Update - FUDCon Tempe: Keepin' on plowin'

[Paul W. Frields]

Mail fail, sorry I didn't see this earlier!

On Wed, May 12, 2010 at 02:17:30PM -0700, Robyn Bergeron wrote:
[...snip...]
> The first option is located at the Brickyard on Mill, which is located
> on the main drag in Tempe - and is also the home to many computer
> science classes.  It is a few minutes walk from the proposed hotel
> (Tempe Mission Palms).  It is a very nice, relatively new two-story
> building, with tons of classrooms, most equipped with one-two
> projectors, and 2 classrooms also have video streaming capabilities.
> Most of the rooms are oriented with multiple rows of long tables.
> Adam and Zachary are currently trying to get in touch with the faculty
> member who is responsible for that particular building (apparently, it
> recently changed hands - they have his name, but not a response yet,
> which may be due to the fact that it is graduation week at ASU).  The
> building has a large lobby area as well, where things like donuts /
> coffee can be eaten, there are bar-type tables in the room; it also
> has stairs as well as an elevator, restrooms, etc. Reportedly, other,
> very large software companies (Microsoft) also come to campus in
> coordination with the faculty to do presentations, learning sessions,
> etc. - so this wouldn't be an unheard-of thing for them to host.  More
> importantly, it would likely be free.  We would likely have to work
> around some classes on the days when school is in session - but the
> classrooms, like on most college campuses, are not all simultaneously
> used.

This sounds like a *very* good option if it's free of cost.  Assuming
we have the FUDCon from Saturday through Monday, it would be easy for
us to flex our room use on Monday to work around classes.  We will
still need several rooms, so it's important that we get some idea of
availability from the faculty owner soon.

> The second option is the ASU Memorial Union. This is a nearly
> brand-new facility (it had a large fire a few years back, so
> everything has been rebuilt / redone) with fast-food and regular-style
> restaurants on the first floor, and an abundance of conference space
> on the second floor.  All of it very, very, nice.  This is the option,
> as detailed on https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/FUDCon:Bid_for_Tempe_2011,
> that would have to be paid - but, with ASULUG as a registered campus
> organization, would be low cost for us to use.  The downside is that,
> despite being on campus, it is a long walk from the hotel -
> approximately 20 minutes.  (Ryan and I did the walk, at an extremely
> leisurely, slow-as-we-could-go pace, which wasn't hard since... it was
> 105ish outside while we were doing it.) I don't know how most people
> would feel about this - but it's not something driveable, since it's
> in the middle of basically walkways and such on campus, and on-campus
> parking near there is somewhat limited to people who have special
> passes for special parking lots. However, we could find out what the
> availability is, if we decide that exercise isn't going to be bad for
> anyone, and in the event that the Brickyard (option #1) is just not
> possible.

I don't think people are generally opposed to a short walk, since
we'll be doing it in the wintertime.  In cases where we needed to use
buses or other public transport in the past, the transit time wasn't
much different.  If we have anyone who can't make the walk, I don't
think we'd have any problem arranging transportation by cab or some
other shuttle.

> Obviously, given its proximity to the hotel, as well as the abundance
> of CSE students who will be around, the Brickyard is the preferred
> option - not to mention the likely cost of Free or Cleaning Fee-type
> thing.  I'm hoping to hear back from Adam and Zach, who are both
> awesome, in the coming days.

That's great.  I agree, the Brickyard sounds like the right kind of
place for us.

> A bit about the local community:  ASULUG recently did an overhaul /
> cleanup of its mailing list where they required everyone to
> re-sign-up.  They had 163 re-subscribe; they also noted that
> installfests usually bring 40-50 people, and that regular ASU LUG
> meetings generally have 20-30 attendees.  Both Adam and Zach stated
> that they both believed a large number of those people would be
> interested in attending at least part of FUDCon.  Phoenix, from what I
> understand (not living there) also has a sizeable LUG community; there
> are also nearby technical colleges (DeVry and University of Advancing
> Technology) with students who would likely participate (both of these
> schools regularly host PLUG meetings).
> 
> Internet access is something else that is currently being looked into.
>  ASU students, of course, have campus-wide wireless access; guests,
> however, are limited to http and https only.  So the option was
> discussed of running wireless access points off of some of the ASU
> student's student IDs, which obviously isn't preferable.  At this
> point, the likely solutions are (a) to work with campus infrastructure
> to get more comprehensive (and fast) access, or (b) to bring in our
> own.  Zach, having graduated from ASU recently, runs a business where
> he can set that type of situation up - details / costs not yet
> discussed - but the option is available, either from him, or another
> local provider (and we'd likely still ahve to coordinate with ASU on
> this). Obviously, internet access is crucial here, so that's being
> worked on.

Who's doing that part?  Is that Adam and Zach also?

The best practice is to work with the infrastructure folks on campus
since we don't want to run afoul of the school's policies.  Simply
opening up SSH for our use would make a huge difference.  We don't
have a separate budget for infrastructure, and based on what we
already know from other events, having someone bring it in could very
well be cost-prohibitive.

The faculty sponsor should be able to help with getting an appropriate
contact on ASU's IT staff.

> Anyway: bottom line - we're still trying to make contact with new
> faculty person, Adam and Zach said that we could probably consider
> having someone (Paul, most likely) send a more official-sounding mail
> to this person in the event we don't hear back relatively soon. As I
> said - it's graduation week, so there's probably quite a bit of chaos
> at the moment. But I think the college would be interested in hosting
> us - after all, if they're hosting MS informational sessions, surely
> they'd be interested in offering their students some diversity,
> opportunity to network, learn new things, etc.  Internet access is
> also being worked on. Ryan and I will be continuing to work on this
> bid, of course, so feel free to check out the wiki page over the next
> few weeks to view our progress.

So our critical path still includes getting the appropriate faculty
sponsor.  If some sort of official letter is needed, please send me
contact details as soon as possible.  We need to get from our current
stage of lots of possible things we could do, to the stage of knowing
our precise options, attached costs, and process for each choice, by
about June 1.

-- 
Paul W. Frields                                http://paul.frields.org/
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