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
2. Sponsors
   • Brochure status
   • Create/manage a list of potential sponsors
   • Who will approach potential sponsors, and how?
3. Local Team Status
4. Other Items

Meeting Minutes

Attending

• bobert: Bob Murphy
• dneary: Dave Neary
• teuf: Chrisophe Fergeau
• txenoo: Chema Casanova
• vuntz: Vincent Untz
• williamfromtexas: William Carlson

Summary

Program committee / call for contributors

vuntz is working with the local team on this. The committee is expected to be seven people. The guadec-papers email list has been revived, and the committee will start working on the CfP this week. Some discussion regarding software for conference management and themes for the conference.

Keynote speakers

dneary is willing to mentor/support whoever will arrange this. txenoo indicated the local team will see if someone else is willing to do this, and may ask dneary to do it again if not.

Sponsors

Brief discussion of the brochure status and new potential sponsors.

Action Items

* karenesq: Make sure the board has reviewed the sponsorship levels.

IRC Log

bobert: Hello all
[07:58am] williamfromtexas: hi
[07:59am] txenoo: hi all
[07:59am] teuf: hi bobert
[07:59am] vuntz: hey
[08:01am] bobert: Let's wait a couple of minutes to see if anyone else joins
[08:04am] bobert: Thanks, everybody, for joining us today
[08:06am] dneary: Hola
[08:06am] dneary: Que tal?
[08:06am] bobert: I was sorry to miss the meeting on 12 December, but it looks like it was very productive
[08:07am] bobert: Let's start with the first agenda item. How are things going with organizing the program committee and the call for contributors?
[08:08am] txenoo: Hi bobert, there had been not too much news this weeks because of Christmas holidays in the University.
[08:09am] vuntz: program committee is shaping up
[08:09am] txenoo: But related to the call for contributors we could say that vuntz is going to help us in its coordination
[08:09am] bobert: Excellent!
[08:10am] vuntz: we're going to be 7 people, and the last two people will hopefully say yes today/tomorrow
[08:10am] dneary: vuntz, Happy to see you were roped in 
[08:10am] dneary: vuntz, 7 is a lot to get agreement... Good luck with it
[08:10am] vuntz: we revived the guadec-papers mailing list
[08:11am] vuntz: dneary: yeah, but 5 is a bit too low, and 6 is, well, not good when there's disagreement 
[08:11am] dneary: I like 5
[08:11am] dneary: But then, 7 is like the board
[08:11am] vuntz: we'll start working on the CfP this week, and I don't expect it to take too long
[08:11am] vuntz: but we probably need to figure out technical details -- how will talks be submitted, for instance
[08:12am] vuntz: I guess that's up to the web team
[08:12am] txenoo: vuntz: at the local team we are reviewing several alternatives, we should review them with you
[08:12am] dneary: vuntz, Chema et al have infrastructure for managing the conference that should allow online submission.
[08:13am] vuntz: fwiw, based on discussion with members of previous years committees, it seems that as long as we have a way to export the data as CSV, the committee will be happy
[08:15am] txenoo: we'll review this capabilities: we had an internal discussion about using COD or Indico CDS for the conference management.
[08:16am] vuntz: I used Indico for the openSUSE conference; it was okay-ish
[08:16am] txenoo: dneary informed me that the experience with COD wasn't good enough.
[08:16am] vuntz: at least Indico allows exporting the data, so I guess it'll be fine from that perspective 
[08:17am] vuntz: the internal rating system is a bit confusing, though -- and we ended up using an external tool; but it's likely what's going to happen in this case too anyway
[08:18am] txenoo: vuntz: we could review offline the configuration of the system and the best option for program committee.
[08:18am] vuntz: sure
[08:19am] vuntz: I was also wondering: is there any specific themes that were already discussed for highlights in the CfP?
[08:19am] dneary: txenoo, I don't think that was me
[08:20am] txenoo: dneary: sorry, i though it was in one of these coordination meetings
[08:22am] bobert: I think the question of themes is good. Anybody have thoughts on that?
[08:22am] txenoo: vuntz: it was related with the program, in this forum we talked about the possibility of organizing special tracks outside the core of the conference
[08:23am] vuntz: ok
[08:23am] vuntz: shouldn't be an issue to find themes anyway  I just didn't want to overrule anything that was suggested earlier
[08:24am] dneary: txenoo, probably  Lennart
[08:27am] vuntz: that's it from me on this topic 
[08:27am] bobert: On a related topic, has anyone given further thought to inviting keynote speakers?
[08:28am] dneary: bobert, We probably need to ask someone to take care of it
[08:28am] dneary: Who would do the asking?
[08:28am] dneary: The guy/gal doing it should have good contacts, persistence, and eclectic tastes 
[08:29am] dneary: I've enjoyed doing it in previous years, but would be happy to bridge to someone new this year and pass the torch
[08:29am] dneary: I'll mentor/support whoever is doing it, if I can
[08:30am] txenoo: I think that the invitations should come in the name of the GNOME Foundation, rather than from the local team. But we will support in any logistic that would be needed.
[08:31am] txenoo: But the lists of possible candidates could be defined inside this coordination team.
[08:32am] patriciasc_ is now known as patriciasc.
[08:34am] bobert: Are there any suggestions for people who could do this? (I can't - my schedule over the next few months is crazy.)
[08:35am] txenoo: As background dneary shared with us the list of possible candidates from previous GUADEC editions.
[08:36am] bobert: Yes, I remember getting that
[08:38am] txenoo: So if we don't find a volunteer i will report it to the local team, so probably we could provide someone to take care of this.
[08:39am] bobert: That's a good idea, txenoo
[08:39am] dneary: txenoo, I don't think that anyone will manifest themselves to volunteer - I'd suggest you brainstorm a list of people who might be willing & able to do it and ask them.
[08:39am] dneary: It could be someone from the local team, of course
[08:41am] txenoo: the first work will be propose a list of possible candidates, and then we should check if we have people inside gnome to have a good contact to them
[08:43am] txenoo: dneary: we'll try to analyse if there are options to pass your torch, in other case we'll ask your inestimable support 
[08:47am] bobert: It looks like the press release is out, and the web site is up - great job!
[08:48am] bobert: Let's talk a bit about sponsors and the sponsor brochure.
[08:48am] bobert: I think we're at final, or close to final, wording on the brochure. Has the board agreed to the sponsorship levels?
[08:49am] dneary: txenoo, I'll wait for your call 
[08:51am] bobert: I'll add an action item for Karen to make sure the board has reviewed the sponsorship levels
[08:51am] txenoo: ok
[08:53am] bobert: I've also been putting together a list of potential sponsors, including several companies that are making money with GNOME technologies but haven't been involved with the community
[08:53am] bobert: I'll post that to the guadec-planning list
[08:53am] txenoo: ok
[08:55am] bobert: Are there any other items we need to discuss today?
[08:56am] bobert: I take the quiet channel as a "no" 
[08:56am] txenoo: bobert: any comment about your visit to coruña ?
[08:57am] bobert: Yes, I thought the facility was excellent.
[08:57am] bobert: It should work out very well this summer
[08:58am] txenoo: we reviewed the accommodation, venue and meals.
[08:59am] bobert: Yes. I think those all should work out fine. The city itself is also a great place with lots of things to do and see.
[09:01am] txenoo: so we could close the meeting
[09:01am] bobert: Yes - see you all here in two weeks. Thanks for attending!
[09:02am] txenoo: vuntz: i'll contact you when we finish the installation of the call for papers management system, probably Indico
[09:02am] vuntz: txenoo: sure
[09:02am] williamfromtexas: post to the list when the CfP is ready, we can make an announcement out of it
[09:03am] txenoo: vuntz: if you need any help in the CfP process or review just ask, i suppose you are in conversations with jjsanchez
[09:03am] vuntz: yeah, we chatted by mail
[09:05am] txenoo: see you in two weeks