On Mon, 2015-06-08 at 13:52 -0400, Robert Schweikert wrote:
On 06/08/2015 08:58 AM, Henne Vogelsang wrote:
Hey,
On 03.06.2015 18:33, Robert Schweikert wrote:
<snip> > > > <snip> .
Obviously we also have certain things in common. Interest for the openSUSE project. Given that the published videos get a good number of viewing I'd also say that the content is interesting to people.
Therefore, I would say that if we want to have more contributors from around the world join we probably have to do better on the money front with TSP potentially covering more of the travel expenses. If that is an option I do not know.
Speaking only for myself, the dollar value that TSP has provided has been fine, it's just been timeframe/administration that has made it difficult for me. And probably something to look at.
Just by way of explanation of what I mean...
I intended to attend oSC15, and started looking at airfare/hotels/etc starting in January, and found a pretty good fare for $x towards mid -February. And I applied for TSP in Late-Feb/Early-March. Unfortunately, responses weren't given by TSP until April, By that time, airfare costs for me had basically tripled. (I wasn't in a financial situation this year in order to absorb that extra cost myself, or purchase the lower priced airfare, back in February without being assured TSP would help out.)
I don't know how many other folks were in this situation, but international travel being what it is, I'd say looking at doing reviews/approvals earlier than a month before the event could certainly help.
- The most recent oSCs required an unbelievable effort by a very
small group of people. Each year we got lucky and found someone who was willing to take on the organization. But effectively we are in "burn mode", i.e. once someone organized the event they are completely and utterly burned out.
Which is to be expected when you organize the 'life' of ~250 people over the course of 4 days. This is a shitload of work, no matter how good you are at it. This is a full-time job and at the end you're going to be glad that it's over.
I think the question we should ask ourselves is how can we make this a little less grueling than it is now.
I agree. The answer is probably more structure, i.e. e recipe that someone can follow. It will still be hard. Also having people that will do the promotion as part of their contributions to the openSUSE project. As it stands today we have almost no marketing and promotion of the project and thus for oSC those that organize the event also have to do that part rather than providing an existing promotion team with information.
- From my perspective we are failing at "fulfilling the charter
of oSC".
Again, the most significant question is why are we?
- Should the effort be made to continue oSC past oSC16?
I think the last couple of oSCs have shown that we desperately need to rethink the approach. What are the benefits of changing location and organizer teams, what are the drawbacks?
Yup, hopefully this discussion will bring about answers or a potential direction for this.
- Should we strive to change the charter/nature of oSC and brand
it more as a "FOSS conference organized by the openSUSE project"
I fail to understand what this would change for us as a community? Can you elaborate?
If I take oSC 15 as an example, for a long time the event was primarily promoted within the openSUSE community. Only after it was obvious that we are not going to have a sufficient number of existing community members be present, did the marketing of the event take on the approach of reaching out to other parts of the FOSS community. With a changed charter this "reach out to others" would be there from the get go.
oSC by the openSUSE Community for the openSUSE community
vs.
oSC by the openSUSE Community for the FOSS community
- What would it take to raise oSC attendance closer to the top
of your list, given the other reasons listed above plus your own are still present?
Like with every other event in life: oSC needs to be meaningful to the people, they need to take away something. For a tech conference this is for most people (a) personal connections, (b) knowledge and (c) entertainment.
- What prevents people from contributing to the organization of
oSC?
I think that throwing inexperienced openSUSE/oSC organizers at it every year, giving them next to no directions and no structural support is the cause. This make organizing oSC a very daunting task with lots of loose ends. Usually that means that collaboration goes overboard first because collaboration takes a huge extra effort to set up.
Agreed a better structure would definitely help. How can we build this structure?
For me part of that structure would also be per-existing teams, like a marketing/promotion team that promotes openSUSE anyway and promoting oSC is just part of what they do. Another part of the structure would be the handling of printing banners and the design of web and printed promotion material. With web page creation, registration handling, talk submission etc. we have made great strides and are will on the way to have everything in place.
The two key points probably narrow down to this:
- From an organizers point of view we have to have more structure and
better support from the project
- From an attendees point of view we probably need to look at TSP
changes for oSC
Later, Robert
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