[OSGeo-Discuss] FOSS4G2010: Good, Bad and the Ugly

[Venkatesh Raghavan]

Hi All,

Back to work after four weeks on the road
with the ZOO-Team.

Enjoyed being at FOSS4G2010. As usual there
many good things, few bad things at least
one ugly incident (for the ZOO-Team).

About the good things, i will not spend too
much time as it is obvious to all. Just to
mention that it was wonderful to meet many
of you folks and learn new things.

Few bad things that I will elaborate more below;

a) Difficulty in meet people since we were all spread
out and there was not much info about common meeting
points
b) No "Practical Guide"
c) No ice-breaker
d) Had to pay for FOSS4G2010 T-Shirt
e) Lunch at least on the first day was a sea of people and
    great difficulty in getting to the food. Choose to grab
    a sandwich nearby coffee shop
f) Having poster session in lunch-time and having authors
    being present in front of their posters to answer questions.
g) Was not particularly amused by keynote speaker putting out
    his cap and a great guy running to the stage to put coins.
    Must think of better gimmicks to get money flowing into OSGeo.
h) AGM should be planned well in advance. The idea of canceling
    Local Chapter Reports and Committee reports was not a good one
i) Some kind of OSGeo-Nostalgia talk with ex-board director was
    missing
j) seated tables at Gala Dinner. Would have been better like a buffet
    with people able to mingle.
k) Could not see many students. Also, suggestions for best student
    paper and poster award that I have been talking about since long
    is not yet considered.
k) Bad also that I forget some other points to be listed here.

As for the ugly incident, we had to miss the AGM as
our car was towed away by the police for a minor parking
violation.

Hope to see some of you folks in some other parts
of the world when we will have more of the good,
few of the bad and none of the ugly.

Cheers

Venka