A proposal for your thoughts, as we plan future FUDCons...

[seth vidal]

On Mon, 2011-04-11 at 13:23 -0500, Dennis Gilmore wrote:
> On Monday, April 11, 2011 09:13:46 AM seth vidal wrote:
> > On Mon, 2011-04-11 at 07:04 -0700, Robyn Bergeron wrote:
> > > I'd like to get feedback on a possible thought around FUDCon.  I've
> > > spoken with some folks about it in passing but I think it might be
> > > worthwhile to bring up as an idea for pondering.
> > > 
> > > The idea is fairly simple: Trying out the idea of having a US-based
> > > "worldwide" FUDCon for a year. I think we had a great deal of success,
> > > and quite a bit of added productivity, in bringing in a handful of
> > > contributors from other regions for the Tempe FUDCon just a few months
> > > ago.  I believe that adding larger numbers of contributors from other
> > > regions might help to scale that productivity and "getting things done"
> > > in a great way.
> > > 
> > > I'd suggest that this would work in the following way: Rather than have
> > > the NA FUDCon in Q4 of Red Hat's 2012 fiscal year (December 2011 -
> > > February 2012), we allocate Q4 budget, plus the majority of next year's
> > > budget for ALL FUDCons, towards a FUDCon in sometime between March and
> > > July of next year (2012). We still use the regional money for the
> > > 2012-2013 fiscal year by region, ie: 20k for bringing in folks from
> > > Europe, etc. I think we could bring in a BOATLOAD (or airplane-load, I
> > > suppose) of regional folks for that money.
> > > 
> > > And then shift back to having regular regional FUDCons the following
> > > year, and then possibly back to another worldwide fudcon the year
> > > following that, depending on success/fail.
> > > 
> > > (This might also have the benefit of having fudcon in the US in a season
> > > that, quite frankly, doesn't suck for travel with snow.)
> > > 
> > > Thoughts, comments, flames? I think it's worthwhile to at least consider
> > > the idea. I realize that we already have had the deadline pass for
> > > submitting bids for a FUDCon in NA late this year/early next year,
> > > though I suppose it's not entirely set in stone.  Pros/cons welcome!
> > 
> > Do we have any contributors who are:
> > 1. troubled by coming to the US and having their fingerprints taken?
> > 2. find difficulty traveling to the US due to their country of origin?
> > 
> > The reason I bring this up is that July can be comfortable or can be
> > damned uncomfortable in huge swaths of the US. And therefore maybe we
> > should consider some place further north in north america, like canada
> > somewhere?
> > 
> > then people coming from outside of the US won't have to go through as
> > much rigamarole and possibly we all won't have to sweat nearly as much.
> > 
> > thoughts?
> That only works if they can get flights to Canada that are not routed though 
> the US,  if you land in a US airport even for transit you must go though 
> immigration.  you can not just transit though the US.
> 

Absolutely true. But at least it gives them the option of finding a
flight that doesn't pass through the US.

-sv