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Gavin, Peter,<br>
Yes, I agree that providing and standardising of tools for abstract
management would be a huge value add for future foss4g conferences,
and something that I wish we had available to us at foss4g 2009.<br>
I have similar war stories to Peter about managing papers, and
integrating with the proprietary PCO systems. I also think that it
will take a number of conferences for us to fully streamline our
process into a simple Open Source solution.<br>
<br>
On 15/10/2011 5:07 AM, Gavin wrote:
<blockquote cite="mid:1318615625.14810.12.camel@pixanevia"
type="cite">
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The system we used for 2008 (<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://pkp.sfu.ca/ocs/%29">http://pkp.sfu.ca/ocs/)</a> 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. <br>
<br>
Whatever is chosen it then needs to be a requirement in RFPs that
LOCs commit to using it and not doing their own thing. <br>
<br>
Gavin<br>
<br>
<br>
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).
<blockquote type="CITE"> <br>
<br>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="CITE"> 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.
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="CITE"> <br>
<br>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="CITE"> This whole process would be massively
streamlined if we used the conference management module the
whole way through.
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="CITE"> <br>
<br>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="CITE"> 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).
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="CITE"> <br>
<br>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="CITE"> 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.
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="CITE"> <br>
<br>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="CITE"> Cheers,
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="CITE"> Peter.
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="CITE"> <br>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="CITE"> On Fri, Oct 14, 2011 at 4:52 AM, Cameron
Shorter <<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:cameron.shorter@gmail.com">cameron.shorter@gmail.com</a>>
wrote:<br>
<blockquote> I suggest that we, the conference committee and
interested people, should organically start building a FOSS4G
Cookbook.<br>
<br>
The Cookbook should cover all the aspects of putting on a
FOSS4G conference, including such things as:<br>
<br>
* Schedule coming up to the conference<br>
* Budget<br>
* Program<br>
* Web Site<br>
* Catering<br>
* Venue selection<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
I see two key advantages of such a Cookbook:<br>
<br>
1. Access to such information will make it much easier for
someone to put on a FOSS4G conference<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
Do others see value in building such a document?<br>
I'm assuming we should build the Cookbook as a wiki, but am
happy to hear suggestions for other collaborative tools.<br>
If there is sufficient interest, I'll build a skeleton of the
Cookbook, and invite others to contribute content.<br>
<br>
-- <br>
Cameron Shorter<br>
Geospatial Solutions Manager<br>
Tel: <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="tel:%2B61%20%280%292%208570%205050">+61 (0)2 8570 5050</a><br>
Mob: <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="tel:%2B61%20%280%29419%20142%20254">+61 (0)419 142 254</a><br>
<br>
Think Globally, Fix Locally<br>
Geospatial Solutions enhanced with Open Standards and Open
Source<br>
<a moz-do-not-send="true" href="http://www.lisasoft.com">http://www.lisasoft.com</a><br>
<br>
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</blockquote>
<blockquote type="CITE"> <br>
<br>
</blockquote>
<blockquote type="CITE">
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<pre>--
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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<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Cameron Shorter
Geospatial Solutions Manager
Tel: +61 (0)2 8570 5050
Mob: +61 (0)419 142 254
Think Globally, Fix Locally
Geospatial Solutions enhanced with Open Standards and Open Source
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.lisasoft.com">http://www.lisasoft.com</a>
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