Guys....as always I am sure that somebody will need to take my comments the wrong way, but I am a firm believer in OSS, thin client architecture and the possibilities for school It sustainability through them, however....if it is your intention to trivialise this serious subject then you are all suceeding very well....... I don't think that the level of debate in this email string will help the cause of open source, nor gain the attention and support of Government departments, nor politicians, nor IT professionals, nor help to influence/change any of the policies and funding which you all complain so often about ....... Of course that could be my biased view...... Perhaps now is a good time to go back to basics and reaffirm the objectives of this conference, the outcomes desired, the audience required, the agenda and the methods for achieving the desired results (why should people want to go to this conference?).....venue, lunch is important for the comfort of the audience and to establish the credibility of the conference and it's organisers,(unfortunately it is also a differentiator too high up some audiences list too - do you really want thos people? - but there is a minimum accepted level too) and of course time and date re availability of audience, but only after the basics are agreed....( the IOE is a good choice, albeit not easily reachable on a national basis) - (school halls are serious on a DOE or scout meeting level!)-( if the choice of organic is critical then the battle is lost!) Apart from all else time is running out for organising to the currently chosen date. Please get your act together and stop this spurious chat.......for good or bad I will stop recomending that policy makers use this email list as a measure of the grass roots interest in OSS while this chatter continues...I hope we all have more serious things to do. If I'm off track please let me know and I will disengage from this list.... Rgds Chris -----Original Message----- From: MJ Ray [mailto:mjr@dsl.pipex.com] Sent: 12 December 2003 11:52 To: suse-linux-uk-schools@suse.com Subject: Re: [suse-linux-uk-schools] Flossie again On 2003-12-11 01:41:08 +0000 Josef Davies-Coates <josef@uniteddiversity.com> wrote:
1) Mid-week is not good. Better to hold it on a Saturday than a Wednesday. That way far more people would be able to attend.
I think that date was picked because it is half-term for most. I only know of Jersey where it isn't. Are there many others? I think the last time the question was asked (here or schoolforge-uk?), a weekday in half-term was preferred to a weekend. I guess people don't get much other time to rest, spend with family, ktp.
2) School halls are normally empty on Saturdays [...]
Is this really an option? If so, let's find one for next time. I don't think the IoE is that expensive, but this will be the second conference in an HEI, so I can see the attraction of being in a school or FE next time. It would be doubly nice if it's one that has changed over.
3) I don't drink coffee, and doubt the food will be organic, so would bring a packed lunch.
I think it would be nice to have organic, but not everyone shares our view on this. I don't know whether it can be done this time. Will this really put people off visiting? I doubt FLOSSIE conf is unusual in not being entirely organic. As possible indicators, I think fairly few people went for the organic coffee at AFFSAC and I think those of us who stayed for dinner saw the "organic+veggie/inorganic+meat" restaurant split during the walk across the city centre that evening.
4) Why offer freebies (lunch, coffee) at all? (The no-frills EasyJet model works).
The only conference I know doing that is AFFSAC and that's because it's a zero-entry-cost conference for members of the Association For Free Software. Are there others? -- MJR/slef My Opinion Only and possibly not of any group I know. Please http://remember.to/edit_messages on lists to be sure I read http://mjr.towers.org.uk/ gopher://g.towers.org.uk/ slef@jabber.at Creative copyleft computing services via http://www.ttllp.co.uk/ -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: suse-linux-uk-schools-unsubscribe@suse.com For additional commands, e-mail: suse-linux-uk-schools-help@suse.com