[Linux-aus] Proposal for Barcamp Gold Coast funding

[Steve Dalton]

Dear All,

Please find below my proposal for a LA grant for the inaugural Barcamp  
Gold Coast. Sorry for the short notice, we wanted to get the Barcamp  
in quickly in the mid semester break and also while people are still  
energised from Barcamp Brisbane last month.

Date: 5th July 2008

Project Name: Barcamp Gold Cosat

Aim of Project: Kickstart BarCamp on the Gold Coast

Person Resposible for Request: Steve Dalton

Request: The Gold Coast has a population of over 500,000, a growing IT  
industry, but unfortunately very little in the way of developer  
community - particularly in Open Source. There are a lot of companies  
that naturally seem to gravitate towards Microsoft & dotnet for  
development, and many I know of have little or no knowledge of the  
alternatives. A handful of companies are using PHP and Perl, and some  
now are getting into things like RoR, Python & Groovy/Grails - but  
this is still a very small percentage.

Recently we have seen the main open source group on the Gold Coast -  
GCLUG, disintegrate into a mailing list - there are no meetings and  
people who have been actively involved in the past are burnt out and  
have lost enthusiasm. Out of frustration I got involved in the  
Brisbane Barcamp - helping to organise 2 very successful events. Most  
of the funding for the 1st Barcamp was from me and another person  
paying for it ourselves from our consulting companies, the 2nd was  
funded by a $1000 donation from Microsoft. Back on the Gold Coast we  
also started an Open Source Developers Group (OSDGC) and we have  
started meeting informally  (no funding) - there is a lot of energy in  
this little group.

 From doing the Barcamps and talking to people in OSDGC, we have  
decided to have a go at organising a Gold Coast Barcamp. With the help  
of Steven Tucker a student at Griffith Uni and long time GCLUG member  
we have managed to get some rooms for free at Griffith Uni for an  
event to be held on Saturday 5th July. We already have a fair bit of  
interest and I have located a lot of Gold Coast people that I didn't  
know of through the various social networks (linked and twitter in  
particular).

I currently have a couple of potential sponsors - but I am not sure if  
these will come through, so I am asking Linux Australia for their help  
as I know they have funded barcamps in the past. I would like to apply  
for a grant of $500 which will cover our minimum expenses. Even with  
other sponsors I would really like to see OSS represented - having MS  
as the only sponsor at the last Brisbane barcamp was a little  
disappointing. Depending on how much total sponsorship we get, these  
are some of the things we could spend the money on:

- Lunch
- Tshirts
- Prizes for best presenation
- Book Giveaway (hoping to get some donated books from publishers for  
this)
- Posters around Unis publicising event
- Stationary (markers, butchers paper etc)
- Publicity (possibly advert in the paper)
- After Party

In relation to Open Source we would like to use the Barcamp as an  
opportunity to restart the GCLUG and publicise some of the activities  
that we have planned on the Gold Coast for Software Freedom day. As an  
past attendee/member of some of these things am also happy to promote  
LCA, OSDC, LA, OSIA and QLD Lugs to people attending. I would also  
like to gain some support for OSDGC with a view to making it a regular  
organised gathering for local Open Source Developers.

We have some potential press in the local newspaper (not a lot happens  
in IT on the Coast - so I am hoping we will get some coverage) and I  
will try my best to get LA and FOSS mentioned in the article if it  
gets to print.

Please get back to me if you have any further questions. All of the  
information we have so far is on the barcamp wiki at http://barcamp.org/BarCampGoldCoast

cc: Linux Australia mailing list

Regards
Steve

ps. Apologies for the hastily crafted email - I wanted to get this out  
before I went to bed - as I have very little time to work on this  
stuff with a very busy day-job.

--
I did have a signature, but the dog ate it.

google:steve.dalton | skype:spidieman | msn: msn at steve.dalts.net | yahoo:daltonsp 
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