[Ambassadors] OSCON booth questions and ideas

[Karsten Wade]

On Thu, Jun 17, 2010 at 10:51:40AM -0700, Kevin Higgins wrote:
> > During open floor hours at OSCON (when conf attendees can go out to
> > walk around), schedule a series of short informative talks at the
> > Fedora booth.

Sorry, slow to reply to my own thread.

>  I think the idea sounds great. We do need to take into
> consideration that Each 10x10 Booth Space Includes:
> 
> * 4' draped counter (pop-up booths are allowed)
> * One counter-height stool
> 
> SO even though we have a 10x10 area it sounds like we are being
> supplied with a 4' counter area "table?"

I was thinking of a design where the speaker was outside of the booth
space, directly in front with a semicircular crowd.  This is based on
what I recall about how OSCON booths were designed last time, which is
rather typical for any show.  You have a single table/counter that is
about 42" on top (higher than a kitchen counter by a foot.)  We can
move it to any configuration.

I threw up a few ideas in this SVG image:

http://quaid.fedorapeople.org/fedora/events/OSCON-2010-booth-config.svg

The rectangle is the counter (tall table) and the square is the
counter-height stool.  In the first config I put it on the outside,
which is one way of making sure at least one booth person doesn't get
buried behind "The Desk" and is out front to talk with people.  In the
second config things are more opened, which invites people inside of
the area making it harder for Ambassadors to "do stuff" in the booth
except talk with people.  (Harder to do a live USB station in the
second config compared to the first config, for example.)

In both situations, the speaker is just forward enough to give room
for existing activities to occur at the front of the booth.  Ideally
not conversations (2' away) but sometimes it will be.  Then folks are
really in a semi-circle and a few deep around the front of the
speaker, but I drew in the full circle to give the bubble that we'll
need.

Based on my experience in the past, that may work to not obstruct
people walking by.  I'm confident enough that we can make it work no
matter what that I think we should just proceed with that plan and
adjust on the fly if an OSCON staff notices we need to make a change.

> I do have a 6x2.5 fold up banquet table that we used for our Release party
> but i do not know if that is a 'pop-up booths are allowed'

Hmm ... Is it a hassle to bring it down if we don't end up using it?

Have you read anything from O'Reilly about what we can bring?  Can I
bring camp chairs or other stools because 1 is not enough?  Tables,
etc.?

> > We can get this on the various RSS and mblog feeds (#oscon, etc.),
> > clear signs, and other things that occur as we are there.
> 
> I think this would work well if we have the wifi Iknow that we
> have to pay for the wifi this year. Would have to get with Larry about
> if we have
> payed for Wifi.

I think John is right that we had a wired drop, and the West Coast
Event Box should have a wifi AP (running OpenWRT).  If it doesn't,
it's my fault, so I'll find it and bring it.

What is the cost of connectivity?  Are they only providing wireless or
are wired drops optional?

> > This started in my mind because I want myself or Mel to give a short
> > info talk on POSSE[1] at least once every hour.  There will be other
> > people at OSCON involved in the Teaching Open Source community, and I
> > would like to see some of them come give talks, too.
> 
> I think it be great since Portland's Graduating class from High school
> this year is only 68% {don't quote me on the stat but I know it was
> in the 60 percentile} of what it was last year; and since Washington
> state is committed to education reform and with Gov. Gregoire's
> announcement that Tacoma Public Schools is to join Washington’s Race
> to the Top application.
> 
> http://www.governor.wa.gov/news/news-view.asp?pressRelease=1490&newsType=1
> http://www.waracetothetop.org/
> 
> This would be great to promo to the school boards and such I can work
> on some of that
> localy.

OK, we can start putting the word out.  I'll get organized with the
Teaching Open Source (TOS) folks, write-up a few wiki pages, etc.

> Are any of these 'Lightning Talks' going to be in the

Not per se, although I know some edu folks who submitted for these
Ignite talks.

> I think given the space and some time to work out details this would benefit
> both Fedora and POSSE given there is a direct tie in such as the OLPC
> is based on Fedora.
> Just my thoughts but of course would have to get with the others also.

+1 thanks for the support!

ciao - Karsten
-- 
name:  Karsten 'quaid' Wade, Sr. Community Gardener
team:                Red Hat Community Architecture 
uri:               http://TheOpenSourceWay.org/wiki
gpg:                                       AD0E0C41
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