GUADEC Committee: 16 January 2012 Meeting

Meeting Information

IRC channel: irc://irc.gnome.org/#guadec

Time: 16:00 - 17:30 UTC

• 08:00 Los Angeles/San Francisco
• 11:00 Boston/Montreal/New York
• 16:00 London
• 17:00 Berlin/Madrid

Agenda

1. Call for Contributors / Program Committee
   • Committee membership
   • Call for Contributors/Papers
2. Sponsors
   • Board approval of sponsorship levels and discount?
   • Status on contacting this years' potential sponsors
3. Coordinator for next few meetings
   • bobert will be traveling 11 Feb - 15 Mar with limited net access, so we need a volunteer to run meetings for 13 Feb, 27 Feb, and 12 Mar.
4. Local Team Status
5. 2013
   • Has board decided whether this will be a GUADEC or DS?
   • If GUADEC, we need to put out a call for bids soon.
6. Other Items

Meeting Minutes

Attending

TBD

Summary

TBD

Action Items

TBD

IRC Log

bobert: Hello everybody!
[08:00am] karenesq: hi bobert!
[08:00am] txenoo: hello bobert
[08:00am] williamfromtexas: hi
[08:01am] karenesq: my apologies, I've got a migraine today, so I'll do my best to keep up but apologies for any typos or anything, it's sometimes hard for me to keep up when I've got one
[08:01am] vuntz: hey hey
[08:01am] bobert: No problem, Karen - I hope your migraine is better soon
[08:01am] karenesq: hi vuntz!
[08:02am] karenesq: thanks
[08:03am] karenesq: I am excited to be at the meeting though, after I had to miss the last one!
[08:03am] bobert:
[08:03am] bobert: Let's go ahead and get started.
[08:04am] bobert: The first item on the agenda is Call for Contributors / Program Committee - how are those coming?
[08:04am] yippi joined the chat room.
[08:04am] yippi: hi
[08:04am] yippi: sorry i'm late
[08:04am] txenoo: vuntz: finally have we completed the team ?
[08:04am] bobert: Hi yippi - no prob
[08:04am] vuntz: yeah
[08:04am] vuntz: we have a full team:
[08:05am] vuntz: andre klapper, allan day, ryan lortie, lennart poettering, michael meeks, christian schaller and myself
[08:05am] vuntz: I've finished a draft of the CfP today and the others will review it soon
[08:06am] yippi: this is the team to review papers?
[08:06am] vuntz: right now, the preliminary timeline (was not approved by the others, so might change): March 31st = deadline for submissions; April 21st = notifications to speakers
[08:06am] vuntz: yippi: yep
[08:06am] yippi: great
[08:07am] karenesq: that's great!
[08:07am] bobert: Excellent!
[08:07am] yippi: has this been announced on guadec-list?
[08:08am] vuntz: yippi: I should probably send a mail; I'll do that after the meeting
[08:08am] yippi: while that seems a good team, I also think we should make sure that people on guadec-list who are interested in volunteering can step up
[08:08am] yippi: it might discourage volunteers if it seems we pick people to help all privately all the time
[08:08am] vuntz: yippi: well, the program committee is a bit special from that regard, imho
[08:09am] yippi: i think it is great that we have a team together already, but i think we want to give people the message that anyone can help.
[08:09am] yippi: sure, but perhaps in the announcement we can tell people we need more help in other areas of planning GUADEC
[08:09am] vuntz: sure, I'll do that
[08:09am] yippi: thanks
[08:09am] karenesq: OSCON has loads of people as reviewers who just make recommendations to the papers committee (or whatever they call it)
[08:10am] yippi: we also need a lot of help to have a Boston Summit.  might not be at MIT if we can't find someone to help get the space in the next month
[08:10am] vuntz: one thing I didn't put in the list of topics but that we used to have in past years is topics like "Government use of the free desktops; Attention for Free Software software in education and participation of students"
[08:10am] yippi: so we need help on more than just guadec actually
[08:10am] karenesq: so if someone is dead set on helping with talk selection there may be a role for them without putting them on the committee
[08:10am] karenesq: yippi: great poitns
[08:11am] vuntz: I'm not sure if we want to explicitly include such topics again -- I've not felt they attracted great talks in the past. But we might want to do it because we'll be hosted by a university
[08:12am] yippi: which topics, vuntz?
[08:12am] txenoo: vuntz: let us know about the content of the CfP in order to review how contributions will be submitted.
[08:13am] yippi: do we feel that there should be some overarching theme for this year's GUADEC, with GNOME 3.4 coming out?
[08:13am] vuntz: yippi: 17:10 < vuntz> one thing I didn't put in the list of topics but that we used to have in past years is topics like "Government use of the free desktops; Attention for Free Software software in education and participation of students"
[08:13am] vuntz: for reference, that's the first draft: http://tmp.vuntz.net/misc/cfp.txt
[08:13am] txenoo: from the University point of view there are no restrictions about topics, we are at a computer science Faculty.
[08:13am] yippi: it would be great to get more talks by business and government, but you are right we haven't been very successful in the past
[08:13am] vuntz: (it might get completeley rewritten by others in the committee ;-))
[08:14am] karenesq: yippi: btw, regarding Boston Summit I got an email from Walter Bender in December that he had talked to MIT and that they were going to hold the rooms for us. I will double check that we don't need to do anything to follow up
[08:14am] vuntz: txenoo: yeah, I'd like to chat about how to handle submissions 
[08:15am] yippi: i like that the CfP encourages people to consider topics.
[08:15am] txenoo: vuntz: we'll talk later 
[08:15am] vuntz: txenoo: as I said previously, our only constraints from our side is that we can export to csv (indico can do that)
[08:15am] yippi: we seem to be encouraging people to talk about GNOME 3 in general, but it doesn't seem that we have a real clear topic
[08:15am] vuntz: txenoo: so if the local team has a setup ready with a web form, that's perfect for us -- we just want to link that form in the CfP
[08:16am] vuntz: yippi: that clear topic would be the future direction of GNOME. At least, that's what I had in my brain 
[08:17am] williamfromtexas: we could do 'the future' and then have the venue decorated with space ships and stuff 
[08:18am] vuntz: I'm pushing to get the cfp final this week, and I'd like to publish it at the end of the week, or next week
[08:19am] yippi: considering that proprietary mobile and tablet providers are forging so much new ground and changing how people think of computing and the cloud, do we not have much a response?
[08:20am] yippi: beyond the fact that we have a future?
[08:20am] yippi: isn't the point of GNOME 3 to compete in these new types of markets?
[08:20am] yippi: or maybe that's GNOME 3.6?  
[08:21am] vuntz: if you ask me, I'd say GNOME 3 is the evolutionary step that will allow GNOME 4 to do that -- but that's really a long discussion that is out of topic for this meeting 
[08:22am] vuntz: are people happy with the suggested timeline?
[08:22am] bobert: I agree with vuntz about being off-topic - although I'd be delighted to sit with anybody over several beers to discuss that, it's something of great interest to me. 
[08:22am] txenoo: dates are ok
[08:23am] williamfromtexas: the opening of CfP is presumably a week from now.. will 2 months be enough?
[08:23am] txenoo: we will open the lightning talks call in April, i suppose will propose talks not entering the main program could apply for a lightning talk
[08:24am] vuntz: williamfromtexas: yeah; usually, a few people submit talks in the first week, and then 90% of the talks get submitted in the last two weeks
[08:25am] txenoo: and probably you receive last week multiple requests for extra time
[08:25am] williamfromtexas: k.. we should well advertise when the closing is
[08:25am] vuntz: txenoo: that makes sense to me. It's unclear who will manage the lightning talks -- I can ask for volunteers on guadec-list
[08:25am] vuntz: williamfromtexas: we always blog reminders the week before the deadline 
[08:26am] williamfromtexas: does the CfP committee decide talk tracks?
[08:27am] karenesq: perhaps a tiny bit off topic now, but I was talking with one of the MATE guys, who was thinking of coming to GUADEC and organizing a meeting for them there. While we wouldn't necessarily put a priority on talks about MATE (which in our view is focused on the past of GNOME rather than the future), I think it's worth trying to make a welcoming environment for that, which would probably encourage good feeling and an increased lik
[08:27am] karenesq: elihood of working together in future
[08:27am] yippi: vuntz, it is somewhat off topic.  Although having a more clear topic can help to encourage people to submit papers about those topics
[08:27am] vuntz: williamfromtexas: good question. Without much thinking, I'd be tempted to organize the tracks based on the talks we'll have, so yes.
[08:28am] vuntz: karenesq: we can do that, yes
[08:29am] williamfromtexas: if there was any sort of overarching conf theme, the talk tracks might be pre-defined and released in the CfP to have talks address the theme
[08:29am] vuntz: williamfromtexas: that'd be the hot topics in the cfp, then
[08:30am] vuntz: williamfromtexas: but I must admit I'm reluctant to say "those are the 3 tracks we'll have" since it's hard to predict what will get submitted
[08:30am] vuntz: we can do that if people think we should, though
[08:33am] karenesq: do we normally have overarching conference themes for GUADEC?
[08:34am] yippi: not typically, though we have had more of a theme at recent events due to GNOME 3
[08:34am] yippi: nice email vuntz
[08:34am] williamfromtexas: the DS had a loose 'design' theme that was reflected in the keynotes and press points
[08:35am] yippi: yes, the fact that we've alternated with Desktop Summit the past several years has also given us fewer opportunities to define the message all by ourselves
[08:36am] toscalix joined the chat room.
[08:37am] karenesq: vuntz: I agree with yippi - good email!
[08:37am] yippi: on foundation-list, in the recent discussions about the Desktop Summit, many people said that they did not want a Desktop Summit because we wanted to define our own message more
[08:37am] txenoo: but it is difficult to choose a motto for this year conference, but it should be about a big challenge we would be facing.
[08:37am] yippi: so, it does seem a bit odd to me that we do not seem to have much of a message beyond the obvious "the future"
[08:37am] toscalix left the chat room. (Remote closed the connection)
[08:38am] yippi: maybe people want to define what our message is more, but we don't really have much of a message?
[08:39am] toscalix joined the chat room.
[08:39am] vuntz: to me, guadec is not about sending a message to the external world, but about creating that message during the event
[08:39am] karenesq: it is our 15th anniversary this year
[08:40am] vuntz: oh, how did I not notice that. This is a hot topic!
[08:40am] • vuntz adds it to the cfp
[08:41am] karenesq: I think the project was started in August of 97, so GUADEC will be right at the 15 year mark
[08:41am] williamfromtexas: what will guadec 2027 be like? (gnome at 30)
[08:42am] williamfromtexas: well, i think hot topics may serve use well in absence of a conf theme.. just things to tie the talks and keynotes and ideas around..
[08:43am] yippi left the chat room. (Remote closed the connection)
[08:44am] vuntz: (time to move to next agenda item?)
[08:45am] bobert: vuntz: I think so.  Next on the agenda is sponsors.
[08:45am] bobert: karenesq, has the board reviewed the sponsorship levels and discount proposal?
[08:46am] yippi joined the chat room.
[08:47am] karenesq: bobert: I recall that there were some comments from the board
[08:47am] karenesq: I know German had some
[08:47am] • karenesq goes to check
[08:49am] karenesq: yes, he said that the platinum sponsorship amounts were too high, on December 19
[08:51am] williamfromtexas: here's the pad FYI
[08:51am] williamfromtexas: http://piratepad.net/4kQiFcpPjm
[08:51am] bobert: Did German have a suggestion on what platinum should be instead?
[08:53am] bobert: I think we need to get this nailed down soon so we can complete the brochure and start contacting potential sponsors.
[08:53am] williamfromtexas: split is currently 1, 5, 10, 20, 35.. maybe make the top 30?
[08:53am] karenesq: gpooc said he'd prefer E15k for gold instead of 20
[08:54am] williamfromtexas: then platinum could be as low as 25
[08:56am] yippi left the chat room. (Leaving)
[08:56am] bobert: Gold at E15k, and platinum at 25k, would be identical to 2008.
[08:56am] yippi joined the chat room.
[08:56am] txenoo: and silver ?
[08:57am] bobert: In 2008, silver was 5k, and there was no bronze.
[08:57am] yippi: i do think reducing the sponsorship fees is smart.  we had trouble raising money last year since they were too high
[08:58am] txenoo:
[08:58am] txenoo: 10 000 U.S. dollars = 7 568.30394 Euros
[08:59am] yippi: the exchange rate has changed a lot, though, since 2008
[09:00am] txenoo: I think that silver should be at least 7500€
[09:00am] bobert: yippi: quite true.
[09:02am] bobert: I would suggest leaving the bronze (E5k) and silver (e10k) levels where they are, and just adjusting gold to E15k and platinum to E25k. That would provide more options in the less expensive range.
[09:03am] bobert: I also suspect most of the sponsors who would go for the higher-level sponsorships would qualify for a repeat sponsor discount.
[09:03am] williamfromtexas: i agree with this.. why have gold and silver but no bronze?
[09:05am] bobert: Are there any objections? Or do we have a consensus?
[09:05am] txenoo: so final proposal will be 1,5,10,15,25
[09:06am] bobert: Yes
[09:06am] txenoo: i think it's ok :
[09:06am] bobert: It looks like someone just edited those into the piratepad 
[09:06am] williamfromtexas: me 
[09:06am] bobert: Thanks, william!
[09:06am] karenesq: and we can send it to the board for their final review this week, changed made to reflect their concerns 
[09:07am] bobert: Great! Thanks, karenesq
[09:09am] bobert: There was some discussion last week that there'd been a trend in recent years for the executive director (e.g. Stormy) to contact sponsors so the same people didn't get hit up too many times for too much money
[09:09am] bobert: That is, for both GUADEC and GF advisory board money
[09:10am] bobert: Would that be something you could do, karenesq?
[09:11am] • vuntz is out
[09:12am] karenesq: sure, bobert! and Stormy has offered to help too.
[09:12am] bobert: Excellent!
[09:12am] bobert: Let's move on to the next agenda item then.
[09:13am] bobert: I will be traveling for about a month, starting in a little less than two weeks, and often will have little or no net access.
[09:13am] bobert: Is there someone who can organize the next three meetings?
[09:15am] txenoo: if no volunteers i could  i have to attend so no problem from my side 
[09:15am] williamfromtexas: hehe.. i was going to nominate you txenoo
[09:15am] bobert: That would be great, txenoo 
[09:15am] bobert: I will leave it in your capable hands
[09:15am] karenesq: williamfromtexas: I was going to nominate you!  thanks txenoo!!!!
[09:16am] bobert: How are things going for the local team?
[09:16am] txenoo: no problem, i have another topic related to the keynotes
[09:16am] williamfromtexas: i will be attending too but i think local team should have the control
[09:17am] txenoo: last meeting we talked about having a person in charge of contacting the keynotes
[09:17am] txenoo: jrocha: that is working in the local team agreed on taking care of this task
[09:18am] txenoo: so any suggestions for the keynotes could be managed by him
[09:18am] bobert: That's good news!
[09:19am] karenesq: txenoo, jrocha: I'd also like to be involved in the process if that's ok
[09:19am] txenoo: karenesq: that would be perfect
[09:19am] williamfromtexas: i watched some videos of the people you recommended karen
[09:19am] karenesq: any stand out?
[09:19am] williamfromtexas: i thought linda would be great
[09:20am] williamfromtexas: linda stone
[09:20am] williamfromtexas: i couldn't find any of joanmarie diggs or Diego Rodriguez
[09:21am] williamfromtexas: and bob sutor is good but as he's already an advisor or on the board(?) and maybe already a very familiar person to the commuity, maybe we want more of an outsider
[09:22am] txenoo: we are going to meet with the A Coruña council this or next week, and we will talk about getting discounts in public transport, and review possible discounts with airlines.
[09:22am] williamfromtexas: i watched jacob appelbaum's LCA talk and it was a little of a downer, privacy and sec concerns and all
[09:22am] karenesq: it's a downer topic, but it's very important and he got a standing ovation
[09:22am] williamfromtexas: oh, mitchell baker was also a good watch
[09:24am] williamfromtexas: i think keynotes should be inspiring rather than frightening, so i thought my suggestion of telecomix from before would be a good counter to appelbaum
[09:25am] williamfromtexas: still concerned with sec but more 'let's jump forward!' rather than 'you should be scared!'
[09:27am] williamfromtexas: but with sopa/pipa/acta/etcetera i think it's very valid to have a keynoter cover this area
[09:27am] karenesq: I think these are issues people in our community need to worry about and I think many are not focused on it
[09:28am] karenesq: I'm not dead set on Jake though, he did *just* keynote LCA 
[09:28am] karenesq: regarding Bob sutor, we did have Dirk Hohndel of Intel at the last desktop summit
[09:28am] karenesq: and we had Luis VIlla in 2010 (as far as people in our community)
[09:28am] jrocha left the chat room. (Ping timeout: 600 seconds)
[09:29am] williamfromtexas: true. and also bob representing IBM would be a good business presence
[09:29am] karenesq: I honestly don't know if he would do it
[09:30am] karenesq: but it could be worth it to ask
[09:30am] karenesq: we have to be prepared to be rejected by some of the keynoters we ask
[09:30am] williamfromtexas: always worth it to ask!
[09:31am] karenesq: (For example, while I try to take keynote speaking opportunities myself, I just turned down one as the timing won't work for me)
[09:31am] karenesq: williamfromtexas: I agree!
[09:31am] karenesq: and A Coruna isn't that convenient for a lot of people we're talking about asking
[09:33am] williamfromtexas: i will watch some more videos this week and send them to the list and jrocha
[09:33am] williamfromtexas: will try to watch for EU locals
[09:35am] bobert: Sounds good
[09:35am] bobert: On the next agenda item, German said in email that the board is still considering whether 2013 will be a GUADEC or DS
[09:36am] bobert: So that finishes all the main agenda items
[09:36am] bobert: Are there any other topics we need to discuss today?
[09:36am] karenesq: we've gone pretty long - my migraine is almost gone! 
[09:36am] bobert:
[09:36am] txenoo: nothing from our side.
[09:37am] williamfromtexas: any announcements for the social medai?
[09:37am] williamfromtexas: when the CfP comes out i can announce that
[09:37am] bobert: That's the only one I can think of right now
[09:37am] williamfromtexas: k
[09:40am] bobert: I think that's all for today then. Thank you all for attending!
[09:40am] karenesq: thanks bobert! we'll miss you at the coming meetings
[09:40am] txenoo: see you in two weeks
[09:40am] williamfromtexas: ciao all 
[09:41am] karenesq: bye