora badges. The best bet I think is a
5"x7" sheet of multiple KISS cut stickers; $0.62/sheet; for a run of
500, $312 + free shipping (see
https://ethercalc.com/flock-swag-pricing-2017 )
~m
6 years, 4 months
Flock Funding/CfP Update - Non-presenters and presenters
by Brian Exelbierd
Hi All,
= Funding Update - Non Presenters =
The council changed the funding model for this year's Flock and
presenting a session is not required to get funded. We were serious
about this :). If you haven't already done so, get yourself registered
and put in any funding request you have by Friday. We will begin making
funding decisions as early as tomorrow. The sooner you get into the
list the greater your chances.
= CfP Update =
Tomorrow morning, EU time, acceptances for the first 55 accepted
submissions will go out. There are several submissions in the queue
that need a little more resolution so I can't send those yet.
Rejections will not go out for a bit longer as we wait to determine if
we can get anyone off the wait list.
= Visa Letter Update =
If you asked for a visa letter you will soon receive a request for
additional information. Included in that request will be the
requirement for you to provide the full address of the US Embassy you
will be using along with all of your passport details. Go ahead and get
those things together to make this faster.
= Funding Update - Presenters =
The council changed the funding model for this year's Flock and
presenting a session is not required to get funded. This means that not
all presenters will necessarily be funded. Because all of you have
already registered you will be in the first round we consider (along
with any other requesters) when we begin making funding decisions as
early as tomorrow.
Thank you for your patience,
regards,
bex
PS: My value for tomorrow and your value for tomorrow may differ. For
some this means nothing will be different, for others you'll think we
did it a day early.
6 years, 5 months
Flock collateral / designs
by Máirín Duffy
I am making an inventory ofneeded Flockcollateral / designsso we can get
started. What am I missing?
Also, we need to decide what swag to do. Do we have a swag budget or do
you want me to go ahead and price out some options so we can make a
decision based on price? (I could put together nice, ok, and cheapo
package options for you :) )
BASICS
======
1) Flock website
Ryan has put together a quick prototype, Mary is working on
developing it more.
2) Flock booklets
(Ryan Lerch traditionally creates these and has some scripts that
generate them: https://pagure.io/flock-booklets)
(In Krakow we had 242 registrants so we printed off 280 books)
(specs: 16 pages, full color, saddle-stitch)
3) Large wall schedule
(http://www.ryanlerch.org/blog/flock-2016-krakow/)
4) Lanyard badges
(https://pagure.io/design/issue/457)
(we did 280 for krakow)
5) Room signage
(https://pagure.io/design/issue/454)
(for Krakow we requested for these to be laminated, there were 7
rooms so we had 2 done for each room - 14total)
5) QR code sign for evening party badge
(https://pagure.io/design/issue/458)
(for Krakow we had 3 copies of this and they were laminated)
6) Projector downtime looping video
(https://pagure.io/design/issue/396)
7) Wifi portal logo
(used in Krakow)
https://pagure.io/design/issue/463
8) "I'm going to" Flock banners for people to use on their blogs
9) Flock banners for Fedora magazine articles about Flock
SWAG IDEAS
==========
We should decide what we're going to do. Some options:
- T-Shirt
- Fedora badge sticker sheets
- Lunch bags (Rochester)
- Water bottles (Krakow)
- Tote
- (your idea here)
~m
6 years, 5 months
What about a "Late-Breaking Ideas" track?
by Matthew Miller
I'm getting a number of "Hey, I missed the deadline, but I just thought
of _____", where ____ isn't always a terrible idea. Allowing these in
past the deadline seems like it's inviting more late submissions next
year. And a deadline extension seems similar.
What if we had a room reserved (except during plenary sessions) for
last-minute write-ins on a first-come, first-served basis?
--
Matthew Miller
<mattdm(a)fedoraproject.org>
Fedora Project Leader
6 years, 5 months
CFP Update: Flock registration / CFP numbers thus far
by Máirín Duffy
CFP is closing right now and Patrick is re-opening as we speak as per the plan we'd agreed on.
Given the number of proposals we have, I am not sure we want to do a full 2-week extension. Previous Flock orgs, what do you think about the numbers we have right now? If we decide to keep the extension, I wonder if we close at the 1 week point (22) or the 2 week point (29). Any thoughts? (My cut says close at 22.) Once we know when to close I'll update the website (I have commits ready to push) and do a blog post so people know about the extension.
Registration
==========
Registration remains open.
Registrations: 96
(Should we be concerned about this? This seems low to me?)
Session Proposals
===============
Session proposals: 117 (119 with 2 duplicates)
All numbers below include the 2 duplicates (sorry, too difficult to pull out right now. I'm doing this all manually)
Breakdown of proposal numbers:
--------------------------------------------
Do-Session (3 hrs): 17
Do-Session (2 hrs): 27
Talk (30 min): 50
Talk (60 min): 25
Total proposals: 119
Total minutes: 9300 (155 hours)
Total do minutes: 6300 (105 hours)
Total talk minutes: 3000 (50 hours)
if we accepted all current proposals, it'd require 7 tracks. (note proposals may be redundant and haven't yet been reviewed.)
% of proposals that are do: 37%
% of proposals that are talk: 63%
% of minutes of proposed do: 68%
% of minutes of proposed talk: 32%
Proposal topics:
=============
I did some manual card sorting by hand of all of the proposals and came up with some rough clusters / categories. We don't have to go with these, but they're a way to understand what topics people submitted. Definitions for all topics follow the counts.
Technical Infrastructure and Automation: 26 (could probably be broken up)
What we ship: 19
Disciplines: 18
Community Infrastructure: 14
Modularity: 12
Cloud and Containers: 7
Ecosystem: 2
Technical Infrastructure and Automation (26)
-----------------------------------------------------------
Sessions that involve strategy around the infrastructure that supports and produces Fedora as we move towards CI/CD and automation as well as sessions about specific components and technologies that are part of this infrastructure. There's talks about packaging in here too, not 100% sure they belong.
What we ship (19)
------------------------
Sessions that involve the specific production of the artifacts we ship and the teams/SIGs that produce them, including Fedora Editions (workstation, server, atomic), spins, arches, EPEL.
Disciplines (18)
---------------------
These sessions involve talking about the practice of specific disciplines and the status of specific discipline-centered teams within Fedora that include: design, marketing, legal, globalization / internationalization, websites
Community infrastructure (14)
----------------------------------------
Sessions about community management, outreach, ambassadors, diversity, commops: anything focused on managing community membership at human level in some form.
Modularity (12)
--------------------
Sessions that center on the modularity effort. There are others that mention modularity but these ones focus on it.
Cloud and Containers (7)
---------------------------------
Sessions about working with cloud platforms, building containers, container tech, etc.
Ecosystem (2)
-------------------
Sessions that involve the ecosystem around Fedora. There's only two, one about Fedora being included in the Microsoft / Windows ecosystem and one about a hardware vendor.
Cheers,
~m
6 years, 5 months
Flock 2017 Paper Reviews - let's get them done by tomorrow
by Máirín Duffy
Hi everyone,
If you are in the to: of this email directly you are a paper reviewer.
(robyduck, you'd volunteered; if you're still up for it we'd appreciate
it to balance out community participation in review but it's ok if you
don't have time.)
I've noticed there are 5 of the 7 of us that already have votes in, so
we're in good shape, but there was one additional proposal in that
nobody voted on so make sure to log in one more time to do that one.
So with around ~120 proposals in, from earlier threads it seems that we
feel this is enough, so I asked Patrick to close the CFP today. We've
only received one additional proposal since the deadline with having it
open, anyway (not that we announced any extension.)
Since we won't be doing multiple rounds, here is an updated schedule for
paper review. I would like us to have all our paper votes in by this
Thursday, June 22:
Tue 20 June
===========
- Go thru the proposals so far and start generating accepts / rejects
list based on votes (some are already no-brainers) (duffy)
- Go thru proposals and raise any questions for reviewers / folks
proposing and get those out (duffy)
Wed 21 June
===========
- All proposal votes in (duffy, bex, stickster, mattdm, cprofitt, nb,
robyduck)
Thu 22 June
===========
Final calls on accept / reject. (??)
Fri 23 June
===========
- Notifications for rejects (bex + mitzie)
- Notifications for accepts and include note that visa letters are
forthcoming, ask accepts to confirm (to flock-staff(a)fedoraproject.org)
they can attend by Mon June 26)
- Review accepts, note who needs visa based on reg data, compile list,
send to bex (mitzie)
Mon 26 June
===========
- Visa letter generation (bex)
- Send out visa letters for accepts (bex + mitzie)
- Book travel for accepts that are confirmed (bex)
Happy reviewin' folks :)
Cheers,
~m
6 years, 5 months
