[Ambassadors] Ambassadors Meeting EMEA - IRC Log 2008-07-16

[Fabian Affolter]

HTML version of the log is here:

http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Ambassadors/Meetings/2008-07-16/HTML_Log

Raw log is here:

<fabian_a> Welcome everybody.  Let's have Fedora Ambassadors Meeting 
EMEA. It's 20.00 UTC
* spevack is here
<Milanito> lets have it
<fabian_a> i guess a lot of ambassadors are around
<fabian_a> let's start...please state your wiki name please (aka roll call)
<rsc> RobertScheck
<Milanito> MatthieuRondeau
<spevack> Max Spevack
* stickster has changed the topic to: Fedora Ambassadors meeting
<spevack> stickster: hi!
<petreu_> PeterReuschlein
* stickster has changed the topic to: Fedora Ambassadors EMEA
<rsc> Well, wiki name? User:robert
<red_alert> SandroMathys
<nihed> NihedMbarek
<fcrippa> FrancescoCrippa
<sdziallas> SebastianDziallas
<MrTom> ThomasCanniot
<bochecha> MathieuBridon
<fabian_a> stickster: thanks
<SePhIr0tH> RichardRondu
<fabian_a> FabianAffolter
<spevack> I love seeing all these people here!
<Pikachu_2015> MohamedElmorabity
<kital> JoergSimon
* stickster didn't clean up well after himself, sorry
<stickster> Uh oh, we left the coffee pot on, too.
<mether> RahulSundaram
<fugolini> FrancescoUgolini
<stickster> Holy moley, I wish this was the Docs meeting :-D
<cwickert> cwickert
<fabian_a> Just a reminder. We'll still follow our meeting protocol to 
make this meeting quick and efficient. 
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Communicate/IRCHowTo#Protocol . Thank you
<red_alert> I wish there were always so many ppl at our meetings ;)
<fabian_a> sorry, wiki name is not correct anymore but good to see that 
most attendees can remember the old style
<fabian_a> Now, please open our meeting page at 
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Ambassadors/Meetings/2008-07-16 for the agenda
<fabian_a> 1. News from  FAmSCo
<fabian_a> i would like to pass the ball to fugolini because I was off 
the during the last month
<fugolini> Thank you
<spevack> after fugolini, i will say a few words
<zydoon> Hi
<fabian_a> spevack: thank you
<fugolini> i don't want to discuss about budget
<Gaaruto> BourdouleixSylvain
<fugolini> personally i want only to underline the importance to have 
feedback from the community to better adress our work
<fugolini> we discussed about the local situations, and i think it would 
be a great thing to know what you need and what you want to see from FAmSCo
<fugolini> just this. eof
<spevack> !
<fabian_a> spevack, please
<spevack> I'd like to add a little bit to what fugolini is saying. 
First of all,
<spevack> I think everyone in EMEA community should be very proud of 
themselves
<spevack> because you are setting an example for how to run an 
Ambassadors program in a large continent with many different languages
<spevack> and it is wonderful work.
<spevack> From the FAMSCo perspective, I want to mention two things:
<spevack> 1) We are in the process of making sure that we have a list of 
all the events that will take place from September - November
<spevack> so please make sure, if you have an event, or you know about 
an event, that you add it to the page
<spevack> https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FedoraEvents
<spevack> 2) FAMSCo will be making another contribution to Fedora EMEA 
e.V. in August -- not sure what the exact amount will be yet, but 
probably 1500 - 2000 EUR
<spevack> fabian_a: should I talk more about Fedora EMEA e.v. now, or later?
<jdieter> JonathanDieter
<fabian_a> we can talk later about Fedora EMEA
<spevack> ok, then as far as FAMSCo, that is all for me.  EOF.  Any 
questions or comments?
<fabian_a> ok, next
<fabian_a> kital: would you like to tell us something your work for the 
Ambassadors Membership  Verification Service?
<spevack> kital: your work on that is *excellent* :)
<spevack> thank you so much
<fugolini> +1
<kital> thanks for the flowers
<kital> wait i had i had 227 Konversations since Linuxtag
<kital> we had 148 Requests for membership
<kital> eof
<fabian_a> kital: thanks
<bochecha> ?
<fabian_a> bochecha,
<bochecha> sorry if I am a bit late on this, but what exactly is this 
membership verification service ?
<bochecha> eof
<kital> !
<fabian_a> kital,
<kital> bochecha: this is simple the process to approve and guide new 
Ambassadors into the Probation Period and Membership
<kital> eof
<fabian_a> anything else about membership verification? questions?
<fabian_a> no?
* fcrippa_ is back... (sorry, umts connection....)
<fabian_a> next point...events
<spevack> bochecha: kital has done excellent work in helping to automate 
this process, and build infrastructure around it
<spevack> EOF'
<fabian_a> LUG Radio Live?
<spevack> sure
<spevack> This is a comparatively small event.
<spevack> I am giving one of the "keynote" speeches.
<spevack> it will be similar to the speech I gave at LinuxTag during our 
FUDCon
<spevack> because that message -- of how we build our community and 
prioritize the decisions that we make -- is one we are trying to spread
<spevack> I was hoping that JonathanRoberts would be able to attend the 
event, but it didn't work out.
<spevack> So there will only be a few other Red Hat people there, who 
are in the UK.
<spevack> but I will be representing Fedora
<spevack> and hoping to recruit a few new people to the project
<spevack> mostly, we are going to that event because the organizers 
asked me to speak.
<spevack> EOF
<fabian_a> spevack: thanks for the details
<fabian_a> FrOSCon 2008?
<spevack> I will write an event report for Fedora Planet and ambassadors 
list
* spevack looks at red_alert :)
<RodrigoPadula> hi guys,
<RodrigoPadula> famsco meeting ?
<spevack> hi RodrigoPadula: Fedora EMEA meeting, actually
<fabian_a> RodrigoPadula: yes
<fabian_a> RodrigoPadula: no, ambassadors meeting
<red_alert> me? uhm...I think there's nothing new on FrOSCon that's on 
on the mailing list. I hope the other organizers are doing something too ;)
<spevack> RodrigoPadula: ping fugolini in #fedora-mktg and he'll tell 
you about FAMSCo
<spevack> red_alert: ok, so let's talk about what needs to be done.
<spevack> what needs to be done?
<red_alert> I won't be able to attend the event as I announced so I was 
hoping for the other owners (spevack and romal) to take over
<spevack> red_alert: I missed your announcement, I'm sorry.
<spevack> so, what needs to be done?  We know that we have a speaking slot.
<red_alert> you wrote the list what's needed yourself ;) 
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FedoraEvents/FrOSCon/FrOSCon2008#Needed
<spevack> i believe that we need to figure out what to do about some 
swag for the event.
<spevack> red_alert: obviously I am a bit confused tonight :)
<spevack> ok, so mostly the needs are swag
<red_alert> I think you definately need an accomodation before anything 
else ;)
<spevack> red_alert: yes, that is true :)
<spevack> I wanted to ask in this meeting, either Gerold or kital, if we 
can make some shirts from a company here that we have used before? 
tshirts, maybe?
<spevack> I would like to pay for them from Fedora EMEA budget, and use 
them for various events
<spevack> but I do not have the contacts with the companies.  and maybe 
other folks do?
<kital> !
<spevack> kital: go ahead!
<spevack> please! :)
<kital> i will make it!
<kital> eof
<spevack> kital: ok, I will send you email and we can figure out design, 
quantity, sizes, etc.?
<kital> yes!
<spevack> ok.  Great.
<spevack> Then I think we are mostly ok for FrOSCon, at least for this 
meeting.
<spevack> EOF
<red_alert> eof
<spevack> kital: i will follow up with you tomorrow, ok?
<fabian_a> thank you guys
<spevack> fabian_a: you wanted to talk about Open Expo?
<fabian_a> in September after FUDCon the autumn edition of the annual 
Swiss open source event named OpenExpo will take place at Winterthur
<fabian_a> it's a small event with around 1000 visitors
<fabian_a> for detail check 
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FedoraEvents/OpenExpo/OpenExpo2008_Zurich
<fabian_a> if you want to join us, please drop me a line...
<GeroldKa> !
<fabian_a> GeroldKa,
<GeroldKa> me wants to drop the line; I have 6 OLPC for you for OpenExpo
<GeroldKa> and also from now until then with a small interrupt of two weeks
<GeroldKa> eof
<spevack> GeroldKa: where did you get 6 OLPCs??? that is incredible
<spevack> GeroldKa: hello, by the way :)
<GeroldKa> and also sorry for late I worked until now
<GeroldKa> hi there max
<red_alert> just as a sidenote: we don't have space at openexpo for 6 olpc
<fabian_a> with 6 olpcs we will ahve a problem with the space at ypur so 
called booth
<spevack> maybe we don't bring all 6 to Open Expo :)
<GeroldKa> it`s up to you, but I have them borrowed (also for OpenExpo)
<GeroldKa> if you don't want them ...
<fabian_a> but it's good to know that this machines are only 100 km away
<GeroldKa> OK, no doubt
<GeroldKa> I found some other guys who want to have them at that time
<spevack> fabian_a: FAMSCo will allocate official budget for OpenExpo in 
August, when FAMSCo makes all the budget planning for Q3 (September - 
November).  But you know this since you are in FAMSCo ;)
<spevack> but it is an important event
<spevack> jan wildeboer from red hat will be there
<spevack> and several other Red Hat people
<spevack> there will be meetings about Open Standards, I think, that Jan 
will be in
<spevack> one of the things that I am going to try to do for all of us 
soon is get a list from Andrea Schneider of all the events that Red Hat 
Marketing is going to in EMEA, so that we can always know when there is 
overlap with Fedora Events.
<spevack> EOF
<fabian_a> in September there will be a lot of events...FUDCon, 
OpenExpo, PCL, GITEX, and on and on
<fabian_a> some more about events?
<MrTom> !
<spevack> ! (but MrTom first)
<fabian_a> MrTom,
<MrTom> about the events, what is also important is to keep up to date 
the pages of the wiki. And I know for sure that it is a very difficult 
exercice.
<MrTom> however it helps a lot to know who / what /when / why when 
FAMSCO is allocating budgets to your events, so please keep this in 
mind. Up to date pages is not useless at all
<MrTom> eof
<fabian_a> spevack,
<spevack> I want to quickly mention FUDCon
<spevack> I will be updating the page in great detail tomorrow or 
Friday, before I leave for UK and LUG Radio Live
<spevack> https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FUDCon/FUDConBrno2008
<spevack> But we know that it will be in Czech Republic (Brno), 
September 5-7.  Saturday Sep. 6 will be the most "important" day.
<spevack> Also I will be able to give hotel information soon.  It seems 
very inexpensive, especially if people share a room.
<spevack> More information next week... but I hope that many people can 
go.  We will do one FUDCon in EMEA every year.
<spevack> This year in Czech Republic.
<spevack> Next year, somewhere else! :)
<spevack> EOF
<spevack> also, there will be special FUDCon tshirts.  EOF
<GeroldKa> I prefer Switzerland next year
<red_alert> +1 ;)
<GeroldKa> I also offered you University of Basel as Event Place
<fabian_a> +1
<kital> +1
<zydoon> +1
<stickster> Any time
* stickster hits wrong channel, sorry
<fugolini> !
<fabian_a> fugolini,
<spevack> And maybe next year we will do that.  The Czech Repbulic was 
chosen specially this year because it is very important that we involve 
the Red Hat engineers in that country more deeply in Fedora community. 
When we plan 2009 FUDCon EMEA, we will discuss all options for location.
<spevack> GeroldKa: any place we can get a relationship with a 
university is very interesting to me.
<spevack> we will be at a university in Brno also
<spevack> EOF
<red_alert> I'd also know a company in Switzerland who'd help us with 
some money if we'd do it here. eof
<fugolini> I think it would be better to chose a city near a cheap 
airport, I think we have to make a list of chear airline
<fugolini> *cheap airlines by country and the countries they cover
<fcrippa> fugolini: +1
<spevack> fugolini: great idea
<fugolini> e.g. For Basel a flight in october cost 400€
<GeroldKa> and to Brno?
<fugolini> this means that if i book the flight in september it will 
cost 500€
<GeroldKa> or Zurich?
<GeroldKa> or Stuttgart?
<fugolini> GeroldKa: Brno, direct flight 400, i think i'll take a cheap 
flight
<kital> Mallorca
<fugolini> from Wien or Prague
<spevack> !
<fugolini> eof
<fabian_a> spevack,
<spevack> I also will travel to Paris on August 2 to meet with MrTom and 
as many people from the Fedora-fr community as we can gather.
<MrTom> (about 15)
<spevack> I am looking forward to that, because it will allow us to plan 
and discuss things in that country in great detail
<GeroldKa> Aaarghs
<GeroldKa> its 500 kms
<spevack> EOF from me
<fabian_a> anything else about the upcoming FUDCon?
<Milanito> we are very glad you are coming spevack
<spevack> fabian_a: nothing else right now.  I will email 
ambassadors-list when i have more updates
<spevack> Milanito: me too!
<fabian_a> spevack: thanks
<red_alert> spevack: don't forget to mention the weekly meetings about 
fudcon ;)
<spevack> right.  we have a weekly planning meeting on Tuesdays at 13:00 
UTC in #fedora-meeting
<spevack> for FUDCon Brno
<spevack> red_alert: thank you :)
<spevack> EOF
<fabian_a> now...FAD EMEA
<fabian_a> spevack or red_alert please
<spevack> https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FAD/FADEMEA2008
<red_alert> well, we wanted to get an idea of what people think
<spevack> red_alert: you go ahead :)
<red_alert> how they liked/disliked about the last FAD EMEA near Basel 
at the German/Swiss border
<red_alert> place, duration, topics, lodging, fun/fringe events, food, 
everything
<red_alert> in order to make it even better this year, we need some feedback
<red_alert> so please go to the event site that max posted above and tell us
<red_alert> we'd also like to hear ideas about how to spend the 
budget...on travel, lodging, fun activities, ...
<wonderer1> hy
<red_alert> if you have an idea in what city we could do it and maybe 
have good reasons to prefer that city - tell us
<red_alert> what did I forget, spevack?
<spevack> there are several questions and items to comment on in the 
wiki page.  feel free to leave your comments.
<spevack> red_alert: you got it all
<MrTom> !
<red_alert> questions / comments right now?
<GeroldKa> I thought you want to "rename my Baby" Max
<GeroldKa> as: Fedora Activity Day
<spevack> GeroldKa: that is a separate idea, but it also uses the FAD 
acronym.  I haven't had time to pursue that idea yeat
<spevack> s/yeat/yet
<spevack> MrTom:
<spevack> you had a comment?
* wonderer1 raises hand ;-)
<MrTom> about spending the budget, it always remains difficult to know 
what to spend it on. There used to have a discussion about financing 
lodging and not travel, so as every people are equal in the eyes of 
famso, however we are not equal in term of distance / travel and i think 
that we shloud finance traveling
<wonderer1> may I something ask. maybe I d
<spevack> wonderer1: go ahead
<MrTom> so as to fight againt inequalities among us. Financing travel 
for the farthest pple, and lodging for the closest.
<MrTom> eof
<spevack> wonderer1: you go, then I will respond to MrTom with my 
thoughts, and then see what other people think
<wonderer1> maybe i did'nt get a / the remindermail to this meeting. Or 
isnt there such a mail lets say hald a day before..?!
<spevack> wonderer1: that was a typo, a second mail was sent out fixing it.
<spevack> wonderer1: sorry for any confusion!
<wonderer1> spevack: Ok. because I did'nt get yet any Announcement Mail 
today. I think several days ago some goes over the list. Baut "today" 
(lets say "last reminder" ... I will check this next time ;-) Thanks.
<spevack> MrTom: I tend to agree with you.  Speaking in general, when I 
manage the Fedora budget on the whole, I try to make sure that budget 
goes to the people who need it the most.  I also try to make sure it is 
generally balanced, but if one person gets more support than another, it 
doesn't bother me as long as everyone is getting as much help as we can 
give them, and as they need.
<spevack> But I do not want to dictate policy for all of you.
<spevack> I think that it is necessary for us to first have a full 
balance of the money that Fedora EMEA e.V. has.
<MrTom> !
<spevack> we can add to that the money we know will come to Fedora EMEA 
e.V. from Red Hat and Fedora Project
<spevack> and then we can decide as a group how to spend it.
<spevack> one of the things I will also do in the next week or two is 
give a full Treasurer report for Fedora EMEA e.V.  I have all the 
documents, I just need to go through them.
<spevack> EOF
<fabian_a> MrTom,
<MrTom> or maybe decide of an amount of money to give to people to help 
them to come, and let them decide how to give it away
<MrTom> eof
<wonderer1> is maybe there a statistic how much % on small / middle / 
big events was spend on travel, accomondation, food & drinks, 
merchandising, Fedore CD/DVD, etc.?
<fabian_a> wonderer1: can you please follow the meeting protocol 
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Communicate/IRCHowTo#Protocol tnhanks
<GeroldKa> !
<fabian_a> GeroldKa,
<GeroldKa> MrTom, I also thought about that idea
<GeroldKa> but I personally follow the item
<GeroldKa> the same amount for every attendee
<GeroldKa> or at best pay the same amount for everyone for the room
<GeroldKa> that fair to everybody and als transparent to everybody
<GeroldKa> eof
<spevack> !
<kital> +1
<fabian_a> spevack,
<spevack> wonderer1: we have some metrics.  For LinuxTag, we have very 
detailed breakdowns of hotel cost, travel cost, food cost, etc.
<spevack> for smaller events, we tend to give some budget to the event 
organizer and let that person decide how best to spend it
<spevack> LinuxTag and FUDcon are special cases
<wonderer1> !
<spevack> GeroldKa: I think transparency is the key.  As long as we are 
transparent about where the money goes, people can make comments.  I 
believe that with the Fedora Budget the last 2.5 years (or however long 
I have been doing Fedora), we are the most transparent of any Linux 
Distribution in the world, and we will keep doing this.  Also with 
Fedora EMEA e.V. -- I am just a little bit behind :)
<spevack> EOF
<fabian_a> wonderer1,
<wonderer1> spaveck, yes thats what I mean. Can there be made some 
matrix as "if planing try 10% for boothrent, 25-30% travel, etc." so 
someone is new to that (espacially Ambassadors) can plan that. Then ther 
would maybe not so often be a discussion or confusion.
<wonderer1> I do planning on Europewide Events for several years
<wonderer1> but
<wonderer1> that is often planning on a small team. At bigger events 
that could help i Think. Also what MrTom says "on what i can spend wich 
amounT" etc. can better be planned
<wonderer1> and
<spevack> wonderer1: those are all good points.  I can go back to the 
linuxTag budget and see what the percentages were.
<wonderer1> the Budget Plan someone gives to Fedora "I need xyz for this 
Event" could better verified and compared.
<spevack> that will give some idea
<wonderer1> eof
<spevack> EOF from me too.  i will get back to you
* fcrippa 's laptop battery is near to be dead... another 5-10 minutes...
<spevack> fabian_a: what else?
<GeroldKa> next year, we have to pay for booth (at Linuxtag btw.)
* kital has to go
<fabian_a> i guess we are done for today...
<fabian_a> we skip the "open floor"
<spevack> GeroldKa: We will factor that into budget
<spevack> GeroldKa: for next year's linuxtag
<spevack> GeroldKa: and you and i will plan in advance with andrea and 
marion :)_
<spevack> fabian_a: I just want to say thank you for running the 
meeting, and thank you to everyone for coming!
<fabian_a> anything else? Any more questions or issues before we close 
this meeting?
* wonderer1 claps hands
* Sonar_Guy has quit ("Leaving")
<fabian_a> 5
<fabian_a> 4
<fabian_a> 3
<fabian_a> 2
<fcrippa> can we consider 5-6-7 of September "official" and "definitive" 
date for FUDCon?
<spevack> fcrippa: yes
<fcrippa> (just in time :-)
<spevack> fcrippa: we have space booked at university in Brno for those 
dates
<fabian_a> acc. to spevack the date is fixed
<fcrippa> spevack: great!
<fabian_a> 1
<fabian_a> 0
<red_alert> reminder for everyone: don't forget to post your ideas about 
the upcoming FAD on http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FAD/FADEMEA2008 - we 
need your opinions!
<fcrippa> fugolini: we can organize our trip
<spevack> fabian_a: thank you!
<fabian_a> Fedora Ambassadors Meeting EMEA 2008-07-16 has been 
adjourned. Next meeting in August 2008.