Greetings to Gao Ang and the Beijing team,<div><br></div><div>I hope all is well. I just wanted to check in how things are moving along. As I've mentioned previously I think, there's a timeline from last year at <a href="http://2011.foss4g.org/content/timeline">http://2011.foss4g.org/content/timeline</a>. Last year we had the call for workshops out on January 15th and the call for papers out on January 30th. You really need the web site up in order to do that effectively, so that's an important pre-req that needs to happen soon. It's also important to get a sponsorship prospectus completed and get some sponsors signed up soon - this is not on the timeline, but we had the prospectus done in December and offered a 10% discount to sponsors who signed up by the end of January. I don't have the exact numbers to hand, but I would guess we had 3/4 of the overall sponsorship money committed by the end of January, so this approach worked well (offering a discount for early sponsor sign up).</div>
<div><br></div><div>The good news is that on the traditional timeline we've had the call for papers open for two and a half months (closing mid April), and I really don't think it needs to be open for that long. The vast majority of abstract submissions were submitted in the last couple of days anyway! So I think you could still close the call for papers around this date even if it goes out a little later.</div>
<div><br></div><div>However, I do think it's really important to get the web site operational very soon, get these calls for workshops and papers out, and start getting sponsors signed up. If you have questions or need advice on anything, use this email list - I and other former conference chairs and members of the community will be glad to do what we can to help. </div>
<div><br></div><div>Cheers,</div><div> Peter.</div>