At today's FAmSCo meeting the primary topic was a decision on the location for FUDcon LATAM 2011.
This particular FUDcon bid process featured 4 very well qualified proposals, from Foz do Iguaçu, Porto Alegre, Valparaíso, and Panama. There were no bad choices in any of the proposals, and in truth any of the venues would make an ideal venue. It's a sign of a very healthy community that so many dedicated individuals have stepped up offering to host FUDcon. As noted in the bid process, regional ambassador leadership, and ultimately the budget owner (CommArch, represented by Max Spevack, who is also on FAmSCo) is responsible for venue decision. In the end the decision was for Panama as the location for FUDcon LATAM 2011.
What follows is a bit of explanation, as a decision did have to be made. The following issues seemed to be important during the course of the FAmSCo meeting:
1. Whether we wanted a stand-alone FUDcon or one attached to a F/LOSS event.
and
2. Whether we wanted FUDcon to continue occurring in locations that have previously held a FUDcon.
On the first point, historically FUDcon LATAM has generally been attached to a F/LOSS conference. Other regions have noted that this has been a potential difficulty. While attaching to an existing conference potentially garners a larger audience, it also adds distraction to both events. FAmSCo felt that a stand-alone event has the potential for greater impact.
Despite the fact that we think that FUDcon is best as a standalone event, we recognize the fact that events such as Latinoware and FISL are key events in LATAM. As such, we continue to encourage the development of FADs at events such as these, and both FAmSCo and CommArch are committed to ensuring that these can be funded at appropriate levels.
Secondly, we have held FUDcons in Brazil, and Chile. While we tend to have a larger contributor community in those regions, we felt it was important to move FUDcon to a new region of LATAM, in hopes that we can grow our contributor base in both maturity and number.
In the course of the meeting, there seemed to be repeated concern over the fact that a large portion of our LATAM contributor base is from South America, and the cost of travelling outside of that region. Travel sponsorships are available, and the Fedora Project, via CommArch is committed to seeing contributors from all over LATAM attending FUDcon.
David Nalley on behalf of FAmSCo
Minutes: http://meetbot.fedoraproject.org/fedora-meeting-1/2010-11-01/fedora-meeting-...
Minutes (text): http://meetbot.fedoraproject.org/fedora-meeting-1/2010-11-01/fedora-meeting-...
Log: http://meetbot.fedoraproject.org/fedora-meeting-1/2010-11-01/fedora-meeting-...