Hi all,
Just a quick heads-up that we're preparing a bid for FUDCon NA 2012 here at Olin College in Needham, MA (with proximity to Boston). This is a first draft - which is why I didn't say "bid" in the subject line - and we're still poking things on all sides, so don't expect anything perfect at this point in time. Feedback and filling-in-of-gaps-on-wiki-page are very much welcome, though: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FUDCon:Bid_for_Olin_2012
Thanks,
--Sebastian
As an alumni of Olin, I just want to chime in a few things:
* Breaking the internet is next to impossible; 200 FUDCon attendees will almost certainly not put as heavy a load on the network as 300 Olin students (all engineers armed with laptops incessantly streaming data).
* Lovely woods out back with a walking trail and a ROBOT TEST TRACK. You can peruse the organic garden and the honeybee hive... or watch the autonomous orange-harvesting tractor students built. Your call. :)
* Yes, Olin is suburban, which is why attendee-organized excursions to the city (both Olin and the conference hotel are 15 minutes away from a main train station) will be happening in the evening. Anyone up for a bookstore tour of Mass. Ave? (That having been said, I won't deny it's less convenient than, say, MIT. On the other hand, free parking is abundant, and we're looking into setting up an Olin-Hotel shuttle.)
* The proposed hotel is beautiful, has conference rooms that would serve nicely as hack suites, and could potentially be turned into a cost-effective FUDPub venue - and has what appears to me to be astonishingly good internet (they're several miles from MIT directly off a major highway, so I guess there must be some giant line running below them, and routers every 10 yards down each hallway on each floor). Free internet to all guests, blazing fast.
* There's good food. I know every single restaurant within walking distance that's affordable to a college student; Indian, Thai, Italian, American, French, ridiculous artisanal cheese shop, homemade ice cream, etc. Slightly further off is the ice cream parlor that sells milkshakes the size of one's head, with 12 scoops of ice cream.
Basically, I'm pretty psyched about this bid.
--Mel
More updates coming in here! I'm really happy with how this is moving forward. Negotiations with Olin continue. Comments inline.
On Tue, Feb 22, 2011 at 1:35 AM, Mel Chua mel@redhat.com wrote:
As an alumni of Olin, I just want to chime in a few things:
- Breaking the internet is next to impossible; 200 FUDCon attendees will
almost certainly not put as heavy a load on the network as 300 Olin students (all engineers armed with laptops incessantly streaming data).
This has been confirmed through conversations with Olin's administration and IT.
[...]
- The proposed hotel is beautiful, has conference rooms that would serve
nicely as hack suites, and could potentially be turned into a cost-effective FUDPub venue - and has what appears to me to be astonishingly good internet (they're several miles from MIT directly off a major highway, so I guess there must be some giant line running below them, and routers every 10 yards down each hallway on each floor). Free internet to all guests, blazing fast.
Returning from recent negotiations with them, I'm really pleased so far. The rates they are offering are awesome for what they offer ($99 & $119) and we might be able to get meeting space for a small fee. Watch this space.
On another note: When will the bid process open or how do we proceed here? We'll keep on poking things on this end.
-s
On another note: When will the bid process open or how do we proceed here? We'll keep on poking things on this end.
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FUDCon_organization_process#FUDcon_Team_Gener... says it should actually be about now - bid process opens 12 months in advance and location selected 10.5 months in advance and the FPL sends it out, it says.
Last year, Paul brought up opening bids on Feb 4th (http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/fudcon-planning/2010-February/00054...) and the bid itself got posted in very early March (http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/fudcon-planning/2010-March/000564.h...) so according to the procedure/schedule, Jared should be sending something out pretty soon.
--Mel
On Mon, Feb 28, 2011 at 09:14:16AM -0500, Mel Chua wrote:
On another note: When will the bid process open or how do we proceed here? We'll keep on poking things on this end.
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FUDCon_organization_process#FUDcon_Team_Gener... says it should actually be about now - bid process opens 12 months in advance and location selected 10.5 months in advance and the FPL sends it out, it says.
Last year, Paul brought up opening bids on Feb 4th (http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/fudcon-planning/2010-February/00054...) and the bid itself got posted in very early March (http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/fudcon-planning/2010-March/000564.h...) so according to the procedure/schedule, Jared should be sending something out pretty soon.
Yes, I noted the same not too long ago in a message to this list: http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/fudcon-planning/2011-February/00187...
I dropped Jared a quick line this morning to remind him about the bid opening, and I would expect that to happen Any Day Now.
fudcon-planning@lists.fedoraproject.org
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Mel Chua -
Paul W. Frields -
Sebastian Dziallas