[RFC] CUDCon - Cloud conference to parallel FUDCon

[Karsten Wade]

I'll likely end up answering stuff a few times, but that's OK.

Part of this is that I had two ideas at the same time - one to do an
open source conference, the other to call it CUDCon. Clearly it's an
evolving beast. Onward with replies ...

On Mon, Aug 22, 2011 at 01:46:51PM -0700, Robyn Bergeron wrote:

> So my gut feelings on this:
>
> * Having this at the *same time* as FUDCon would be less than optimal,  
> as we've seen in the past with having FUDCon co-lo'd with JUDCon or  
> Summit, or even FUDCon at the same time as other events (fosdem, etc.).  
> People have to choose from one or the other, and can't make the most of  
> their time at either event.  Even FADs run on the same days as  
> $variousconferences wind up having people come in and out and not be  
> able to get anything done.
> * Having it before/after puts a lot of folks in the position of having  
> to take off a full week from work, or else having to choose one or the  
> other.

So perhaps my thinking on this is a few years out of date, considering
the alignment of thinking that says, "No, duh!"

The thinking is, bring in a *new* set of people who wouldn't be at
FUDCon.

Don't put up a competing track, merge. All the Fedora-focused cloud
talks end up being done "within" CUDCon. Think of it, if you will, as
a tag saying, "This talk is interesting to Fedora & cloud," i.e., more
than one audience.

> * I fear that despite having it under "different branding" - even having  
> it at the same time as a Red Hat-sponsored "event" will give it the  
> illusion that it's going to be very Red Hat-focused - possibly  
> disenfranchising other folks from coming.

I'll be honest, I think (as with the original FUDCon), the CUDCon as a
brand is good enough it is worth doing battle with the "Yet another
*UDCon from Red Hat."

But as I said at the start, and is clear in the response, there are 3
points here.

1. Is it useful to have an open source cloud conference?
2. Can it be called CUDCon or does it need a more neutral name? But
   what about the humor value? (CUDSummit.org is available, too, but
   loses the -con air.)
3. Should it be paired with FUDCon?

Bigger conferences pair stuff all the time and it works. I'm just
wondering if CUDCon is the thing that grows FUDCon to be bigger-er so
it doesn't suffer from the brain-drainage problem.

> I really like the idea of having a Cloud Developer/End user-focused  
> event, giving devs the opportunity to work amongst each other and find  
> common ground, ways to work together, and getting to hear about the gaps  
> that end-users are experiencing -- but I feel like having it be more  
> independent, and getting some key folks in from other communities to  
> help drive it and put it together, would make it much more  
> unbiased-appearing.

OK, let's keep that as a very serious option, that I just take this to
a stand-alone, new plan and discussion, then start pulling people in
from various related communities.

> We did have what was more or less a "full track," so to speak, of  
> cloud-stuff at FUDCon this year, and that worked very well, even though  
> it was somewhat Fedora-focused.
>
> My other major concern is "what happens if it's super successful" (oh  
> noes!) - how do we manage that with the limited Fedora budget that we  
> have, or where are we getting money to sponsor what could potentially be  
> another 100 folks showing up - as far as a "fudpub option", having  
> enough rooms at a hotel at a point when FUDCon itself has blocked off  
> only enough rooms for a Fedora audience, etc.

I'm using this open thinking process to bake a plan I'll be presenting
to platform and cloud product and marketing folks at Red Hat for
funding -- regardless of FUDCon connection. Do I think the FUDCon
connection makes it an easier or harder sell for those folks? Not sure
yet ...

So my go-plan for Milan is to scrape by with what I can find for
funding (very little) but prove the model, and use that to justify
actual budget for Blacksburg from $sponsors. Naturally, I'd start
looking for sponsorship first at home ...

> Generally, I think it would be far better off as an independent event,  
> particularly if we want it to be an Independent Event - we can't say  
> that we want it to be for everyone and that it's not Fedora-focused, but  
> still want to leverage the fact that Fedora is onsite. I really feel  
> like it's one or the other, but doing both I think causes a big  
> distraction for FUDCon itself, and ties itself in a way to Red Hat  
> branding that really makes it not independent, no matter how much we say  
> otherwise.  Even calling itself an *UDCon is essentially reusing names  
> that are given to other Red Hat conferences, which I suspect probably  
> would just give people the impression that it's going to be very RHT  
> focused.
>
> Sorry to be all Negative-Nancy.  Like I said, I like the idea - but I  
> don't want the idea, or FUDCon, to suffer - I think it could be very  
> successful as something that is more independent, both in terms of  
> attendees and output done.

You'll note in the proposal that one of the values of connecting with
a FUDCon is the chance to interrelate with the very developers who
work on both important upstreams and important integration points
(Fedora and RHEL/EPEL.) That's a value and focus to start.

I'm feeling like that is something I *can* deliver on by pairing with
FUDCon.

I can't deliver that equivalent value without pairing an open source
cloud conference with another conference.

I see there is enough there-there to bring together some of the open
source cloud efforts to a conference, but what brings out the kernel
and packaging and release engineering folks from the various Linux
distros?

If we can get a conference that *starts* alongside FUDCon, there is no
reason it can't run alongside other distro-specific conferences.

And that brings us back around to the saw's edge that I think FUDCon
is at. It doesn't have to grow in size, but if it is going to, one way
is to figure out how to embrace the shared communities of interest.

Anyway, I'm not stuck on any idea other than the same one we all agree
needs doing, 'neutral-ground open source cloud conference'. Well, I'm
a bit stuck in not taking ourselves too seriously, which is why I want
to be all clever with the CUDonyms.

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