Now that FUDCon2 is over, and we've pretty much decided to not have a FUDCon3 in SF can we put some serious resources into planning the Fedora Booth for LWCE:SF?
We've had a couple booths under our belts now, and I think it's time for us to progress beyond the 'tossed together last minute' feel of the booths that I've seen. Not to take away from any great effort that booth people have put in in the past, just having a booth is an amazing amount of work. But with more and more people willing to help out I think we have the opportunity to do a bit more.
Having some systems in the booth is good, having them DO SOMETHING is even better. Since we're not going to have any FUDCon talks, I thought doing some mini presentations in the booth using the systems might be a good way to draw some people over and show them what it really is.
Personally, I'd love to do a mini talk on kickstart complete with a system being kickstarted. By the same token somebody (or myself) can do a talk in just regular installs because I feel that the installer is one of the best parts of the distribution, and it is unique. Rather than talking about 'and this is how the new openoffice.org looks on OUR distro! See the widgets!?' we can talk about what really sets the distribution aside.
In past LWCEs I've been to, the majority of the crowd are 'why would we use your distro' and not 'how can we contribute to your distro', so I think pitching our mini-presentations toward _users_ and if they proceed to ask about contribution, then we can have side discussions about contribution. Maybe we could score a little round table or something so that people that want to talk contribution and project stuff can sit down and take a load off instead of stacking up in front of the booth and blocking the way for people that want to take a look at the shinys.
I also think we should have a good diversity of arches represented, an Intel box, an AMD box (dual cores anybody?), I'll have my Apple laptop but maybe a mac mini would be cool for the table. I'd like to do what some other booths have done, have one system (or maybe all systems w/ a switcher) plugged into a projector and the projector projecting on the back wall of the booth or the corner of the booth or something like that so that people bring their eyes up and look ahead instead of stooping to look at table level monitors or whatnot. It could also free table space for systems instead of having a bunch of (heavy) monitors stacked up.
Of course, there is the swag aspect too. I assume we'll have t-shirts galore again (do they HAVE to be white?), CDs or DVDs of the distro (maybe we can ping vendors again for vendor branded ones rather than paying to master them ourselves), but what about some higher class items for the people that have a sit down talk about contributing (maybe even an extras contributor account sign up kiosk)? We won't advertise the items so that we don't get freeloaders just faking a talk to get swag, but for those that have a genuine interest we can give them something to thank them for their time?
Anywho, these are my thoughts for now, I'm sure I'll have more soon. I'd like to start a wiki page for the booth planning, anybody have a preference where this page goes?
On Thu, 2005-06-30 at 11:26 -0700, Jesse Keating wrote:
Personally, I'd love to do a mini talk on kickstart complete with a system being kickstarted. By the same token somebody (or myself) can do a talk in just regular installs because I feel that the installer is one of the best parts of the distribution, and it is unique. Rather than talking about 'and this is how the new openoffice.org looks on OUR distro! See the widgets!?' we can talk about what really sets the distribution aside.
Another thought for a mini-talk: Working demo of the Fedora Extras Build System. Something where we can show using the build system locally to build your packages, and then showing how to cvs check them into Fedora Extras and trigger a build (forgive me if I am not clear on this process right now). This might intrigue people who are on the cusp of contributing, as well as end users that are using Fedora for a build host for internal applications.
On Thu, 2005-06-30 at 11:26 -0700, Jesse Keating wrote:
Anywho, these are my thoughts for now, I'm sure I'll have more soon. I'd like to start a wiki page for the booth planning, anybody have a preference where this page goes?
Well, I started one anyway, we can always move it.
http://www.fedoraproject.org/wiki/LinuxWorldSF2005Planning
Also, when replying to this thread, please change the subject to 'Booth' rather than 'Boot'. Nothing like having my typo in the archives forever... (:
On Thu, 2005-06-30 at 11:26 -0700, Jesse Keating wrote:
Now that FUDCon2 is over, and we've pretty much decided to not have a FUDCon3 in SF can we put some serious resources into planning the Fedora Booth for LWCE:SF?
Oh, yeah, hey! That's where I started on this whole thing, volunteering to do booth duty. I like your mettle, let's do it.
We've had a couple booths under our belts now, and I think it's time for us to progress beyond the 'tossed together last minute' feel of the booths that I've seen. Not to take away from any great effort that booth people have put in in the past, just having a booth is an amazing amount of work. But with more and more people willing to help out I think we have the opportunity to do a bit more.
Do we have a binder or any notes from previous booths?
Having some systems in the booth is good, having them DO SOMETHING is even better. Since we're not going to have any FUDCon talks, I thought doing some mini presentations in the booth using the systems might be a good way to draw some people over and show them what it really is.
Yes, yes, definitely. A small series of presentations, one every two hours?, with a posted schedule.
Personally, I'd love to do a mini talk on kickstart complete with a system being kickstarted. By the same token somebody (or myself) can do a talk in just regular installs because I feel that the installer is one of the best parts of the distribution, and it is unique. Rather than talking about 'and this is how the new openoffice.org looks on OUR distro! See the widgets!?' we can talk about what really sets the distribution aside.
I'll put some thought into what would make a good SELinux demonstration. We can do some fun stuff locally, then show how well a strict policy works by letting people try stuff as root on Russell Coker's FC play machine.
In past LWCEs I've been to, the majority of the crowd are 'why would we use your distro' and not 'how can we contribute to your distro', so I think pitching our mini-presentations toward _users_ and if they proceed to ask about contribution, then we can have side discussions about contribution. Maybe we could score a little round table or something so that people that want to talk contribution and project stuff can sit down and take a load off instead of stacking up in front of the booth and blocking the way for people that want to take a look at the shinys.
+1
Having a little more elbow room than the typical Free Alley booths I've seen at LWCE would be good.
I also think we should have a good diversity of arches represented, an Intel box, an AMD box (dual cores anybody?), I'll have my Apple laptop but maybe a mac mini would be cool for the table.
Wonder if there are any IHVs who will contribute some hardware for this.
I'd like to do what some other booths have done, have one system (or maybe all systems w/ a switcher) plugged into a projector and the projector projecting on the back wall of the booth or the corner of the booth or something like that so that people bring their eyes up and look ahead instead of stooping to look at table level monitors or whatnot. It could also free table space for systems instead of having a bunch of (heavy) monitors stacked up.
+1
Of course, there is the swag aspect too. I assume we'll have t-shirts galore again (do they HAVE to be white?), CDs or DVDs of the distro (maybe we can ping vendors again for vendor branded ones rather than paying to master them ourselves), but what about some higher class items for the people that have a sit down talk about contributing (maybe even an extras contributor account sign up kiosk)? We won't advertise the items so that we don't get freeloaders just faking a talk to get swag, but for those that have a genuine interest we can give them something to thank them for their time?
+1
Anywho, these are my thoughts for now, I'm sure I'll have more soon. I'd like to start a wiki page for the booth planning, anybody have a preference where this page goes?
Perhaps Greg can find out who Red Hat is sending that might be able to pull some presentation duty.
I'll add my meager few thoughts to that page.
- Karsten
On Thu, 2005-06-30 at 12:22 -0700, Karsten Wade wrote:
Do we have a binder or any notes from previous booths?
Thats a good question for Jack. He's been doing them all so far.
Having some systems in the booth is good, having them DO SOMETHING
is
even better. Since we're not going to have any FUDCon talks, I
thought
doing some mini presentations in the booth using the systems might
be a
good way to draw some people over and show them what it really is.
Yes, yes, definitely. A small series of presentations, one every two hours?, with a posted schedule.
We'll have to see how many presentations we have before designing a (rotating?) schedule. System setup time is a factor as well.
I'll put some thought into what would make a good SELinux demonstration. We can do some fun stuff locally, then show how well a strict policy works by letting people try stuff as root on Russell Coker's FC play machine.
Ah, sounds good. I wonder if RH will be doing SELinux presentations in their booth space as well, might not want to compete.
I also think we should have a good diversity of arches represented,
an
Intel box, an AMD box (dual cores anybody?), I'll have my Apple
laptop
but maybe a mac mini would be cool for the table.
Wonder if there are any IHVs who will contribute some hardware for this.
In the past, Pogo Linux provided system(s) for the booth. They have access to typical Intel/AMD (even dual core) systems, but probably not an apple. I still have a fairly good relationship with them even though I no longer work there and I can act as the liason for getting hardware. We just have to determine what we want to have.
Perhaps Greg can find out who Red Hat is sending that might be able to pull some presentation duty.
I'll add my meager few thoughts to that page.
Thanks!
On Thu, 2005-06-30 at 11:26 -0700, Jesse Keating wrote:
Now that FUDCon2 is over, and we've pretty much decided to not have a FUDCon3 in SF can we put some serious resources into planning the Fedora Booth for LWCE:SF?
It ain't over till the fat lady sings (okay, Jack's a man and he isn't a fat lady)
All that aside, want to keep us updated about your status with regards to talking about FUDCon 3 in San Francisco?
On Fri, 2005-07-01 at 12:09 +0800, Colin Charles wrote:
On Thu, 2005-06-30 at 11:26 -0700, Jesse Keating wrote:
Now that FUDCon2 is over, and we've pretty much decided to not have a FUDCon3 in SF can we put some serious resources into planning the Fedora Booth for LWCE:SF?
It ain't over till the fat lady sings (okay, Jack's a man and he isn't a fat lady)
All that aside, want to keep us updated about your status with regards to talking about FUDCon 3 in San Francisco?
Well I am still very interested in getting it done. However, the main roadblock right now is funding. Since FUDCon II and 3 would be in the same fiscal quarter, money will be tight. One thing I am looking at currently, is to possibly have it held at Google, since Google has lots of extra room, and would be willing to help and even present on some of their open source projects and summer of code.
If anyone here knows people at google please do not harass them. I know that when we here google we all get giddy, but we are trying to work the channels that we have, so please, please, please do not try to be proactive and taint them. I am working on it, and we should know soon.
Otherwise, there will be a meeting next week about LWCE/Possible FUDCon3. I will let people know as things are decided.
Jack
On Thu, 2005-06-30 at 11:52 -0700, Jesse Keating wrote:
We had a meeting today to go over the stuff in the wiki, and I have made updates to the page accordingly. I haven't really marked which items are DONE or not, but a lot was discussed and names were assigned to items. Please discuss here if there are any thoughts or questions.
marketing@lists.fedoraproject.org
-
Colin Charles -
Jack Aboutboul -
Jesse Keating -
Karsten Wade