[OSGeo-Conf] FOSS4G Cookbook

Volker Mische volker.mische at gmail.com
Sat Oct 15 13:32:27 EDT 2011 

Hi all,

please don't ever think about using OCS (in case it's the same software
as in 2009). I was responsible for the Abstract management for the
FOSS4G 2009. I tried to build upon the work from 2008, hence tried OCS.
It was hard to install and hardly customisable. It's made for academic
conferences with peer review etc.

I ended up with building a new one on Django. It's very simple and has
voting included. The voting was based on Paul's work (in PHP) from prior
FOSS4Gs.

In 2010 I offered my help (though not full support, because of lack of
time) to get them started on the system, to build upon it. They decided
to go with the one from the event management company.

Anyway, my conclusion is: Build a custom one for FOSS4G based on
standard software. We have unique requirements, like the public voting.
to repeat it, use *standardd tools*. As much as I love e.g. CouchDB, I'd
still go for PostgreSQL (or SQLite as our scale is small enough), as
most Geo people know it.

Cheers,
  Volker

On 10/14/2011 08:07 PM, Gavin wrote:
> The system we used for 2008 (http://pkp.sfu.ca/ocs/) was suggested by
> Tyler on this same basis - that it would be something to use and build
> on in future years. It is more geared towards academic conferences but
> has all the machinery for abstract submission, review, publishing etc.
> 
> Whatever is chosen it then needs to be a requirement in RFPs that LOCs
> commit to using it and not doing their own thing.
> 
> Gavin
> 
> 
> One other semi-related item that has been on my mind is extending the
> web site we put together this year, based on Drupal, for use in future
> years. It uses an open source conference management module but we only
> enabled some parts of that. It wouldn't be too much work to get
> Jonathan, who did the site for us, to extend the functionality so it
> could handle the whole abstract submission and selection process (but
> enough work that we would have to pay him something, as we did for his
> initial work). 
>>
>>
>> Managing abstracts was a real pain for us this year with a lot of
>> manual work to move them around through the process. They came in
>> through one system, we did initial sorting in one spreadsheet, they
>> went to Paul Ramsey's voting system then back into another spreadsheet
>> which we couldn't easily cross-reference to the previous one, we did
>> some duplicate checking in a separate database system, and ended up
>> with two spreadsheets for the academic and main tracks, then at the
>> end it was a lot of work to schedule the selected papers, notify
>> people, and put the info on the web site. And then you have to manage
>> the process of people dropping out and filling those slots. Having all
>> these manual steps is very error prone too. Finally we now have the
>> question of getting slides online, which would be much easier if
>> people could upload their own, which they could if we were using this
>> module fully. 
>>
>>
>> This whole process would be massively streamlined if we used the
>> conference management module the whole way through. 
>>
>>
>> So anyway, I'm inclined to take a little money from the FOSS4G
>> proceeds and get this done for the benefit of future FOSS4Gs. I think
>> this would also be a tangible benefit that OSGeo could provide for
>> people doing FOSS4G events (global or local) that would help justify
>> the event contributing something back to OSGeo from the event proceeds
>> (though that's a separate topic). 
>>
>>
>> I'm not quite sure who (if anyone) I need to get permission from to do
>> this. I would certainly welcome thoughts from this group. I can check
>> with the board if the thought is that I need to do that. Or can just
>> go ahead - the amount of money involved is small compared to other
>> budget items I've been dealing with on FOSS4G. But obviously I only
>> want to do it if others think it's a good idea. 
>>
>>
>> Cheers,  
>>     Peter. 
>>
>> On Fri, Oct 14, 2011 at 4:52 AM, Cameron Shorter
>> <cameron.shorter at gmail.com <mailto:cameron.shorter at gmail.com>> wrote:
>>
>>     I suggest that we, the conference committee and interested people,
>>     should organically start building a FOSS4G Cookbook.
>>
>>     The Cookbook should cover all the aspects of putting on a FOSS4G
>>     conference, including such things as:
>>
>>     * Schedule coming up to the conference
>>     * Budget
>>     * Program
>>     * Web Site
>>     * Catering
>>     * Venue selection
>>
>>     Initially much of the content for this cookbook can be drawn
>>     directly from Lessons Learned from previous years. As more events
>>     are run, I'd expect ideas to evolve and the Cookbook to grow with it.
>>
>>     I see two key advantages of such a Cookbook:
>>
>>     1. Access to such information will make it much easier for someone
>>     to put on a FOSS4G conference
>>
>>     2. The Cookbook can be used as a baseline to guide deciding
>>     whether a conference may make use of the FOSS4G brand. This will
>>     help maintain the quality associated with the FOSS4G brand.
>>
>>     Do others see value in building such a document?
>>     I'm assuming we should build the Cookbook as a wiki, but am happy
>>     to hear suggestions for other collaborative tools.
>>     If there is sufficient interest, I'll build a skeleton of the
>>     Cookbook, and invite others to contribute content.
>>
>>     -- 
>>     Cameron Shorter
>>     Geospatial Solutions Manager
>>     Tel: +61 (0)2 8570 5050 <tel:%2B61%20%280%292%208570%205050>
>>     Mob: +61 (0)419 142 254 <tel:%2B61%20%280%29419%20142%20254>
>>
>>     Think Globally, Fix Locally
>>     Geospatial Solutions enhanced with Open Standards and Open Source
>>     http://www.lisasoft.com
>>
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>>
>>
>>
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> 
> 
> -- 
> Gavin Fleming
> t: 0218620670
> c: 0845965680
> f: 0866164820
> Paarl
> South Africa
> 18°59'18.8"E 33°44'40.2"S
> 
> 
> 
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