From brianna.laugher at gmail.com Sun May 1 18:30:06 2016 From: brianna.laugher at gmail.com (Brianna Laugher) Date: Sun, 1 May 2016 18:30:06 +1000 Subject: [Linux-aus] PyCon Australia CFP closing soon Message-ID: The PyCon Australia CFP is down to its last week! This includes the CFP for our one-day special events: DjangoConAU, Python in Education seminar, Data & Science miniconf and the Internet of Things miniconf. Make sure you register and get your talk/tutorial ideas down as soon as possible. Submissions can be edited up until the deadline. https://2016.pycon-au.org/programme/call_for_proposals Applications for financial assistance are also open, and we strongly encourage potential speakers to apply if needed. We can cover not only conference registration and travel/accommodation costs, but also substitute teacher costs, childcare, carer costs and other costs related to equity of access. https://2016.pycon-au.org/about/financial_assistance === About PyCon Australia === PyCon Australia is the national conference for the Python programming community. The seventh PyCon Australia will be held on August 12-16 2016 in Melbourne, bringing together professional, student and enthusiast developers with a love for programming in Python. PyCon Australia informs the country?s developers with presentations by experts and core developers of Python, as well as the libraries and frameworks that they rely on. To find out more about PyCon Australia 2016, visit our website at http://pycon-au.org, follow us at @pyconau or e-mail us at contact at pycon-au.org. PyCon Australia is presented by Linux Australia (www.linux.org.au) and acknowledges the support of our Platinum Sponsors, DevDemand.co and IRESS; and our Gold sponsors, Google Australia and Optiver. For full details of our sponsors, see our website. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tim at wirejunkie.com Wed May 11 13:41:58 2016 From: tim at wirejunkie.com (Tim Serong) Date: Wed, 11 May 2016 13:41:58 +1000 Subject: [Linux-aus] OSDC 2015 Wrap Message-ID: <20160511034158.GD16574@seshat.divinus.wirejunkie.com> Hi All, Our last remaining task for OSDC 2015 was to provide a conference report. If anyone has any questions, or if anything needs to be elaborated, please let me know. == In The Beginning == There wasn't actually a bid process for OSDC 2015. IIRC Arjen Lentz, Ben Dechrai and I had randomly chatted at OSDC 2011, 2012 and 2013 along the lines of "Hey, we've never done this in Hobart, we should do that some time". Then at OSDC 2014 (which I couldn't make it to), Arjen and Ben wanted to announce where the next one would be, and asked if I'd be up for running it in Hobart in 2015. I said "Yes", and we ran from there. Early on I had a long (1-2 hour) chat on the phone with Arjen to figure out what needed to happen (website, CFP, keynotes, venue, budget, etc. etc.) This was very helpful. I also got access to previous years' bits and pieces in the OSDClub DropBox. We ran OSDC 2015 as a Linux Australia subcommittee, consisting of: * Site lead: Tim Serong * Treasurer: Morgan Leigh * Web Site Guy: Scott Bragg * Community Representatives: - Arjen Lentz - Ben Dechrai Practically, this resulted in Morgan and I working together to do "all the event stuff" (venues, inviting keynotes, budgets, etc.). Scott got the web site up, and Arjen and Ben advised via an occasional call and various email discussions. The subcommittee was formalised with LA some time in April or May, although I'd already been in touch with Wrest Point (the Venue) in March, thanks to Chris Neugebauer having a contact there. The papers committee consisted of myself, Arjen Lentz and Lana Brindley. Once we had talks accepted, I drafted the schedule then tweaked based on feedback from Arjen and Morgan. We had three streams (two regular talk streams and a tutorial stream). Talk slots were 40 minutes, plus a five minute changeover between back-to-back sessions. I tried to group talks together, so we had a set of education talks in one room, for example. There were a few blank slots in the schedule, so talks that were obviously going to be popular (e.g.: anything by Paul Fenwick) were put in the large room, against a blank slot in the other talk stream, and at the end of a segment, so if the concurrent tutorial finished early, attendees would be able to catch the (presumably) popular talk. Also it probably helps when the person doing the scheduling knows half the speakers personally, and has seen them speak before... == Venue == * Wrest Point was good, but not cheap (like, say, a donated set of University rooms might have been) * Having a venue that also does catering for morning and afternoon tea, and lunch, is a big win. * Catering staff were notably good, and special dietary requests were handled well. * "We" (LA and Ryan Verner) had prior experience with Wrest Point as a venue for PyCon AU, so we knew roughly what to expect, and knew we could work with the in-house AV and WiFi. * "We" (Morgan and I) really wanted to do the dinner somewhere other than the main conference venue, to show off a bit more of Tasmania, and also to get everyone out of the venue for an evening. We bussed everyone to the Apple Shed in the Huon Valley for a buffet BBQ, on the first night of the conference (get everyone together socially earlier rather than later). == Dates === * We were aiming for late October or early November. The original quote from Wrest Point was for some time in the first two weeks of November, but we ended up running in the last week of October (27-29). November was ultimately not viable, largely due to conflicts with my work * Someone emailed me to point out that weekdays are difficult for some attendees because they have to take time out of their work week to attend and some employers don't like that. The example of PyCon AU running on a weekend was cited. OTOH, some of us actually like our weekends, and conferences are work for us. So... No perfect answer here. * October 27-29 was the same week the OpenStack Summit was on. That's not necessarily a huge *subject* overlap, but I reckon we'd have had at least 5 more people at OSDC if not for that conflict. * We also collided with OSCON Europe (which I somehow didn't even know was on), which probably cost us another 5+ delegates, notably including a few from Tasmania who got talks accepted at OSCON. * We couldn't go any earlier or later anyway, for various reasons. Late October is good, it's just a shame there was so much other stuff on (in addition to the above, IIRC some gaming thing in Melbourne, some startup thing in Sydney, etc. -- I think we've hit "peak conference"). == Accommodation == * Wrest Point provided a block of rooms at a discounted rate, but being a conventional hotel, that's probably still too steep for some contingent of delegates (there were ~20 rooms taken by delegates) * The best we managed outside was a link to a wotif search of nearby accommodation. * Something (I still don't know what, exactly) apparently ate a lot of accommodation while the conference was on. == Sponsorship == * Sponsors were tricky to come by. Some of the usual suspects said no, but without saying why. Some others went through a big "yep, we're interested; yep, just gotta talk to some stakeholders; please bear with us; sorry for the delay; oh, yeah, no, actually not this time, but please get in touch next year" (and of course that process went across many weeks). * The sponsorship prospectus (standard packages and pricing) was largely based on the OSDC 2014 prospectus, which I assume was based on 2013, and... You get the idea. It may have worked out better had we reduced the pricing for the various packages across the board, and added more smaller options (taking a leaf out of PyCon AU's book). == Symposion == * We used Symposion for the conference web site, partly because it was easier to get running than Zookeepr, and partly to kick the tyres because Chris was looking at using it for LCA 2017. * It worked well, with a few kinks (not sure if these are universal, or just the branch we were using): * Various items in the admin backend (like, user accounts) show up as something illegible (a GUID) as opposed to something useful (a name, title or email address). This makes some admin tasks slightly irritating. * When reviewing talk submissions, when a reviewer submits a +1/+0/-0/-1, but *doesn't* also provide a comment, it seems to accept the review, but actually silently records nothing, i.e. a review comment is always required, but there's no error message if nothing was entered. * Scheduling gets kinda fiddly, the UI is just cumbersome and time consuming to tweak. It might even be easier to just keep the schedule in a text file and repeatedly import it as you tweak it, rather than trying to edit it via Symposion. * If a speaker edits a talk after it's accepted, this will *not* automatically be reflected on the web site. The admin will get an email, then has to manually make the changes to the published talk (this is apparently a feature to avoid the risk of having accepted speakers troll the conference by putting dodgy shit in their talks after acceptance - but seriously, who does that?!?) == CFP == * This possibly happened later that might have been optimal, but we ended overlapping slightly with the linux.conf.au 2016 CFP, which meant we could do a bit of cross promotion. * Whoever first said "CFPs can never open too early" was right. == Promotion == * I think we did a very good job on Twitter. * I posted variously to LinkedIn, which got a least a little notice. * Facebook got some use (Scott was posting there). * Google+ was pretty much useless AFAICT. * CFP, various announcements went to linux-aus, taslug, luv-main and OSDC lists (because I'm on those lists). * Others reposted elsewhere (e.g.: OSIA web site). * The OSDC mailing lists apparently weren't mentioned anywhere on the 2014 web site, and weren't mentioned on the 2015 site until relatively late after I realised this omission, so we might have missed some people there. * I posted to as many meetup.com groups as I could find that seemed relevant in Tasmania, Victoria and NSW. This is more or less a complete PITA (find relevant meetup group, copy & paste message to organiser asking them to pass on your message to the group, hope you don't hit too many to reach a spam limit, ...) * I also emailed the CFP a dozen or so contacts in various states, who hopefully passed it on to relevant local groups (wordpress and drupal groups, hackerspaces, LUGs, etc.) * One person queried "Do I have to be a developer to attend?" Of course not! But it is right there in the name, so, something to watch out for or clarify in future. == Ticket Sales == * A rollercoaster where you never know what is going to happen until it happens (although the graph was vaguely the same shape as in 2014 - a spike at early bird, then nothing, then random ups and downs, then a minor flurry at the end). * We kept a *really* close eye on this, and ensured the conference venue and dinner venue were up to date with projected numbers as the weeks went by. This actually worked well - watch it like a hawk, keep everyone informed, update the budget spreadsheet daily, and there'll be no surprises. * We rounded up to the nearest ~10, which meant we weren't short of food, and were able to accommodate one or two late people gratis (a volunteer, an attendee's partner), without being stretched. At the same time, this didn't detrimentally affect the budget. * Final numbers were about 80 for the conference proper (including speakers) and ~85 for the dinner (a few +1s). Yup, it was a small conference, but more on that later. I will note here that about half the attendees attended gratis due to being speakers or volunteers. We did finish in the black, but it would have been a lot blacker if we'd had even only another 20 paying attendees. == Videos == * We only managed to get enough sponsorship to cover video production at the last minute (about a month out). * I'd been in touch with Ryan Verner earlier about the possibility of doing video, so thankfully he was able to get the time to make it happen, even on relatively late notice. * Morgan and I both see video as significantly important; they leave a legacy for future conferences, and provide value for those who could not attend (and also a perk for sponsors whose logos appear). == Fundraising == * As other LA conferences have done, we did some fundraising for a worthy cause, in this case for the Refugee Legal Service (Tas). Morgan spruiked this with great passion, and we were able to raise a total of $2,890.80 thanks to the conference delegates, including two significantly large donors. == Media Coverage == * Due to some miracle, I was contacted by a journalist from The Advocate (a paper in NW Tas) who wanted to do a story on the conference. She interviewed myself and Richard Tubb (one of our keynotes, also a Tasmanian) by phone during the conference, Morgan took a photo for her, and we wound up in the paper: https://twitter.com/richardtubb/status/659107606871412736 For the record, I *did* say the "tech mecca" thing, but never mentioned Silicon Valley. I have a copy of the paper here, so if anyone wants a better photo than that tweet, let me know. == Next Time == * The conference would benefit from a dedicated social media person to run Twitter, Facebook (plus anything else that makes sense), and also to keep the News page up to date on the web site. * Two or three more volunteers (room monitor + AV) would have been ideal. We were slightly but not fatally stretched. * I was worried given we had three streams and ~80 attendees that some poor speaker would wind up speaking to an empty room. This did not happen. The smallest we got was one tutorial with two attendees, but they turned out to be really keen, and everyone had a good experience. == Random Comments From Attendees == "This is really... Peaceful... It's nice!" "The talks are really high quality" "Great food!" == A Smaller Conference Can Be Good == We went in hoping for a couple of hundred people. The original quote from the venue was for 150, with the ability to move either up or down as we needed to. As mentioned earlier we ended up with about 80, but it was really nice. Everyone got to meet everyone. We got to the dinner venue using two buses. One of our speakers over from the US was delighted with the personal nature of a smaller conference after going to giant multi-thousand attendee conferences in the US. It might have been small, but the flavour and spirit were all there, and it worked well. == Future == OSDC has apparently become smaller over the past few years. We had ~80 attendees (including speaker etc.) in 2015, and ~85 for the dinner (a few plus ones). 2014 apparently had ~90 delegates. I reckon if OSDC hadn't been on at the same time as the OpenStack Summit (which I knew about but couldn't avoid) and OSCON Europe (which I didn't know about, but still couldn't avoid), we would have hit close to 100, because apparently a large contingent of Australians were at OpenStack, and several of them at least would have come to OSDC; and another handful of Australians had talks accepted as OSCON Europe, who otherwise also would have come to OSDC. So timing is definitely a thing. OSDC has quite some overlap with LCA, both in content and attendees. Our pitch for 2015 was: > The focus for OSDC 2015 is Opening Up For A Better World. Open source > software, hardware and standards facilitate higher quality technology, > better security and faster innovation; open data allows us to better > discover and understand the world we live in; open government aims to > ensure that citizens can participate in their democracy; open access > publishing exists to spread knowledge and allow that knowledge to be > built upon. Open by design is the best default. The theme for LCA 2016 was: > *Life is better with Linux.* > > And that?s exactly what our conference theme is. linux.conf.au 2016 > will focus on how Linux and open source technologies are improving > lives - through humanitarian projects, wearables that give us greater > control and choice over our health and habits, and which enrich our > lives through protecting our privacy and our ?digital health?. ...and the theme for LCA 2017 is: > The Future of Open Source. LCA has a long history as a place where > people come to learn from people who actually build the world of Free > and Open Source Software. We want to encourage presenters to share > with us where we think their projects are heading over the coming > years. These thoughts could be deeply technical: presenting emerging > Open Source technology, or features of existing projects that are > about to become part of every sysadmin?s toolbox. This is all sounding pretty similar. LCA used to be a Linux conference. OSDC was/is for open foo, regardless of platform. LCA is now arguably an open foo conference that happens to have Linux in its name. What does that mean for OSDC? Lots of stuff that is on-topic for OSDC is equally on-topic for LCA, and LCA is larger and (presumably) more widely-known than OSDC. OTOH, OSDC has a noticeably different flavour than LCA. I've never quite been able to put my finger on this (I attended 2011, 2012, 2013, missed 2014 and ran 2015). It's... always been smaller. More accessible? More friendly? And I really like it. It's not that LCA *isn't* accessible or friendly, but it's large enough now that you don't get to meet everyone. It's potentially more intimidating for newcomers. And I suspect there's still some sort of "hardcore Linux hacker" mythos thing going on. But given most of what's on topic for OSDC is equally on topic for LCA, does it make sense to have two separate conferences? I don't know. I don't want to lose that nice OSDC flavour. It's broadly the same community as LCA, but it's like we're in a different restaurant, having a slightly different meal. Or maybe LCA is a Friday or Saturday night out on the town with a few friends and a random pile of strangers, but OSDC is a nice Sunday brunch. And who doesn't like a nice Sunday brunch? Regards, Tim -- Tim Serong Lead Organiser OSDC 2015, 27-29 October, Wrest Point, Hobart https://2015.osdc.com.au/ From kathy at kathyreid.id.au Wed May 11 14:26:18 2016 From: kathy at kathyreid.id.au (Kathy Reid) Date: Wed, 11 May 2016 14:26:18 +1000 Subject: [Linux-aus] OSDC 2015 Wrap In-Reply-To: <20160511034158.GD16574@seshat.divinus.wirejunkie.com> References: <20160511034158.GD16574@seshat.divinus.wirejunkie.com> Message-ID: <5732B46A.2050206@kathyreid.id.au> On behalf of the Linux Australia Council, we'd like to extend our thanks and appreciation to Tim, Morgan and all Team and Volunteers for OSDC 2015. Thank you for bringing the OSDC conference under your wing and helping it to join the LA family. LA would be delighted to hear from any team or group who would be interested in running OSDC in the future. Kind regards, Kathy Reid On 11/05/16 13:41, Tim Serong wrote: > Hi All, > > Our last remaining task for OSDC 2015 was to provide a conference report. > > If anyone has any questions, or if anything needs to be elaborated, > please let me know. > > == In The Beginning == > > There wasn't actually a bid process for OSDC 2015. IIRC Arjen Lentz, > Ben Dechrai and I had randomly chatted at OSDC 2011, 2012 and 2013 along > the lines of "Hey, we've never done this in Hobart, we should do that > some time". Then at OSDC 2014 (which I couldn't make it to), Arjen and > Ben wanted to announce where the next one would be, and asked if I'd be > up for running it in Hobart in 2015. I said "Yes", and we ran from there. > > Early on I had a long (1-2 hour) chat on the phone with Arjen to figure > out what needed to happen (website, CFP, keynotes, venue, budget, etc. > etc.) This was very helpful. I also got access to previous years' bits > and pieces in the OSDClub DropBox. > > We ran OSDC 2015 as a Linux Australia subcommittee, consisting of: > > * Site lead: Tim Serong > * Treasurer: Morgan Leigh > * Web Site Guy: Scott Bragg > * Community Representatives: > - Arjen Lentz > - Ben Dechrai > > Practically, this resulted in Morgan and I working together to do "all > the event stuff" (venues, inviting keynotes, budgets, etc.). Scott got > the web site up, and Arjen and Ben advised via an occasional call and > various email discussions. > > The subcommittee was formalised with LA some time in April or May, > although I'd already been in touch with Wrest Point (the Venue) in > March, thanks to Chris Neugebauer having a contact there. > > The papers committee consisted of myself, Arjen Lentz and Lana Brindley. > Once we had talks accepted, I drafted the schedule then tweaked based > on feedback from Arjen and Morgan. We had three streams (two regular > talk streams and a tutorial stream). Talk slots were 40 minutes, plus a > five minute changeover between back-to-back sessions. I tried to group > talks together, so we had a set of education talks in one room, for > example. There were a few blank slots in the schedule, so talks that > were obviously going to be popular (e.g.: anything by Paul Fenwick) were > put in the large room, against a blank slot in the other talk stream, > and at the end of a segment, so if the concurrent tutorial finished > early, attendees would be able to catch the (presumably) popular talk. > Also it probably helps when the person doing the scheduling knows half > the speakers personally, and has seen them speak before... > > == Venue == > > * Wrest Point was good, but not cheap (like, say, a donated set of University > rooms might have been) > > * Having a venue that also does catering for morning and afternoon tea, > and lunch, is a big win. > > * Catering staff were notably good, and special dietary requests were > handled well. > > * "We" (LA and Ryan Verner) had prior experience with Wrest Point as a > venue for PyCon AU, so we knew roughly what to expect, and knew we could > work with the in-house AV and WiFi. > > * "We" (Morgan and I) really wanted to do the dinner somewhere other > than the main conference venue, to show off a bit more of Tasmania, and > also to get everyone out of the venue for an evening. We bussed > everyone to the Apple Shed in the Huon Valley for a buffet BBQ, on the > first night of the conference (get everyone together socially earlier > rather than later). > > == Dates === > > * We were aiming for late October or early November. The original quote > from Wrest Point was for some time in the first two weeks of November, > but we ended up running in the last week of October (27-29). November > was ultimately not viable, largely due to conflicts with my work > > * Someone emailed me to point out that weekdays are difficult for some > attendees because they have to take time out of their work week to > attend and some employers don't like that. The example of PyCon AU > running on a weekend was cited. OTOH, some of us actually like our > weekends, and conferences are work for us. So... No perfect answer here. > > * October 27-29 was the same week the OpenStack Summit was on. That's > not necessarily a huge *subject* overlap, but I reckon we'd have had at > least 5 more people at OSDC if not for that conflict. > > * We also collided with OSCON Europe (which I somehow didn't even know > was on), which probably cost us another 5+ delegates, notably including > a few from Tasmania who got talks accepted at OSCON. > > * We couldn't go any earlier or later anyway, for various reasons. Late > October is good, it's just a shame there was so much other stuff on (in > addition to the above, IIRC some gaming thing in Melbourne, some startup > thing in Sydney, etc. -- I think we've hit "peak conference"). > > == Accommodation == > > * Wrest Point provided a block of rooms at a discounted rate, but being > a conventional hotel, that's probably still too steep for some > contingent of delegates (there were ~20 rooms taken by delegates) > > * The best we managed outside was a link to a wotif search of nearby > accommodation. > > * Something (I still don't know what, exactly) apparently ate a lot of > accommodation while the conference was on. > > == Sponsorship == > > * Sponsors were tricky to come by. Some of the usual suspects said no, > but without saying why. Some others went through a big "yep, we're > interested; yep, just gotta talk to some stakeholders; please bear > with us; sorry for the delay; oh, yeah, no, actually not this time, but > please get in touch next year" (and of course that process went across > many weeks). > > * The sponsorship prospectus (standard packages and pricing) was largely > based on the OSDC 2014 prospectus, which I assume was based on 2013, > and... You get the idea. It may have worked out better had we reduced > the pricing for the various packages across the board, and added more > smaller options (taking a leaf out of PyCon AU's book). > > == Symposion == > > * We used Symposion for the conference web site, partly because it was > easier to get running than Zookeepr, and partly to kick the tyres > because Chris was looking at using it for LCA 2017. > > * It worked well, with a few kinks (not sure if these are universal, or > just the branch we were using): > > * Various items in the admin backend (like, user accounts) show up as > something illegible (a GUID) as opposed to something useful (a name, > title or email address). This makes some admin tasks slightly irritating. > > * When reviewing talk submissions, when a reviewer submits a > +1/+0/-0/-1, but *doesn't* also provide a comment, it seems to accept > the review, but actually silently records nothing, i.e. a review comment > is always required, but there's no error message if nothing was entered. > > * Scheduling gets kinda fiddly, the UI is just cumbersome and time > consuming to tweak. It might even be easier to just keep the schedule > in a text file and repeatedly import it as you tweak it, rather than > trying to edit it via Symposion. > > * If a speaker edits a talk after it's accepted, this will *not* > automatically be reflected on the web site. The admin will get an > email, then has to manually make the changes to the published talk (this > is apparently a feature to avoid the risk of having accepted speakers > troll the conference by putting dodgy shit in their talks after > acceptance - but seriously, who does that?!?) > > == CFP == > > * This possibly happened later that might have been optimal, but we > ended overlapping slightly with the linux.conf.au 2016 CFP, which meant > we could do a bit of cross promotion. > > * Whoever first said "CFPs can never open too early" was right. > > == Promotion == > > * I think we did a very good job on Twitter. > > * I posted variously to LinkedIn, which got a least a little notice. > > * Facebook got some use (Scott was posting there). > > * Google+ was pretty much useless AFAICT. > > * CFP, various announcements went to linux-aus, taslug, luv-main > and OSDC lists (because I'm on those lists). > > * Others reposted elsewhere (e.g.: OSIA web site). > > * The OSDC mailing lists apparently weren't mentioned anywhere on the > 2014 web site, and weren't mentioned on the 2015 site until relatively > late after I realised this omission, so we might have missed some people > there. > > * I posted to as many meetup.com groups as I could find that seemed > relevant in Tasmania, Victoria and NSW. This is more or less a complete > PITA (find relevant meetup group, copy & paste message to organiser > asking them to pass on your message to the group, hope you don't hit too > many to reach a spam limit, ...) > > * I also emailed the CFP a dozen or so contacts in various states, who > hopefully passed it on to relevant local groups (wordpress and drupal > groups, hackerspaces, LUGs, etc.) > > * One person queried "Do I have to be a developer to attend?" Of course > not! But it is right there in the name, so, something to watch out for > or clarify in future. > > == Ticket Sales == > > * A rollercoaster where you never know what is going to happen until it > happens (although the graph was vaguely the same shape as in 2014 - a > spike at early bird, then nothing, then random ups and downs, then a > minor flurry at the end). > > * We kept a *really* close eye on this, and ensured the conference venue > and dinner venue were up to date with projected numbers as the weeks > went by. This actually worked well - watch it like a hawk, keep > everyone informed, update the budget spreadsheet daily, and there'll be > no surprises. > > * We rounded up to the nearest ~10, which meant we weren't short of > food, and were able to accommodate one or two late people gratis (a > volunteer, an attendee's partner), without being stretched. At the same > time, this didn't detrimentally affect the budget. > > * Final numbers were about 80 for the conference proper (including > speakers) and ~85 for the dinner (a few +1s). Yup, it was a small > conference, but more on that later. I will note here that about half > the attendees attended gratis due to being speakers or volunteers. We > did finish in the black, but it would have been a lot blacker if we'd > had even only another 20 paying attendees. > > == Videos == > > * We only managed to get enough sponsorship to cover video production at > the last minute (about a month out). > > * I'd been in touch with Ryan Verner earlier about the possibility of > doing video, so thankfully he was able to get the time to make it > happen, even on relatively late notice. > > * Morgan and I both see video as significantly important; they leave a > legacy for future conferences, and provide value for those who could not > attend (and also a perk for sponsors whose logos appear). > > == Fundraising == > > * As other LA conferences have done, we did some fundraising for a worthy > cause, in this case for the Refugee Legal Service (Tas). Morgan > spruiked this with great passion, and we were able to raise a total of > $2,890.80 thanks to the conference delegates, including two > significantly large donors. > > == Media Coverage == > > * Due to some miracle, I was contacted by a journalist from The Advocate > (a paper in NW Tas) who wanted to do a story on the conference. She > interviewed myself and Richard Tubb (one of our keynotes, also a > Tasmanian) by phone during the conference, Morgan took a photo for her, > and we wound up in the paper: > > https://twitter.com/richardtubb/status/659107606871412736 > > For the record, I *did* say the "tech mecca" thing, but never mentioned > Silicon Valley. I have a copy of the paper here, so if anyone wants a > better photo than that tweet, let me know. > > == Next Time == > > * The conference would benefit from a dedicated social media person to run > Twitter, Facebook (plus anything else that makes sense), and also to > keep the News page up to date on the web site. > > * Two or three more volunteers (room monitor + AV) would have been > ideal. We were slightly but not fatally stretched. > > * I was worried given we had three streams and ~80 attendees that some > poor speaker would wind up speaking to an empty room. This did not > happen. The smallest we got was one tutorial with two attendees, but > they turned out to be really keen, and everyone had a good experience. > > == Random Comments From Attendees == > > "This is really... Peaceful... It's nice!" > > "The talks are really high quality" > > "Great food!" > > == A Smaller Conference Can Be Good == > > We went in hoping for a couple of hundred people. The original quote > from the venue was for 150, with the ability to move either up or down > as we needed to. As mentioned earlier we ended up with about 80, but it > was really nice. Everyone got to meet everyone. We got to the dinner > venue using two buses. One of our speakers over from the US was > delighted with the personal nature of a smaller conference after going > to giant multi-thousand attendee conferences in the US. It might have > been small, but the flavour and spirit were all there, and it worked well. > > == Future == > > OSDC has apparently become smaller over the past few years. We had ~80 > attendees (including speaker etc.) in 2015, and ~85 for the > dinner (a few plus ones). 2014 apparently had ~90 delegates. > > I reckon if OSDC hadn't been on at the same time as the OpenStack Summit > (which I knew about but couldn't avoid) and OSCON Europe (which I didn't > know about, but still couldn't avoid), we would have hit close to 100, > because apparently a large contingent of Australians were at > OpenStack, and several of them at least would have come to OSDC; and > another handful of Australians had talks accepted as OSCON Europe, who > otherwise also would have come to OSDC. So timing is definitely a thing. > > OSDC has quite some overlap with LCA, both in content and attendees. > Our pitch for 2015 was: > >> The focus for OSDC 2015 is Opening Up For A Better World. Open source >> software, hardware and standards facilitate higher quality technology, >> better security and faster innovation; open data allows us to better >> discover and understand the world we live in; open government aims to >> ensure that citizens can participate in their democracy; open access >> publishing exists to spread knowledge and allow that knowledge to be >> built upon. Open by design is the best default. > The theme for LCA 2016 was: > >> *Life is better with Linux.* >> >> And that?s exactly what our conference theme is. linux.conf.au 2016 >> will focus on how Linux and open source technologies are improving >> lives - through humanitarian projects, wearables that give us greater >> control and choice over our health and habits, and which enrich our >> lives through protecting our privacy and our ?digital health?. > ...and the theme for LCA 2017 is: > >> The Future of Open Source. LCA has a long history as a place where >> people come to learn from people who actually build the world of Free >> and Open Source Software. We want to encourage presenters to share >> with us where we think their projects are heading over the coming >> years. These thoughts could be deeply technical: presenting emerging >> Open Source technology, or features of existing projects that are >> about to become part of every sysadmin?s toolbox. > This is all sounding pretty similar. > > LCA used to be a Linux conference. OSDC was/is for open foo, regardless > of platform. LCA is now arguably an open foo conference that happens to > have Linux in its name. What does that mean for OSDC? Lots of stuff > that is on-topic for OSDC is equally on-topic for LCA, and LCA is larger > and (presumably) more widely-known than OSDC. > > OTOH, OSDC has a noticeably different flavour than LCA. I've never > quite been able to put my finger on this (I attended 2011, 2012, 2013, > missed 2014 and ran 2015). It's... always been smaller. More > accessible? More friendly? And I really like it. It's not that LCA > *isn't* accessible or friendly, but it's large enough now that you don't > get to meet everyone. It's potentially more intimidating for newcomers. > And I suspect there's still some sort of "hardcore Linux hacker" mythos > thing going on. > > But given most of what's on topic for OSDC is equally on topic for LCA, > does it make sense to have two separate conferences? > > I don't know. > > I don't want to lose that nice OSDC flavour. It's broadly the same > community as LCA, but it's like we're in a different restaurant, having > a slightly different meal. > > Or maybe LCA is a Friday or Saturday night out on the town with a few > friends and a random pile of strangers, but OSDC is a nice Sunday brunch. > > And who doesn't like a nice Sunday brunch? > > Regards, > > Tim From mike.carden at gmail.com Wed May 11 14:57:30 2016 From: mike.carden at gmail.com (Mike Carden) Date: Wed, 11 May 2016 14:57:30 +1000 Subject: [Linux-aus] OSDC 2015 Wrap In-Reply-To: <20160511034158.GD16574@seshat.divinus.wirejunkie.com> References: <20160511034158.GD16574@seshat.divinus.wirejunkie.com> Message-ID: Thanks for all of that Tim. I think that may be the best post-conference wrap I have ever read. Nice work. -- MC -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From mithro at mithis.com Fri May 13 04:07:16 2016 From: mithro at mithis.com (Tim Ansell) Date: Fri, 13 May 2016 04:07:16 +1000 Subject: [Linux-aus] Membership Team - linux.org.au site wireframes - Level 0 In-Reply-To: References: <57212D74.5040209@kathyreid.id.au> Message-ID: Random thought, the "Featured or promotional" element might be good to rotate through random keynote videos (from YouTube)? The SLUG page does something like this -> http://www.slug.org.au/index.html Tim 'mithro' Ansell On 28 April 2016 at 09:04, Tennessee Leeuwenburg wrote: > Hi Kathy, > > I think this looks absolutely fantastic in terms of bringing the most > relevant content onto the front page. I'm no designer, so I won't comment > on the aesthetics. > > The only thing which I personally think should be given top billing is > something about the organisation's policies.Things like the code of > conduct, and any other documents/publications such as submissions to > government etc. > > Regards, > -Tennessee > > > On 28 April 2016 at 07:21, Kathy Reid wrote: > >> Hi everyone, >> >> The Membership Team has progressed a little further based on the results >> of the recent survey, and we now have for comment and feedback an initial >> wireframe of the landing page (Level 0) in desktop and mobile view. We'd >> really appreciate your thoughts and feedback. >> >> Some of the internal feedback has been; >> >> - do we want a featured job on the home page, and what happens if there >> isn't a featured job? >> - are there any elements missing which should be on the Level 0 page? >> >> The wireframes are done in Pencil - http://pencil.evolus.vn/ - and >> originals are in a public GitHub repo - >> https://github.com/KathyReid/LA-sitedesign-2016 >> >> Your feedback will help inform wireframing of the lower level pages >> (Level 1, 2 and so on). In parallel we will continue with platform >> identification and selection. >> >> Kind regards, >> >> Kathy Reid, Sae Ra Germaine, Cameron Tudball, Luke John, Joel Addison, >> Michael Cordover, Neill Cox >> The Membership Team >> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> linux-aus mailing list >> linux-aus at lists.linux.org.au >> http://lists.linux.org.au/mailman/listinfo/linux-aus >> >> > > > -- > -------------------------------------------------- > Tennessee Leeuwenburg > http://myownhat.blogspot.com/ > "Don't believe everything you think" > > _______________________________________________ > linux-aus mailing list > linux-aus at lists.linux.org.au > http://lists.linux.org.au/mailman/listinfo/linux-aus > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From tim at wirejunkie.com Fri May 13 09:15:24 2016 From: tim at wirejunkie.com (Tim Serong) Date: Fri, 13 May 2016 09:15:24 +1000 Subject: [Linux-aus] OSDC 2015 Wrap In-Reply-To: References: <20160511034158.GD16574@seshat.divinus.wirejunkie.com> Message-ID: <20160512231524.GF16574@seshat.divinus.wirejunkie.com> On Wed, May 11, 2016 at 02:57:30PM +1000, Mike Carden wrote: > Thanks for all of that Tim. I think that may be the best post-conference > wrap I have ever read. Nice work. Aw, shucks ;) Tim From kathy at kathyreid.id.au Fri May 13 17:12:43 2016 From: kathy at kathyreid.id.au (Kathy Reid) Date: Fri, 13 May 2016 17:12:43 +1000 Subject: [Linux-aus] Membership Team - linux.org.au site wireframes - Level 0 In-Reply-To: References: <57212D74.5040209@kathyreid.id.au> Message-ID: <57357E6B.5080504@kathyreid.id.au> On 13/05/2016 4:07 AM, Tim Ansell wrote: > Random thought, the "Featured or promotional" element might be good to > rotate through random keynote videos (from YouTube)? > > The SLUG page does something like this -> > http://www.slug.org.au/index.html > > Tim 'mithro' Ansell Good call - appreciate the feedback. I don't think we leverage the excellent event videos from LA events enough. I'll factor this in. Thanks again. From lloy0076 at adam.com.au Fri May 13 18:55:39 2016 From: lloy0076 at adam.com.au (David Lloyd) Date: Fri, 13 May 2016 18:25:39 +0930 Subject: [Linux-aus] Membership Team - linux.org.au site wireframes - Level 0 In-Reply-To: References: <57212D74.5040209@kathyreid.id.au> Message-ID: <006b01d1acf5$39bf7a30$ad3e6e90$@adam.com.au> Looks good from here ? is it envisaged that the feeds would change in real time? Assuming that FOO COMPANY PTY LTD wanted to sponsor Linux Australia, how would this be accomplished in this design? I assume the site isn?t going to be black and white ? is it envisaged to: 1. Keep the current logo; 2. Keep the current colour scheme. I haven?t checked but are there enough jobs to ensure the featured job feature (pun not intended) doesn?t look stale? What do the icons mean (and I don?t recognise the cat icon)? Is there a reason why the Twittter icon is on the left but all the others are on the right? How do you become a member (it?s not obvious to me ? is subscribing becoming a member)? It could be that I don?t understand the wireframe thing but are there going to be borders around each section (or is that just a way to delineate the sections)? DSL From: linux-aus [mailto:linux-aus-bounces at lists.linux.org.au] On Behalf Of Tim Ansell Sent: Friday, 13 May 2016 3:37 AM To: Tennessee Leeuwenburg Cc: linux-aus Subject: Re: [Linux-aus] Membership Team - linux.org.au site wireframes - Level 0 Random thought, the "Featured or promotional" element might be good to rotate through random keynote videos (from YouTube)? The SLUG page does something like this -> http://www.slug.org.au/index.html Tim 'mithro' Ansell On 28 April 2016 at 09:04, Tennessee Leeuwenburg > wrote: Hi Kathy, I think this looks absolutely fantastic in terms of bringing the most relevant content onto the front page. I'm no designer, so I won't comment on the aesthetics. The only thing which I personally think should be given top billing is something about the organisation's policies.Things like the code of conduct, and any other documents/publications such as submissions to government etc. Regards, -Tennessee On 28 April 2016 at 07:21, Kathy Reid > wrote: Hi everyone, The Membership Team has progressed a little further based on the results of the recent survey, and we now have for comment and feedback an initial wireframe of the landing page (Level 0) in desktop and mobile view. We'd really appreciate your thoughts and feedback. Some of the internal feedback has been; - do we want a featured job on the home page, and what happens if there isn't a featured job? - are there any elements missing which should be on the Level 0 page? The wireframes are done in Pencil - http://pencil.evolus.vn/ - and originals are in a public GitHub repo - https://github.com/KathyReid/LA-sitedesign-2016 Your feedback will help inform wireframing of the lower level pages (Level 1, 2 and so on). In parallel we will continue with platform identification and selection. Kind regards, Kathy Reid, Sae Ra Germaine, Cameron Tudball, Luke John, Joel Addison, Michael Cordover, Neill Cox The Membership Team _______________________________________________ linux-aus mailing list linux-aus at lists.linux.org.au http://lists.linux.org.au/mailman/listinfo/linux-aus -- -------------------------------------------------- Tennessee Leeuwenburg http://myownhat.blogspot.com/ "Don't believe everything you think" _______________________________________________ linux-aus mailing list linux-aus at lists.linux.org.au http://lists.linux.org.au/mailman/listinfo/linux-aus -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From steve at nerdvana.org.au Fri May 13 20:05:15 2016 From: steve at nerdvana.org.au (Steve Walsh) Date: Fri, 13 May 2016 20:05:15 +1000 Subject: [Linux-aus] Membership Team - linux.org.au site wireframes - Level 0 In-Reply-To: <006b01d1acf5$39bf7a30$ad3e6e90$@adam.com.au> References: <57212D74.5040209@kathyreid.id.au> <006b01d1acf5$39bf7a30$ad3e6e90$@adam.com.au> Message-ID: <5735A6DB.6060809@nerdvana.org.au> Hello David Perhaps the wikipedia page on 'wireframes' may be helpful in understanding the elements and layout of what Kathy is trying to achieve with the wirefram- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Website_wireframe I believe the icons from left to write are; Letter icon - email - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Email IN icon - LinkedIn - http://www.linkedin.com tweeting bird icon - twitter - http://twitter.com cat icon - Youtube cat video playlist - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tntOCGkgt98&list=PLwlF1uffYtXrBWkdhf9AJtrSws-djZ_aX Hope this helps. On 05/13/2016 06:55 PM, David Lloyd wrote: > > Looks good from here ? is it envisaged that the feeds would change in > real time? > > Assuming that FOO COMPANY PTY LTD wanted to sponsor Linux Australia, > how would this be accomplished in this design? > > I assume the site isn?t going to be black and white ? is it envisaged to: > > 1.Keep the current logo; > > 2.Keep the current colour scheme. > > I haven?t checked but are there enough jobs to ensure the featured job > feature (pun not intended) doesn?t look stale? > > What do the icons mean (and I don?t recognise the cat icon)? > > Is there a reason why the Twittter icon is on the left but all the > others are on the right? > > How do you become a member (it?s not obvious to me ? is subscribing > becoming a member)? > > It could be that I don?t understand the wireframe thing but are there > going to be borders around each section (or is that just a way to > delineate the sections)? > > DSL > > *From:*linux-aus [mailto:linux-aus-bounces at lists.linux.org.au] *On > Behalf Of *Tim Ansell > *Sent:* Friday, 13 May 2016 3:37 AM > *To:* Tennessee Leeuwenburg > *Cc:* linux-aus > *Subject:* Re: [Linux-aus] Membership Team - linux.org.au site > wireframes - Level 0 > > Random thought, the "Featured or promotional" element might be good to > rotate through random keynote videos (from YouTube)? > > The SLUG page does something like this -> > http://www.slug.org.au/index.html > > Tim 'mithro' Ansell > > On 28 April 2016 at 09:04, Tennessee Leeuwenburg > > wrote: > > Hi Kathy, > > I think this looks absolutely fantastic in terms of bringing the > most relevant content onto the front page. I'm no designer, so I > won't comment on the aesthetics. > > The only thing which I personally think should be given top > billing is something about the organisation's policies.Things like > the code of conduct, and any other documents/publications such as > submissions to government etc. > > Regards, > > -Tennessee > > On 28 April 2016 at 07:21, Kathy Reid > wrote: > > Hi everyone, > > The Membership Team has progressed a little further based on > the results of the recent survey, and we now have for comment > and feedback an initial wireframe of the landing page (Level > 0) in desktop and mobile view. We'd really appreciate your > thoughts and feedback. > > Some of the internal feedback has been; > > - do we want a featured job on the home page, and what happens > if there isn't a featured job? > - are there any elements missing which should be on the Level > 0 page? > > The wireframes are done in Pencil - http://pencil.evolus.vn/ - > and originals are in a public GitHub repo - > https://github.com/KathyReid/LA-sitedesign-2016 > > Your feedback will help inform wireframing of the lower level > pages (Level 1, 2 and so on). In parallel we will continue > with platform identification and selection. > > Kind regards, > > Kathy Reid, Sae Ra Germaine, Cameron Tudball, Luke John, Joel > Addison, > Michael Cordover, Neill Cox > The Membership Team > > > _______________________________________________ > linux-aus mailing list > linux-aus at lists.linux.org.au > http://lists.linux.org.au/mailman/listinfo/linux-aus > > > > -- > > -------------------------------------------------- > Tennessee Leeuwenburg > http://myownhat.blogspot.com/ > "Don't believe everything you think" > > > _______________________________________________ > linux-aus mailing list > linux-aus at lists.linux.org.au > http://lists.linux.org.au/mailman/listinfo/linux-aus > > > > _______________________________________________ > linux-aus mailing list > linux-aus at lists.linux.org.au > http://lists.linux.org.au/mailman/listinfo/linux-aus -- Stephen Walsh: Today included that moment where someone said "Wait, you're *that* Steve Walsh? You are way calmer than the company doco makes you seem" Gabriel Noronha: I always assumed there was a community service video in the staff induction about you... Anthony Towns: ?"Have you recently found yourself set on fire? Perhaps you're bleeding from unusual places? If so you may benefit from learning to SWEAR -- Steve Walsh: Enrage, Apologise, Run away." -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From steven.ellis at gmail.com Tue May 17 14:16:46 2016 From: steven.ellis at gmail.com (Steven Ellis) Date: Tue, 17 May 2016 16:16:46 +1200 Subject: [Linux-aus] OSDC 2015 Wrap In-Reply-To: <20160512231524.GF16574@seshat.divinus.wirejunkie.com> References: <20160511034158.GD16574@seshat.divinus.wirejunkie.com> <20160512231524.GF16574@seshat.divinus.wirejunkie.com> Message-ID: Ditto a great write up and I wish we'd done something similar for 2013. I agree with Tim in that OSDC has a different vibe to an LCA but is has struggled with numbers over the last few years. It is also a great incubator for future LCA speakers. Back in 2013 we were very lucky in getting some local NZ sponsors which really helped, and our one major gap was around video recording as we just weren't geared up for it. AV costs at our venue were high enough already. I wonder if the two events are getting to close to each other, but we also have PyconAU and Kiwi Pycon happening earlier in the year as well. Personally I'd love to see a fresh NZ bid for OSDC and I'm bending a few arms at present. Steven On Fri, May 13, 2016 at 11:15 AM, Tim Serong wrote: > On Wed, May 11, 2016 at 02:57:30PM +1000, Mike Carden wrote: > > Thanks for all of that Tim. I think that may be the best post-conference > > wrap I have ever read. Nice work. > > Aw, shucks ;) > > Tim > _______________________________________________ > linux-aus mailing list > linux-aus at lists.linux.org.au > http://lists.linux.org.au/mailman/listinfo/linux-aus > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From brianna.laugher at gmail.com Mon May 23 08:30:41 2016 From: brianna.laugher at gmail.com (Brianna Laugher) Date: Mon, 23 May 2016 08:30:41 +1000 Subject: [Linux-aus] Ticket Sales Open for PyCon Australia 2016 In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: We are delighted to announce that online registration is now open for PyCon Australia 2016. The seventh PyCon Australia is being held in Melbourne, Victoria from August 12th ? 16th at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, will draw hundreds of Python developers, enthusiasts and students from Australasia and afar. Starting today, early bird offers are up for grabs. To take advantage of these discounted ticket rates, be among the first 90 to register. Early bird registration starts from $60 for full-time students, $190 for enthusiasts and $495 for professionals. Offers this good won?t last long, so head straight to http://2016.pycon-au.org and register right away. We strongly encourage attendees to organise their accommodation as early as possible, as demand for cheaper rooms is very strong during the AFL season. PyCon Australia has endeavoured to keep tickets as affordable as possible. Financial assistance is also available: for information about eligibility, head to https://2016.pycon-au.org/about/financial_assistance and apply. We are able to make such offers thanks to our Sponsors and Contributors. To begin the registration process, and find out more about each level of ticket, visit https://2016.pycon-au.org/register/prices === Important Dates to Help You Plan === * 22 May: Registration opens - ?Early bird? prices for the first 90 tickets * 17 June: Last day to apply for financial assistance * 26 June: Last day to purchase conference dinner tickets * 9 July: Last day to order conference t-shirts * 12 August: PyCon Australia 2016 begins! === About PyCon Australia === PyCon Australia is the national conference for the Python programming community. The seventh PyCon Australia will be held on August 12-16 2016 in Melbourne, bringing together professional, student and enthusiast developers with a love for programming in Python. PyCon Australia informs the country?s developers with presentations by experts and core developers of Python, as well as the libraries and frameworks that they rely on. To find out more about PyCon Australia 2016, visit our website at http://pycon-au.org, follow us at @pyconau or e-mail us at contact at pycon-au.org. PyCon Australia is presented by Linux Australia (www.linux.org.au) and acknowledges the support of our Platinum Sponsors, DevDemand.co and IRESS; and our Gold sponsors, Google Australia and Optiver. For full details of our sponsors, see our website. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From info at lcabythebay.org.au Tue May 24 19:53:17 2016 From: info at lcabythebay.org.au (Kathy Reid - Team linux.conf.au 2016 Geelong - LCA By the Bay) Date: Tue, 24 May 2016 19:53:17 +1000 Subject: [Linux-aus] LCA2016 post event report Message-ID: <5744248D.7040401@lcabythebay.org.au> Dear Colleagues, The linux.conf.au 2016 Geelong - LCA By the Bay conference team is delighted to present our post event report for your information. As always your questions, comments and feedback are warmly welcomed. Kind regards, David Bell and Kathy Reid on behalf of the LCA2016 team -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: lca2016-post-event-report.pdf Type: application/pdf Size: 1136804 bytes Desc: not available URL: From russell at coker.com.au Tue May 24 23:22:05 2016 From: russell at coker.com.au (Russell Coker) Date: Tue, 24 May 2016 23:22:05 +1000 Subject: [Linux-aus] LCA2016 post event report In-Reply-To: <5744248D.7040401@lcabythebay.org.au> References: <5744248D.7040401@lcabythebay.org.au> Message-ID: <201605242322.05656.russell@coker.com.au> On Tue, 24 May 2016 07:53:17 PM Kathy Reid - Team linux.conf.au 2016 Geelong - LCA By the Bay wrote: > The linux.conf.au 2016 Geelong - LCA By the Bay conference team is > delighted to present our post event report for your information. > As always your questions, comments and feedback are warmly welcomed. The conference was great and the report was great too! But I have one suggestion. The report mentions the on-call number, I think that this is a great thing and something that more conferences should do (I think it's been around since the last LCA in Perth). However I think that there should also be an Internet based method of contacting the conference organisers in an emergency such as Jabber. When I attended the LCAs in NZ I never got an NZ SIM and relied on IM via the conference Wifi for remaining in contact. Presumably some people from other countries who attend LCAs in Australia do the same thing. I don't think that monitoring Jabber would be any additional effort for whoever has the on-call phone but it could provide a significant benefit for delegates from other countries. -- My Main Blog http://etbe.coker.com.au/ My Documents Blog http://doc.coker.com.au/ From steve at nerdvana.org.au Wed May 25 00:19:58 2016 From: steve at nerdvana.org.au (Steve Walsh) Date: Wed, 25 May 2016 00:19:58 +1000 Subject: [Linux-aus] LCA2016 post event report In-Reply-To: <201605242322.05656.russell@coker.com.au> References: <5744248D.7040401@lcabythebay.org.au> <201605242322.05656.russell@coker.com.au> Message-ID: <5744630E.1010003@nerdvana.org.au> On 05/24/2016 11:22 PM, Russell Coker wrote: > But I have one suggestion. The report mentions the on-call number, I think > that this is a great thing and something that more conferences should do (I > think it's been around since the last LCA in Perth). LCA2008 had an oncall number, which entered a hunt-group of team mobile numbers out of hours. Pretty much every year since then has one, and they generally are referenced on the house keeping slides during the morning sessions. > I don't think that monitoring Jabber would be any additional effort for whoever has the on-call phone The on-call phone is carried by a core team member during the day, and by a roster of team members over night for the week of the conference. To request a core team member finish a near 12-hour day, and then spend another 8 to 10 hours staying awake in the off-chance a jabber message will come in, might be a little bit too much to ask people who are generously volunteering their time already. regards From kathy at kathyreid.id.au Wed May 25 07:29:47 2016 From: kathy at kathyreid.id.au (Kathy Reid) Date: Wed, 25 May 2016 07:29:47 +1000 Subject: [Linux-aus] LCA2016 post event report In-Reply-To: <5744630E.1010003@nerdvana.org.au> References: <5744248D.7040401@lcabythebay.org.au> <201605242322.05656.russell@coker.com.au> <5744630E.1010003@nerdvana.org.au> Message-ID: <5744C7CB.2080208@kathyreid.id.au> On 25/05/16 00:19, Steve Walsh wrote: > > > On 05/24/2016 11:22 PM, Russell Coker wrote: >> But I have one suggestion. The report mentions the on-call number, I >> think >> that this is a great thing and something that more conferences should >> do (I >> think it's been around since the last LCA in Perth). > > LCA2008 had an oncall number, which entered a hunt-group of team > mobile numbers out of hours. Pretty much every year since then has > one, and they generally are referenced on the house keeping slides > during the morning sessions. > > >> I don't think that monitoring Jabber would be any additional effort >> for whoever has the on-call phone > > I respectfully disagree. Running linux.conf.au is an exercise in managing many spinning plates, and part of the reason LCA2016 was executed so brilliantly was because we had an amazing team behind us - incredibly smart, supportive and switched on people. Running conf well is about running it smartly - and this means reducing the number of spinning plates wherever possible. Jabber is another plate to spin, that doesn't remove any other plates. Regards, Kathy From blakjak at blakjak.net Wed May 25 08:43:32 2016 From: blakjak at blakjak.net (Mark Foster) Date: Wed, 25 May 2016 10:43:32 +1200 Subject: [Linux-aus] LCA2016 post event report In-Reply-To: <201605242322.05656.russell@coker.com.au> References: <5744248D.7040401@lcabythebay.org.au> <201605242322.05656.russell@coker.com.au> Message-ID: On 25/05/2016 1:22 a.m., Russell Coker wrote: > On Tue, 24 May 2016 07:53:17 PM Kathy Reid - Team linux.conf.au 2016 Geelong - > LCA By the Bay wrote: >> The linux.conf.au 2016 Geelong - LCA By the Bay conference team is >> delighted to present our post event report for your information. >> As always your questions, comments and feedback are warmly welcomed. > The conference was great and the report was great too! > > But I have one suggestion. The report mentions the on-call number, I think > that this is a great thing and something that more conferences should do (I > think it's been around since the last LCA in Perth). However I think that > there should also be an Internet based method of contacting the conference > organisers in an emergency such as Jabber. When I attended the LCAs in NZ I > never got an NZ SIM and relied on IM via the conference Wifi for remaining in > contact. Presumably some people from other countries who attend LCAs in > Australia do the same thing. > > I don't think that monitoring Jabber would be any additional effort for whoever > has the on-call phone but it could provide a significant benefit for delegates > from other countries. > Kathy mentioned spinning plates which is a great anology, however, it's more simple than that: - During LCA2015 Operating Hours the NOC monitored a) Phone b) IRC c) Twitter d) Email e) Radio Telephone link to other key organisers. - Outside of core hours none of these were monitored but a designated mobile phone was managed by key organising staff, who knew how to .. 'get hold of everyone else'. So is your need for comms with the organisers synchronous, i.e. does it need a real-time interaction - or is it something where the response can be delayed by minutes/hours? If your requirement is real-time then nothing would beat the phone, and the other mediums would clearly get you a near-realtime response during manning hours. if your requirement is real-time and after-hours (i.e. urgent) then I think making a phonecall is not unreasonable. To keep adding other means of engagement is to keep adding work to a team who are already working hard. When they provide several means of contact already I'm not sure there's any added value. And there's an onus on the people making contact, to select the medium appropriate for their urgency and other requirements. Cheers Mark. (Technical lead for LCA2015... I was 'that guy' in the NOC a lot of the time) From russell at coker.com.au Wed May 25 12:31:42 2016 From: russell at coker.com.au (Russell Coker) Date: Wed, 25 May 2016 12:31:42 +1000 Subject: [Linux-aus] LCA2016 post event report In-Reply-To: References: <5744248D.7040401@lcabythebay.org.au> <201605242322.05656.russell@coker.com.au> Message-ID: <201605251231.42951.russell@coker.com.au> On Wed, 25 May 2016 08:43:32 AM Mark Foster wrote: > > But I have one suggestion. The report mentions the on-call number, I > > think that this is a great thing and something that more conferences > > should do (I think it's been around since the last LCA in Perth). > > However I think that there should also be an Internet based method of > > contacting the conference organisers in an emergency such as Jabber. > > When I attended the LCAs in NZ I never got an NZ SIM and relied on IM > > via the conference Wifi for remaining in contact. Presumably some > > people from other countries who attend LCAs in Australia do the same > > thing. > > > > I don't think that monitoring Jabber would be any additional effort for > > whoever has the on-call phone but it could provide a significant benefit > > for delegates from other countries. > > Kathy mentioned spinning plates which is a great anology, however, it's > more simple than that: > - During LCA2015 Operating Hours the NOC monitored > a) Phone > b) IRC > c) Twitter > d) Email > e) Radio Telephone link to other key organisers. > > So is your need for comms with the organisers synchronous, i.e. does it Firstly please note it's not "my need", it's a planned service by the conference to provide an on-call number for reporting CoC violations etc. Some years past LCA organisers made the good decision to provide such a number and it's become an ongoing part of the services provided. > need a real-time interaction - or is it something where the response can > be delayed by minutes/hours? The people who made the decision to provide a number obviously did so because they felt that something more immediate than email and more private than Twitter was needed. > If your requirement is real-time then nothing would beat the phone, and > the other mediums would clearly get you a near-realtime response during > manning hours. > if your requirement is real-time and after-hours (i.e. urgent) then I > think making a phonecall is not unreasonable. It's not "my requirement". So far I have not needed to call the on-call number and when LCAs are in Australia (most years) I will be able to make phone calls. > To keep adding other means of engagement is to keep adding work to a > team who are already working hard. When they provide several means of > contact already I'm not sure there's any added value. > And there's an onus on the people making contact, to select the medium > appropriate for their urgency and other requirements. So if I witness a CoC violation at an LCA in NZ I should just tweet about it with the conference hashtag? :-# -- My Main Blog http://etbe.coker.com.au/ My Documents Blog http://doc.coker.com.au/ From steve at nerdvana.org.au Wed May 25 12:36:21 2016 From: steve at nerdvana.org.au (Steve Walsh) Date: Wed, 25 May 2016 12:36:21 +1000 Subject: [Linux-aus] LCA2016 post event report In-Reply-To: <201605251231.42951.russell@coker.com.au> References: <5744248D.7040401@lcabythebay.org.au> <201605242322.05656.russell@coker.com.au> <201605251231.42951.russell@coker.com.au> Message-ID: <57450FA5.7010001@nerdvana.org.au> On 05/25/2016 12:31 PM, Russell Coker wrote: > So if I witness a CoC violation at an LCA in NZ I should just tweet > about it with the conference hashtag? :-# If your only method is online, why not send an email? Or, find someone with a local sim who can make the call for you. if you have made a conscious choice to limit your ability to contact the conference organisers, why is the onus then on the conference organisers to make arrangements to be contactable by you? -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: signature.asc Type: application/pgp-signature Size: 836 bytes Desc: OpenPGP digital signature URL: From jamezpolley at gmail.com Thu May 26 06:59:26 2016 From: jamezpolley at gmail.com (James Polley) Date: Wed, 25 May 2016 20:59:26 +0000 Subject: [Linux-aus] LCA2016 post event report In-Reply-To: <57450FA5.7010001@nerdvana.org.au> References: <5744248D.7040401@lcabythebay.org.au> <201605242322.05656.russell@coker.com.au> <201605251231.42951.russell@coker.com.au> <57450FA5.7010001@nerdvana.org.au> Message-ID: On Wed, May 25, 2016 at 12:36 PM Steve Walsh wrote: > On 05/25/2016 12:31 PM, Russell Coker wrote: > > So if I witness a CoC violation at an LCA in NZ I should just tweet > > about it with the conference hashtag? :-# > > If your only method is online, why not send an email? Or, find someone > with a local sim who can make the call for you. > Probably because the only published out-of-hours contact information provided was a mobile number. There was no information that I saw that suggests that an email would get an urgent out-of-hours response. I think Russell makes a good point, that there will be some issues such as CoC violation reports that warrant an urgent out-of-hours response, and some people may not have access to a phone to be able to report the issue > > if you have made a conscious choice to limit your ability to contact the > conference organisers, why is the onus then on the conference organisers > to make arrangements to be contactable by you? Russell has already explained that his concern here is not related to his own needs, it's related to hypothetical foreign travellers who might be on wifi but not be able to make a phone call. I don't think that Russell intended to say that the onus is on the conference organisers to make arrangements to suit him personally; I think he intended to point out that for a conference that does attract a large number of people from overseas and does make a point of having an out-of-hours contact, it seems like a gap to be missing a way for people who might not have a phone to be able to reach the out-of-hours contact > > _______________________________________________ > linux-aus mailing list > linux-aus at lists.linux.org.au > http://lists.linux.org.au/mailman/listinfo/linux-aus > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From noel.butler at ausics.net Thu May 26 07:27:59 2016 From: noel.butler at ausics.net (Noel Butler) Date: Thu, 26 May 2016 07:27:59 +1000 Subject: [Linux-aus] LCA2016 post event report In-Reply-To: References: <5744248D.7040401@lcabythebay.org.au> <201605242322.05656.russell@coker.com.au> <201605251231.42951.russell@coker.com.au> <57450FA5.7010001@nerdvana.org.au> Message-ID: <4e22912bed65ea77fa37964859c67461@ausics.net> On 26/05/2016 06:59, James Polley wrote: > On Wed, May 25, 2016 at 12:36 PM Steve Walsh wrote: > >> On 05/25/2016 12:31 PM, Russell Coker wrote: >>> So if I witness a CoC violation at an LCA in NZ I should just tweet >>> about it with the conference hashtag? :-# >> >> If your only method is online, why not send an email? Or, find someone >> with a local sim who can make the call for you. > > Probably because the only published out-of-hours contact information provided was a mobile number. There was no information that I saw that suggests that an email would get an urgent out-of-hours response. > > I think Russell makes a good point, that there will be some issues such as CoC violation reports that warrant an urgent out-of-hours response, and some people may not have access to a phone to be able to report the issue > >> if you have made a conscious choice to limit your ability to contact the >> conference organisers, why is the onus then on the conference organisers >> to make arrangements to be contactable by you? > > Russell has already explained that his concern here is not related to his own needs, it's related to hypothetical foreign travellers who might be on wifi but not be able to make a phone call. > > I don't think that Russell intended to say that the onus is on the conference organisers to make arrangements to suit him personally; I think he intended to point out that for a conference that does attract a large number of people from overseas and does make a point of having an out-of-hours contact, it seems like a gap to be missing a way for people who might not have a phone to be able to reach the out-of-hours contact 2 lines of perl is all it takes to sms a mobile upon receipt of an email alerting to the fact email is waiting - but of course be very careful where and how you advertise that email :) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From kathy at kathyreid.id.au Thu May 26 07:35:10 2016 From: kathy at kathyreid.id.au (Kathy Reid) Date: Thu, 26 May 2016 07:35:10 +1000 Subject: [Linux-aus] LCA2016 post event report In-Reply-To: <4e22912bed65ea77fa37964859c67461@ausics.net> References: <5744248D.7040401@lcabythebay.org.au> <201605242322.05656.russell@coker.com.au> <201605251231.42951.russell@coker.com.au> <57450FA5.7010001@nerdvana.org.au> <4e22912bed65ea77fa37964859c67461@ausics.net> Message-ID: <57461A8E.1070407@kathyreid.id.au> A project team delivered an 18 page post event report, with recommendations sourced from both a post event survey and qualitative observations. The report is divided into sections, and articulates key recommendations around the lifecycle of the linux.conf.au event for future iterations of the event to consider. Instead of a debate on whether these recommendations should be adopted, instead we're bikeshedding over whether a Jabber IM number should be provided for the conference. This discussion is furthering neither the growth or maturity of linux.conf.au, nor Linux Australia as an organisation, and does not respect the time or effort that has gone into the event or into the production of the post event report. I'd like to request that this thread of discussion is now refocused on the recommendations made in the Post Event Report, and on whether they should be endorsed. Kind regards, Kathy Reid From _ at chrisjrn.com Thu May 26 07:44:59 2016 From: _ at chrisjrn.com (Christopher Neugebauer) Date: Wed, 25 May 2016 14:44:59 -0700 Subject: [Linux-aus] LCA2016 post event report In-Reply-To: <5744248D.7040401@lcabythebay.org.au> References: <5744248D.7040401@lcabythebay.org.au> Message-ID: Hi Kathy, I noticed that LCA2016 did a lot more work on the wiki as compared with previous years. I've some questions about it: The report on the conference wiki says: ''' The Wiki was up and ready with most conference information by early October 2015. This helped Delegates with their pre-conference experience enormously, and reduced the number of questions fielded in the Delegate Service application, RT, in the lead up to the conference. ''' How did the team determine that the questions fielded were reduced? Was this in comparison with previous years? Also, it appears as though the index pages "Information for speakers" and "Information for delegates" did not feature as highly in your page view counts when compared with pages that have traditionally been in the wiki. How did you determine that the IA of the web site was effective, in particular the separating out the various index pages? --Chris On 24 May 2016 at 02:53, Kathy Reid - Team linux.conf.au 2016 Geelong - LCA By the Bay wrote: > Dear Colleagues, > > The linux.conf.au 2016 Geelong - LCA By the Bay conference team is delighted > to present our post event report for your information. > As always your questions, comments and feedback are warmly welcomed. > > Kind regards, > > David Bell and Kathy Reid > on behalf of the LCA2016 team > > _______________________________________________ > linux-aus mailing list > linux-aus at lists.linux.org.au > http://lists.linux.org.au/mailman/listinfo/linux-aus > -- --Christopher Neugebauer Jabber: chrisjrn at gmail.com -- IRC: chrisjrn on irc.freenode.net -- WWW: http://chrisjrn.com -- Twitter: @chrisjrn From kathy at kathyreid.id.au Thu May 26 18:32:13 2016 From: kathy at kathyreid.id.au (Kathy Reid) Date: Thu, 26 May 2016 18:32:13 +1000 Subject: [Linux-aus] LCA2016 post event report In-Reply-To: References: <5744248D.7040401@lcabythebay.org.au> Message-ID: <5746B48D.2000801@kathyreid.id.au> On 26/05/16 07:44, Christopher Neugebauer wrote: > Hi Kathy, > > I noticed that LCA2016 did a lot more work on the wiki as compared > with previous years. I've some questions about it: > > The report on the conference wiki says: > > ''' The Wiki was up and ready with most conference information by > early October 2015. This helped Delegates with their pre-conference > experience enormously, and reduced the number of questions fielded in > the Delegate Service application, RT, in the lead up to the > conference. ''' > > How did the team determine that the questions fielded were reduced? > Was this in comparison with previous years? Good question. This was based on the types of questions fielded in the RT system in 2016, compared to our knowledge of the types of questions fielded in 2012 (there was significant overlap between the core teams of LCA2012 Ballarat and LCA2016). There were fewer "I can't find this type of information on the Wiki" questions in 2016. > > Also, it appears as though the index pages "Information for speakers" > and "Information for delegates" did not feature as highly in your page > view counts when compared with pages that have traditionally been in > the wiki. How did you determine that the IA of the web site was > effective, in particular the separating out the various index pages? Because several statements in the qualitative feedback in the survey mentioned that the IA was effective. Additionally, the user journey reports in Google Analytics also indicated that the user journeys were short (ie page A, B then exit at C) rather than indicative of a user base that was getting lost (A, C, F, G, exit at B). > > --Chris > > > On 24 May 2016 at 02:53, Kathy Reid - Team linux.conf.au 2016 Geelong > - LCA By the Bay wrote: >> Dear Colleagues, >> >> The linux.conf.au 2016 Geelong - LCA By the Bay conference team is delighted >> to present our post event report for your information. >> As always your questions, comments and feedback are warmly welcomed. >> >> Kind regards, >> >> David Bell and Kathy Reid >> on behalf of the LCA2016 team >> >> _______________________________________________ >> linux-aus mailing list >> linux-aus at lists.linux.org.au >> http://lists.linux.org.au/mailman/listinfo/linux-aus >> > > From steven.ellis at gmail.com Fri May 27 14:59:05 2016 From: steven.ellis at gmail.com (Steven Ellis) Date: Fri, 27 May 2016 16:59:05 +1200 Subject: [Linux-aus] LCA2016 post event report In-Reply-To: <201605251231.42951.russell@coker.com.au> References: <5744248D.7040401@lcabythebay.org.au> <201605242322.05656.russell@coker.com.au> <201605251231.42951.russell@coker.com.au> Message-ID: Kathy - Great report and a wonderful conference. Regarding communications a couple of things to add to Mark's LCA2015 comments. - Anything CoC centric had it's own very restricted RT queue that was actively monitored by key team members - The out of hours phone was handled by key team members (usually myself and Cherie). Aside from a transport issue we had almost no out of hours calls. In addition we assumed that anyone travelling internationally would have roaming or a local SIM card. In fact we provided recommendations for visitors around SIM cards on the Wiki. I travel a lot for work and I always make sure I have the ability to make an emergency call. Also note that the on-call number isn't for emergencies, you should use the appropriate police/medical/fire number. It is there for out of hours assistance from the conference team, or for any CoC issues you can't/won't report by email. I'd recommend any future On-Call phones have a very very very loud ringer. We had problems hearing ours during one of the evening events. Steven On Wed, May 25, 2016 at 2:31 PM, Russell Coker wrote: > On Wed, 25 May 2016 08:43:32 AM Mark Foster wrote: > > > But I have one suggestion. The report mentions the on-call number, I > > > think that this is a great thing and something that more conferences > > > should do (I think it's been around since the last LCA in Perth). > > > However I think that there should also be an Internet based method of > > > contacting the conference organisers in an emergency such as Jabber. > > > When I attended the LCAs in NZ I never got an NZ SIM and relied on IM > > > via the conference Wifi for remaining in contact. Presumably some > > > people from other countries who attend LCAs in Australia do the same > > > thing. > > > > > > I don't think that monitoring Jabber would be any additional effort for > > > whoever has the on-call phone but it could provide a significant > benefit > > > for delegates from other countries. > > > > Kathy mentioned spinning plates which is a great anology, however, it's > > more simple than that: > > - During LCA2015 Operating Hours the NOC monitored > > a) Phone > > b) IRC > > c) Twitter > > d) Email > > e) Radio Telephone link to other key organisers. > > > > So is your need for comms with the organisers synchronous, i.e. does it > > Firstly please note it's not "my need", it's a planned service by the > conference to provide an on-call number for reporting CoC violations etc. > Some years past LCA organisers made the good decision to provide such a > number > and it's become an ongoing part of the services provided. > > > need a real-time interaction - or is it something where the response can > > be delayed by minutes/hours? > > The people who made the decision to provide a number obviously did so > because > they felt that something more immediate than email and more private than > Twitter was needed. > > > If your requirement is real-time then nothing would beat the phone, and > > the other mediums would clearly get you a near-realtime response during > > manning hours. > > if your requirement is real-time and after-hours (i.e. urgent) then I > > think making a phonecall is not unreasonable. > > It's not "my requirement". So far I have not needed to call the on-call > number and when LCAs are in Australia (most years) I will be able to make > phone calls. > > > To keep adding other means of engagement is to keep adding work to a > > team who are already working hard. When they provide several means of > > contact already I'm not sure there's any added value. > > And there's an onus on the people making contact, to select the medium > > appropriate for their urgency and other requirements. > > So if I witness a CoC violation at an LCA in NZ I should just tweet about > it > with the conference hashtag? :-# > > -- > My Main Blog http://etbe.coker.com.au/ > My Documents Blog http://doc.coker.com.au/ > _______________________________________________ > linux-aus mailing list > linux-aus at lists.linux.org.au > http://lists.linux.org.au/mailman/listinfo/linux-aus > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From simon at darkmere.gen.nz Sat May 28 21:40:10 2016 From: simon at darkmere.gen.nz (Simon Lyall) Date: Sat, 28 May 2016 23:40:10 +1200 (NZST) Subject: [Linux-aus] LCA2016 post event report In-Reply-To: <5744248D.7040401@lcabythebay.org.au> References: <5744248D.7040401@lcabythebay.org.au> Message-ID: My Feedback on the report. 1. There are several recommendations around Zookeepr, It'll be interesting to see how the Symposion/TCRSTIRSW [1] conference management software goes in 2017. 2. The mobile app was very useful (I was using the official Android one), would recommend future conferences strongly consider it. 3. Agree with all the Dinner feedback. 4. Having the accommodation away from the venue and nighttime options wasn't the best. However having most delegates at the same venue really helped for ad-hoc stuff. 5. Re the Miniconf speaker sync then if you want it then you have to really say up front and enforce it 5a. Also decide early. Miniconf CFPs will go out soon after the Miniconfs are accepted and they will need to include talk lengths. 5b. 10 minute gaps in the middle of 100min sessions are a big lose of time, I'd recommend no longer than 5. 5c. Miniconfs that don't expect people to come and go have a lower incentive to follow that schedule. 5d. If you have a lot of short talks in a Miniconf it is easy to get off-schedule in the event of problems (eg video this year). 5e. You are always going to get some mis-match between Miniconfs with longer and those with shorter sessions. 6. I found that Video was a bit more of a problem than the doc would indicate, a significant percentage of our Miniconf speakers had problems getting their laptops to work. Hopefully this was due to 2016 being a tough point in the technology cycle for video. 7. Keynote questions. Agree the curation worked pretty well, much better than the alternative. 8. Speakers room, BOF room, sprint room, etc. More rooms are better but not always possible :( 9. Perhaps have [some] lightning talks as a separate slot opposite talks rather than in front of everybody. 10. Agree the Last minute changes to Miniconf schedules need to be simple. They happen and if possible the Miniconfs orgs should be able to do them rather than a team member having to go though a complicated/duplicated manual process. [1] "That conference registration software that is 'registration' spelt wrong" -- Simon Lyall | Very Busy | Web: http://www.simonlyall.com/ "To stay awake all night adds a day to your life" - Stilgar From russell at coker.com.au Sat May 28 23:54:43 2016 From: russell at coker.com.au (Russell Coker) Date: Sat, 28 May 2016 23:54:43 +1000 Subject: [Linux-aus] LCA2016 post event report In-Reply-To: References: <5744248D.7040401@lcabythebay.org.au> Message-ID: <201605282354.43818.russell@coker.com.au> On Sat, 28 May 2016 09:40:10 PM Simon Lyall wrote: > 5b. 10 minute gaps in the middle of 100min sessions are a big lose of > time, I'd recommend no longer than 5. 5 minutes is barely enough time to change rooms given the crowds. It's not enough time to change rooms and get a drink or go to the toilet. -- My Main Blog http://etbe.coker.com.au/ My Documents Blog http://doc.coker.com.au/ From simon at darkmere.gen.nz Sun May 29 16:25:11 2016 From: simon at darkmere.gen.nz (Simon Lyall) Date: Sun, 29 May 2016 18:25:11 +1200 (NZST) Subject: [Linux-aus] LCA2016 post event report In-Reply-To: <201605282354.43818.russell@coker.com.au> References: <5744248D.7040401@lcabythebay.org.au> <201605282354.43818.russell@coker.com.au> Message-ID: On Sat, 28 May 2016, Russell Coker wrote: > On Sat, 28 May 2016 09:40:10 PM Simon Lyall wrote: >> 5b. 10 minute gaps in the middle of 100min sessions are a big lose of >> time, I'd recommend no longer than 5. > > 5 minutes is barely enough time to change rooms given the crowds. It's not > enough time to change rooms and get a drink or go to the toilet. In which case you'll be late for the next session, please try not to disrupt things as you come in the room. Seriously though we already have 40 mins each for Morning and afternoon tea plus 60 minutes for lunch (going off the 2016 schedule). 10 minutes out of the middle of each session is 10% of miniconf talk time. I could fit anouther 1-3 talks in there. Perhaps 5 minutes minimum and some miniconfs could give another 5 if they think it will help. FWIW the Sysadmin Miniconf did a 5 minute break in 2016. I think at least if the schedule has a 5 minute spot in there then it enables miniconfs to be coordinated. -- Simon Lyall | Very Busy | Web: http://www.simonlyall.com/ "To stay awake all night adds a day to your life" - Stilgar From dtbell91 at gmail.com Sun May 29 17:06:55 2016 From: dtbell91 at gmail.com (David Bell) Date: Sun, 29 May 2016 17:06:55 +1000 Subject: [Linux-aus] LCA2016 post event report In-Reply-To: References: <5744248D.7040401@lcabythebay.org.au> <201605282354.43818.russell@coker.com.au> Message-ID: Our schedule was something we spent a considerable amount of time thinking about. We settled on a 10 minute break between talks for LCA2016 due to the walk to the Wool Museum venue. As well as not wanting to rush our delegates from talk to talk or have people interrupting the start of the next session. Other conferences who's talk venues are located closer together might be able to get away with a shorter break, we weren't so lucky. On 29 May 2016 4:25 PM, "Simon Lyall" wrote: On Sat, 28 May 2016, Russell Coker wrote: > On Sat, 28 May 2016 09:40:10 PM Simon Lyall wrote: > >> 5b. 10 minute gaps in the middle of 100min sessions are a big lose of >> time, I'd recommend no longer than 5. >> > > 5 minutes is barely enough time to change rooms given the crowds. It's not > enough time to change rooms and get a drink or go to the toilet. > In which case you'll be late for the next session, please try not to disrupt things as you come in the room. Seriously though we already have 40 mins each for Morning and afternoon tea plus 60 minutes for lunch (going off the 2016 schedule). 10 minutes out of the middle of each session is 10% of miniconf talk time. I could fit anouther 1-3 talks in there. Perhaps 5 minutes minimum and some miniconfs could give another 5 if they think it will help. FWIW the Sysadmin Miniconf did a 5 minute break in 2016. I think at least if the schedule has a 5 minute spot in there then it enables miniconfs to be coordinated. -- Simon Lyall | Very Busy | Web: http://www.simonlyall.com/ "To stay awake all night adds a day to your life" - Stilgar _______________________________________________ linux-aus mailing list linux-aus at lists.linux.org.au http://lists.linux.org.au/mailman/listinfo/linux-aus -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From kathy at kathyreid.id.au Sun May 29 17:36:56 2016 From: kathy at kathyreid.id.au (Kathy Reid) Date: Sun, 29 May 2016 17:36:56 +1000 Subject: [Linux-aus] LCA2016 post event report In-Reply-To: References: <5744248D.7040401@lcabythebay.org.au> <201605282354.43818.russell@coker.com.au> Message-ID: <574A9C18.3060708@kathyreid.id.au> Fully agree with David on this one. I think we also run the risk of quantity over quality by attempting to fit too many talks into the Miniconf Schedules. LCA is a high bar to get into as a Speaker and as a Miniconf Speaker; and rightly so. Having done 2 LCAs now as Speaker Liaison, the experience has taught me that you set the Schedule, and then have Speakers work around that, rather than vice versa. I would definitely recommend less and better talks and adequate break times, both for Delegate comfort and also to 'catch up' Speakers who run over time. For the Miniconfs at LCA2016, Schedule changes were being updated in four primary locations; - The Miniconf site by the Miniconf Organiser - The Wiki page by the Miniconf Organiser - The ZooKeepr schedule by me - The mobile app by whoever wasn't tied up with a higher priority task The ZooKeepr schedule in turn fed digital signage (which was a stretch goal; we didn't have it up and running until Thursday - source code here - https://github.com/KathyReid/lca2016-digital-signage) So, in the event that a Miniconf Schedule changed, up to four people were making an edit to four sources. I suppose they're not stored on 8" floppies, but still, it's not exactly efficient. Definitely recommend synchronising Miniconf Schedule timeslots, times, and reducing changes. Regards, Kathy On 29/05/16 17:06, David Bell wrote: > > Our schedule was something we spent a considerable amount of time > thinking about. We settled on a 10 minute break between talks for > LCA2016 due to the walk to the Wool Museum venue. As well as not > wanting to rush our delegates from talk to talk or have people > interrupting the start of the next session. > Other conferences who's talk venues are located closer together might > be able to get away with a shorter break, we weren't so lucky. > > On 29 May 2016 4:25 PM, "Simon Lyall" > wrote: > > On Sat, 28 May 2016, Russell Coker wrote: > > On Sat, 28 May 2016 09:40:10 PM Simon Lyall wrote: > > 5b. 10 minute gaps in the middle of 100min sessions are a > big lose of > time, I'd recommend no longer than 5. > > > 5 minutes is barely enough time to change rooms given the > crowds. It's not > enough time to change rooms and get a drink or go to the toilet. > > > In which case you'll be late for the next session, please try not > to disrupt things as you come in the room. > > Seriously though we already have 40 mins each for Morning and > afternoon tea plus 60 minutes for lunch (going off the 2016 > schedule). 10 minutes out of the middle of each session is 10% of > miniconf talk time. I could fit anouther 1-3 talks in there. > > Perhaps 5 minutes minimum and some miniconfs could give another 5 > if they think it will help. FWIW the Sysadmin Miniconf did a 5 > minute break in 2016. I think at least if the schedule has a 5 > minute spot in there then it enables miniconfs to be coordinated. > > > > -- > Simon Lyall | Very Busy | Web: http://www.simonlyall.com/ > "To stay awake all night adds a day to your life" - Stilgar > > _______________________________________________ > linux-aus mailing list > linux-aus at lists.linux.org.au > http://lists.linux.org.au/mailman/listinfo/linux-aus > > > > _______________________________________________ > linux-aus mailing list > linux-aus at lists.linux.org.au > http://lists.linux.org.au/mailman/listinfo/linux-aus -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jwoithe at just42.net Mon May 30 10:21:58 2016 From: jwoithe at just42.net (Jonathan Woithe) Date: Mon, 30 May 2016 09:51:58 +0930 Subject: [Linux-aus] LCA2016 post event report In-Reply-To: <574A9C18.3060708@kathyreid.id.au> References: <5744248D.7040401@lcabythebay.org.au> <201605282354.43818.russell@coker.com.au> <574A9C18.3060708@kathyreid.id.au> Message-ID: <20160530002158.GC25528@marvin.atrad.com.au> On Sun, May 29, 2016 at 05:36:56PM +1000, Kathy Reid wrote: > For the Miniconfs at LCA2016, Schedule changes were being updated in four > primary locations; > > - The Miniconf site by the Miniconf Organiser > - The Wiki page by the Miniconf Organiser > - The ZooKeepr schedule by me > - The mobile app by whoever wasn't tied up with a higher priority task > : > So, in the event that a Miniconf Schedule changed, up to four people were > making an edit to four sources. > : > Definitely recommend synchronising Miniconf Schedule timeslots, times, and > reducing changes. Coming up with a way to streamline the distribution of miniconf schedules would definitely be useful. It would be good if we could come up with a consistent approach which applied across all miniconfs. This would not only potentially reduce the amount of maintenance effort required but would also be less confusing for delegates. Since AV utilise zookeepr schedules to coordinate their thing, the adopted approach probably has to involve that. If this were the case, it would be advantageous if the miniconf organisers themselves could manage their miniconf schedule within that system, thereby freeing the LCA organisers from this task. If there was a single definitive source for miniconf schedules, anything else which needed schedule information could pull it from that. Having said that, I understand that manipulating schedules within zookeepr is not straight forward, so some work might be needed in this area for such an idea to work.[1] The nature of miniconfs is that schedule changes are a fact of life and often these occur quite late through no fault of the miniconf organiser. Making schedule changes less onerous is therefore a good goal, even if it's something which will necessarily take some time to implement. Regarding coordinated schedules (a separate issue), in principle I have no problem with this although I acknowledge that for some miniconfs it won't work very well. As a result, we need to be flexible when necessary. In any case, if a coordinated timetable is desired I think many miniconf organisers would like a definitive indication of this as early as possible, along with the preferred timetable. This means they can plan the talk slots and their miniconf generally around the published schedule from the very start. Once one has a few speakers locked in it is often difficult to rearrange things to match up with a subsequently published schedule. When I published my schedule for LCA2016 there was only one other miniconf schedule published for that day. In the absence of any other guidance, I aligned with their schedule because it was trivial for me to do so. When other schedules appeared they did not align, but this was unsurprising because they had obviously worked to a different schedule and changing things at that late stage was not going to be feasible. >From my perspective as a miniconf organiser, coordinated miniconfs are a good thing to aim for. However, to make this work the following will be required: 1) Notification from LCA organisers that coordinated schedules are a thing as early as possible. 2) Early distribution of the miniconf time slot schedule to organisers so it's available to them before CfPs are issued. 3) Allowances for those miniconfs whose content does not lend itself to a traditional schedule and might be difficult to fit around the published schedule. None of these steps would add to the workload of LCA organisers because they are largely policy decisions. As to what a proposed schedule might look like, I agree with others who have cautioned about loosing too much time to breaks. Unless miniconf rooms are widely separated from each other, a 5 minute break is probably sufficient. If someone is concerned about not making it they could always depart during question time before the break. As to how often a 5 minute break should be scheduled, I'm not overly fussed. Personally I think a coordinated break after 50-ish minutes is probably workable. Doing it after only 20 or so minutes might be a bit much as it will be limiting for those miniconfs whose speakers tend to only need 10 minutes to present their talk. Based on the session times from LCA2016, something like this might work: Session 1: 10:40 - 12:20 10:40 - 11:30 = 50 minute block 11:30 - 11:35 = Coordinated Break 11:35 - 12:20 = 45 minute block Lunch: 12:20 - 13:20 Session 2: 13:20 - 15:00 13:20 - 14:10 = 50 minute block 14:10 - 14:15 = Coordinated Break 14:15 - 15:00 = 45 minute block Afternoon tea: 15:00 - 15:40 Session 3: 15:40 - 17:20 15:40 - 16:30 = 50 minute block 16:30 - 16:35 = Coordinated Break 16:35 - 17:20 = 45 minute block In addition and if deemed necessary, there could be additional *optional* coordinated breaks within the blocks. That is, if for a given miniconf there is a natural break between speakers in these blocks, then those breaks could be scheduled in a coordinated way (say, 20 minutes in). However, these breaks will create problems for some miniconfs so they would be seen as being optional. Those who want to break the blocks should do it then, but otherwise don't bother. This provides the flexibility to allow for different types of miniconfs (for some it makes sense to have one or two speakers per block, while for others with shorter presentations it's appropriate to have 3 or 4 per block). The above schedule attempts to balance the concerns raised: having some form of coordinated break while not having these consume a considerable proportion of the miniconf's total time. The final outcome may look nothing like the above but regardless of the final approach adopted, keeping this balance in mind is important. Regards jonathan [1] I have never worked with zookeepr, so the comments about managing time schedules within zookeepr are based solely on public statements made by others over the years. From russell at coker.com.au Tue May 31 12:18:02 2016 From: russell at coker.com.au (Russell Coker) Date: Tue, 31 May 2016 12:18:02 +1000 Subject: [Linux-aus] LCA2016 post event report In-Reply-To: <20160530002158.GC25528@marvin.atrad.com.au> References: <5744248D.7040401@lcabythebay.org.au> <574A9C18.3060708@kathyreid.id.au> <20160530002158.GC25528@marvin.atrad.com.au> Message-ID: <201605311218.02582.russell@coker.com.au> On Mon, 30 May 2016 10:21:58 AM Jonathan Woithe wrote: > The nature of miniconfs is that schedule changes are a fact of life and > often these occur quite late through no fault of the miniconf organiser. > Making schedule changes less onerous is therefore a good goal, even if it's > something which will necessarily take some time to implement. > 11:30 - 11:35 = Coordinated Break The miniconfs have always been less formal than the regular talks. In terms of formality and attention to schedule it has always been keynotes > regular lectures > miniconfs > BoFs. I'm sure that some miniconf organisers tried to make their miniconfs run to a strict schedule like the regular lectures and some probably succeeded. But I wonder if that is even desirable. Being less formal makes them more inviting to people who have never spoken at a conference like LCA before which I think is good for building the community. I believe that there are significant benefits for personal and career development in giving lectures and tutorials for the Linux/FOSS community. Also it's obvious that we aren't attracting new developers the way we used to. For the regular lectures 5 minutes is the minimum time required to move between lecture halls (and with no chance of a "hallway track"). For less formal lectures it doesn't seem to be something we can achieve. -- My Main Blog http://etbe.coker.com.au/ My Documents Blog http://doc.coker.com.au/ From jwoithe at just42.net Tue May 31 18:40:02 2016 From: jwoithe at just42.net (Jonathan Woithe) Date: Tue, 31 May 2016 18:10:02 +0930 Subject: [Linux-aus] LCA2016 post event report In-Reply-To: <201605311218.02582.russell@coker.com.au> References: <5744248D.7040401@lcabythebay.org.au> <574A9C18.3060708@kathyreid.id.au> <20160530002158.GC25528@marvin.atrad.com.au> <201605311218.02582.russell@coker.com.au> Message-ID: <20160531084002.GR30792@marvin.atrad.com.au> On Tue, May 31, 2016 at 12:18:02PM +1000, Russell Coker wrote: > On Mon, 30 May 2016 10:21:58 AM Jonathan Woithe wrote: > > The nature of miniconfs is that schedule changes are a fact of life and > > often these occur quite late through no fault of the miniconf organiser. > > Making schedule changes less onerous is therefore a good goal, even if it's > > something which will necessarily take some time to implement. > > > 11:30 - 11:35 = Coordinated Break > > The miniconfs have always been less formal than the regular talks. ... > I'm sure that some miniconf organisers tried to make their miniconfs run > to a strict schedule like the regular lectures and some probably > succeeded. But I wonder if that is even desirable. I think it very much depends on the nature of the miniconf. This is why I think we need to be flexible in order to accomodate those for which this isn't applicable. My idea is that it would be helpful to do for those miniconfs where it makes sense, but it shouldn't be forced on those for which it does not. Regards jonathan