[OSGeo-Conf] Question Period: Workshops

[Cameron Shorter]

I'm starting to move away from questions to suggestions.
It is possible to run workshops under a "bring your own laptop" model. 
We have had reports of people doing this using OSGeo-Live USBs and VMs. 
(Mac users using VMs).

Pros:

* It reduces setup requirements
* It reduces cost of labs and requirements for having lots of computers
* It reduces need to locate labs, which are often at a different 
location to conference venue

Cons:

* You are tied to an OSGeo-Live distribution (or you face a time 
consuming task of creating your own distribution)
* Some users might not be technically savvy enough to set up their 
computer. (This can be mitigated by encouraging students to pair up).
* Some of your workshop time will need to be spend explaining how to 
start a VM / OSGeo-Live.


On 1/03/2015 5:30 am, Steven Feldman wrote:
> Adding to Paul’s comments on workshops - one of our biggest strains in 
> 2013 were the workshops and we had a whole load of university labs 
> decked out with pretty high spec machines at next to no cost. Try to 
> get clarity on your workshop tech as early as you can and allow for 
> the possibility that it will be more costly and take much more time 
> than you expect
>
> And if you can publish your specs with the call for workshops so that 
> workshop owners plan around your hardware not vice versa
>
> Advice from painful experience
> ______
> Steven
>
>
>> On 25 Feb 2015, at 13:35, Paul Ramsey <pramsey at cleverelephant.ca 
>> <mailto:pramsey at cleverelephant.ca>> wrote:
>>
>> Workshops are notable for the strain they place on organizers since 
>> the number of moving parts that must be coordinated can be 
>> considerable: donated labs are cheap, but lab staff are difficult to 
>> work with unless you have a committee member who has a strong 
>> relationship w/ them; rented (self-built) labs are more flexible for 
>> setup but more expensive naturally. It only takes one technical snafu 
>> to shutdown a whole session (as I too nearly experienced in Portland).
>>
>> Bonn, you seem to have a good handle on what your workshop rooms are 
>> (at least, you have room counts and a plan for how many workshops to 
>> offer), but it’s not clear to me if we’re talking University labs or 
>> conference center rooms. If you’re filling conference center rooms 
>> with machines, are the machine rentals in budget? If you’re using 
>> labs, do you have a committee member with strong connections to the 
>> lab management?
>>
>> Dublin, you seem more free-form on your workshops plan. You have lots 
>> of options but haven’t settled on any of them. Can you describe your 
>> top one or two prospects and the plusses/minusses of them?
>>
>> Both, do you have a committee member already identified who will make 
>> workshops their only priority? It takes a certain monomania.
>>
>> ATB,
>>
>> P
>>
>>
>> -- 
>> Paul Ramsey
>> http://cleverelephant.ca <http://cleverelephant.ca/>
>> http://postgis.net <http://postgis.net/>
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>
>
>
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-- 
Cameron Shorter,
Software and Data Solutions Manager
LISAsoft
Suite 112, Jones Bay Wharf,
26 - 32 Pirrama Rd, Pyrmont NSW 2009

P +61 2 9009 5000,  W www.lisasoft.com,  F +61 2 9009 5099

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