[Local-chapters] OS conference platform

[Tobias Preuss]

Hello.

I am Tobias Preuss - a software developer and occasional OpenStreetMap
editor - living in Berlin, Germany.
At FOSDEM 2020 in Brussels I met María Arias de Reyna who kindly
invited me to join the discussion about the conference software
infrastructure for FOSS4G events on this mailing list. María also
introduced me to Paul Ramsey - we had a short email communication
up-front with regards to the mentioned topic.

On Mon, 3 Sep 2019 at 01:33, John Bryant <johnwbryant at gmail.com> wrote:
> At the code sprint, Volker showed me a mobile schedule app that integrates nicely with Pretalx. Seems like it would have potential for FOSS4G SotM Oceania, since we already use Pretalx. If there were an OSGeo instance of Pretalx (hosted by Pretalx or otherwise) we would probably benefit from using it locally, and might be in a position to help with development efforts.
>
> Whether we actually use it would depend on whichever team is actually organising our conference next year, but from my perspective it seems like a win for local/regional events.

I have not contacted Volker yet but I know that he picked up the
mobile app "EventFahrplan" [1] which I am developing when he attended
FOSS4G 2019 in Bucharest. To give you a bit of context please let me
explain which project I am referring to.

The project "EventFahrplan" is a mobile app for Android smartphones
and tablets (screenshot [2]) which I develop since 2013 in my free
time. It has it's origins at the Chaos Communication Congress [3] -
the largest hacker conference in Europe (2019, 17k visitors). The app
has proven to be an important and reliable part of the conference
infrastructure over many years. Shortly after I joined the project I
decided that the app deserves to be used at more than an annual event.
In the following I rewrote the project so it can be customized for
other events. For example, in the 2019 I was assigned to prepare and
publish the app for 12 different events throughout the year. I do have
a lot of experience through running the app at various events over
several years.
The app neatly integrates with the conference software infrastructure
which is used at conferences of the Chaos Computer Club [4] and
related events. They use Pretalx [5] and Frab [6] as the conference
program system. The app has been adapted to other system, too. For
ticketing Pretix [7] is used. Many events rely on voluntary work which
is coordinated by Engelsystem [8]. To assist the work of volunteers
the app offers an integration with this system, too. At larger events,
the indoor navigation project c3nav [9] guides visitors around the
location. Navigation options are directly available within the app.
The app is translated into multiple languages (Dutch, English, French,
German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish) and can be extended
with even more.
As mentioned before, the app can be visually customized to the look
and feel of the particular conference.
Apart from all these features the main purpose of the app is to
provide a pleasant experience to visitors of the event by letting them
read the conference program on their device. The main screen is a grid
layout which allows to intuitively understand which sessions take
place in parallel and to plan personal schedules accordingly. To do so
users can pick their favorites, schedule alarms and export session
into a calendar app. The app automatically loads program updates from
the backend API and presents changes to the user. If supported by the
backend users can give feedback on each session and rate it.
Individual sessions can be shared via social media, the list of
favorites can exported.
Last but not least, the app works fully offline which is convenient
when arriving by plane or in case of WIFI outage at the conference.

If you managed to read down till here: Thank you!
I can share more information about the conference tools if you wish to.
For the moment please think about my proposal of running the app at
FOSS4G events.
Please reach out to me here or in private - I will try to answer your
questions to my best knowledge and as soon as possible.

All the best.
Tobias

___
[1] https://github.com/EventFahrplan/EventFahrplan
[2] https://raw.githubusercontent.com/EventFahrplan/EventFahrplan/master/gfx/EventFahrplan-36c3-Events-Tablet-Phone.png
[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaos_Communication_Congress
[4] https://www.ccc.de/en/
[5] https://pretalx.com
[6] https://frab.github.io/frab/
[7] https://pretix.eu/about/en/
[8] https://engelsystem.de/index_en.php
[9] https://github.com/c3nav