[FOSS4G2017] Next steps
Jeff McKenna
jmckenna at gatewaygeomatics.com
Fri Sep 2 17:05:32 PDT 2016
Hello 2017 local committee,
(please add me to your private mailing list, for now I will send to public)
As 2016 comes to its end, the spotlight is now moving to the Boston
team. This morning I reviewed the 2017 proposal, and I made a list of
important next steps, as now the time is critical for the success of
2017. Note that as 2017 timeline is now shorter than ever (a very early
date of August 14th) things cannot afford to wait a month, so here are
some notes to get things moving:
Communication
-------------
- regular communication on the public 'foss4g2017' mailing list is great
to build excitement (the Bonn team did an amazing job on this). The
Bonn team set a new standard of having all communication in the open on
this public list (read: no private discussions). Committees were
formed, meetings were planned, all in the open, this really built
excitement, and made it easy to offer help and ask questions.
- regular meetings should begin now, likely at first once every 2 weeks
and then change to once every week as the event approaches. The
recommended way is to use the existing IRC channel "foss4g" for the
local committee meetings, so that others can easily join and no account
or special software is needed (example steps: in your browser goto
http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=foss4g and pick a nickname to use
and then click 'connect'). Although video or audio (hangouts etc) is
nice, using IRC allows those working or unable to speak to contribute to
meetings. Another benefit is that the channel is automatically logged,
so members missing the meeting can follow the missed discussion (logs:
http://irclogs.geoapt.com/foss4g/). The Bonn team really leveraged the
IRC channel well.
- recommendation: the formation of a Boston OSGeo Local Chapter was
mentioned in the proposal. A great way to get this moving, is to start
having a monthly face-to-face of the local committee, but with the
wrapper "OSGeo Chapter meetup", in a pub after the work day ends.
Instantly you have a chapter, and over the year more and more people in
the local area will come to the meetups, and they can get involved in
the 2017 planning (such as in the Volunteer team etc.). You build a
local chapter AS you put in the effort to plan the great 2017 event,
without even realizing you're building a chapter, AND you're marketing
the event at the same time.
- use other existing mailing lists for FOSS4G:
- workshop mailing list
(https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/conference-workshops). This
is made up 183 former workshop presenters at past FOSS4G events. This
mailing list should be used to communicate instructions for workshop
presenters.
- foss4g-academic list
(https://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/admin/foss4g-academic). This
under-used list contains several former Academic Chairs of past FOSS4G
events. This is a good place to start discussing the Academic track.
Leveraging OSGeo Wiki
---------------------
- using the wiki is a great tool for recording committee details etc,
and it is easily accessible for future local committees. You can see
your 2017 pages are increasing at:
https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/Category:FOSS4G2017 (always be sure to copy
the bottom 'category' text in new pages, so that they magically will
appear on that list)
- start getting in the habit of updating the Lessons Learned page for
2017 now (https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/FOSS4G_2017_Lessons_Learned). You
actually already have lots to record (what you learned regarding the
venue contract/negotiations, RFP steps, even what you noticed at the
Bonn event that could be useful to write down). And every local
committee member should be writing their lessons learned all through the
build-up to the event.
- the wiki requires an OSGeo user ID (create one, or reset password etc
at http://www.osgeo.org/osgeo_userid)
Archiving Files through SVN
---------------------------
I've been trying to push the archiving of FOSS4G documents, since 2004,
at https://svn.osgeo.org/osgeo/foss4g/ It has become a great resource
for logos, past sponsor documents, program templates; but some years are
empty (chairs did not agree with my insistence I guess ha). Please,
whether you are on the website committee, program committee, volunteer
committee, code sprint committee, marketing any committee, please get in
the habit of committing your raw files into
https://svn.osgeo.org/osgeo/foss4g/2016/ (use the same OSGeo ID as
mentioned above, and let me know if your user needs write access, I can
approve that fast).
If you get in the habit now of using that, then I won't have to bother
you later to do that :)
Marketing
---------
- today I added the 2017 logo to the top of http://foss4g.org/ which
will of course attract many visitors, that are wondering of the next event.
- a very important part of marketing is having a "spread the word" page
of logos and html so you can start attracting hits and views to the
site. The gold standard was the FOSS4G 2010's wiki page for this:
https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/FOSS4G_2010_Marketing Notice that you don't
need to wait until the official webpage is made, you can quickly make a
wiki page of your logos. The Bonn team also had a good page linked on
their main site: http://2016.foss4g.org/about-foss4g.html#spread-the-word
Highlighting OSGeo
------------------
- a big part of the 2017 Boston proposal was that OSGeo would be
prominently displayed on all sites, banners, and marketing materials.
This of course needs to be implemented right away - notice that the
existing page/site (http://2017.foss4g.org) has zero mention of "Hosted
by OSGeo" (and I don't mean a tiny logo at the very bottom of the page).
A "Hosted by OSGeo" with the OSGeo logo should be prominently at the
top of the main page. (for OSGeo logos see
https://svn.osgeo.org/osgeo/marketing/logo/)
Transfer of @foss4g Twitter Account
-----------------------------------
Usually each year we wait until videos and other news items are
announced by the recent FOSS4G local committee, but the 2016 team has
been very fast to share. I would say after next week, at the end of
next week the Twitter account should be handed over to the 2017 team.
(if this seems too soon we can discuss this) I had the master password,
but likely Till should just let @guidos know privately the account info.
Code Sprint Importance
----------------------
The code sprint wasn't mentioned really in the proposal, but as we saw
at FOSS4G Bonn, giving a space where project teams can meet is a
critical part of a successful FOSS4G event. I've seen past local
committees leave this part until the very last, and not even mentioning
this on their main site; this must not be the case for 2017. A special
code sprint committee should be formed now, and planning should start
asap.
Formation of Committees
-----------------------
- I did see some mention of a few committees in the proposal, but I
suggest that you draft the names of the committees on a wiki page and
share that with the public 'foss4g2017' list asap. For example, one
committee that is sometimes forgotten is the Volunteer Committee. A
champion is needed to manage all of the volunteers throughout the
week-long event.
Transportation
--------------
- at recent FOSS4G events a strong partnership with their local tourism
branch was made, and some events even included transportation passes for
the week (Seoul team included a subway/metro card with a few dollars
credit on it, for example). As this Boston event will have some
transportation challenges (workshops at Tufts/Harvard) this could be
important.
Kids Map Gallery
----------------
Discussing with Heather Hillers, whose 8 year old son surprised her with
a special FOSS4G Bonn painting
(https://wiki.osgeo.org/wiki/File:FelixHillers-FOSS4G2016-painting.jpg),
we think it's time for a "Kids Map Gallery" at a FOSS4G event. This is
a tribute to Venka's daughter's initial drawing, done at FOSS4G 2004 in
Thailand (http://gisws.media.osaka-cu.ac.jp/grass04/slogan.html). It
could be something similar to a poster session, and a great way for kids
to become interested in "maps and sharing" :) I told Heather that I may
ask her to champion this ha. I think it is a wonderful idea.
Social Events
-------------
- I shouldn't need to say how important these are for a successful
event. It is important to arrange a place each night for attendees to
meet at. And I mean every night - this DEFINITELY includes the Monday
and Tuesday nights of the workshop days. This is often a mistake by
local committees (they are scared of committing to planning a social
event those nights); well, you don't need to reserve a pub, but you do
need to have a recommended pub for those nights. Bonn team did an
amazing job of this, naming "official" pubs for the event, and hardcore
FOSS4G attendees still rave about the 2007 pub "Sticky Wicket", which
was just a place to go meet attendees each and every night. You want
your event to be raved about - think of each night.
Academic Track
--------------
This is often poorly handled at FOSS4G events. Researchers and students
need a large and prominent poster session, to display their work, and
give talks throughout the tracks, to assist in getting funding to the
event, and for many other reasons (getting published in journals etc).
A champion is needed to focus on this. (Academia is one of the
important life-lines for Open Source, they often drive innovation and
provide funding, and train future leaders)
Important Items Usually Forgotten in Final Program
--------------------------------------------------
- the OSGeo AGM is a one hour meeting that must be at the end of a day,
in no conflict with other talks.
- the closing plenary should allow time for the Sol Katz Award (and
recently, students awards and a developer award).
Those are my thoughts for now, to get everyone moving. Let's make 2017
the best FOSS4G event ever!
#boatdrinks
-jeff
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