On Mon, 17 Oct 2005, Sam Hiser wrote:
> My own problem with committing time and resources to even LinuxWorld
> these days is that we are still within a little black box all talking to
> eachother when the necessary communication needs to go outward to the
> folks outside the black box. Now that they have pricked their ears
> (Massachusetts, Australian Nat'l Archive, Munich et al) what do we have
> for them?
Excellent point.
We've got to go where there are people, and there are people at shows.
Big bang for the buck.
Now, maybe it's a mistake to assume that the right shows are "Linux
shows". We should probably be looking to put well-informed individuals in
all kinds of shows -- about security, government, music, voting,
healthcare, poverty. Anyplace where the open source message could
resonate and have an effect.
Of course, without the proper materials and messaging, there's not a lot
of point in sending people. We don't want to say, "Fedora is cool." We
want to be able to say, "Fedora is a great way for you to experience the
power of open source. Open source is important to what *you* do because
of x, y and z."
Figuring out x, y and z is, of course, the hard part. :)
--g
_____________________ ____________________________________________
Greg DeKoenigsberg ] [ the future masters of technology will have
Community Relations ] [ to be lighthearted and intelligent. the
Red Hat ] [ machine easily masters the grim and the
] [ dumb. --mcluhan
> Just some thoughts...
> -Sam Hiser
>
> On Mon, 2005-10-17 at 15:30 -0400, Greg DeKoenigsberg wrote:
> > Nice FUDCon. Well prepared and well executed. Decent walk up traffic.
> > Good names and good presentations. And yet... not really that remarkable.
> >
> > So after it was all done, and I was stuck in London for a couple of days,
> > feeling a nasty cold coming on, I sat at the hotel bar drinking gin and
> > tonics (healthful, don't you know). I sat and thought about why the first
> > two FUDCons had an energy that this FUDCon seemed to lack.
> >
> > After writing some notes and chatting with some other folks, I boiled my
> > discomfort down to five points that, imho, should guide our policy for
> > holding events in the future.
> >
> > I'm anxious to hear your feedback. Hit me with both barrels.
> >
> > ---
> >
> > 1. PAY FOR PEOPLE, NOT FOR PLACES. We need to get good community
> > contributors to FUDCons, by hook or by crook. We spent a pretty sizable
> > chunk of change to buy space at LWCE London. It was the majority of our
> > budget, and left very little for travel stipends. At FUDCons 1 and 2, we
> > had community representatives present, with Red Hat paying the tab. At
> > FUDCon London, we did not. The difference was very clear. Therefore,
> > paying for space should be something we do as a last resort, and we should
> > pay as little as possible. If we hold the event under tents in a parking
> > lot, and have the right people there, it'll be a success.
> >
> > 2. READ-WRITE, NOT READ-ONLY. This relates to 1. One of the reasons it
> > wasn't more read-write was because we didn't have enough community
> > contributors present. It was great to see Stuart Ellis of the docs
> > project, but aside from him and some Redhatters, the pickings were pretty
> > slim -- and not only that, but there were no chances for attendees to
> > *participate* in any real way. I believe that we need to have a hackfest
> > of some kind at the next FUDCon; I think it's imperative. We're ready to
> > go to the next level.
> >
> > 3. ONE FUDCON PER YEAR PER GEO. I think that having two FUDCons so close
> > to one another -- Germany in June, England in October -- sapped the energy
> > of the London show. I think that a lot of people probably opted out
> > because they'd already been to the show at LinuxTag, and saw no need to go
> > again. One show in North America, one in Europe, one in Asia/Australia.
> > I think that's a good plan.
> >
> > 4. GEEKS, NOT SUITS. FUDCon 1 was held *near* LWCE Boston in February,
> > but the real show happened at BU, and got a lot of geeks. FUDCon 2 at
> > Karlsuhe was in the middle of LinuxTag, which is very much a geek show.
> > FUDCon London 2005 happened in the middle of a show for suits. The
> > difference in the vibe was tangible.
> >
> > 5. ONE PERSON AT EVERY SHOW. If there's one real goal that we should set
> > for the CMC program, it would be to have a Fedora CMC at every important
> > Linux show in the world. If we can manage that, we will be able to claim
> > success. What do we need to do to accomplish that goal? We need:
> >
> > + A schedule of all important events with .org pavilions.
> > + A way for volunteers to sign up.
> > + Funds to help pay people's way, if necessary.
> > + Materials in the hands of every volunteer, well in advance: DVDs,
> > marketing materials, etc., etc.
> >
> > We should probably be using the weekly marketing meeting (and when is
> > that, again?) to be getting an update on the status of this effort. It
> > may be the most important thing we can be doing as a group right now.
> >
> > ---
> >
> > So that's my take. I'd love to hear your thoughts.
> >
> > --g
> >
> > _____________________ ____________________________________________
> > Greg DeKoenigsberg ] [ the future masters of technology will have
> > Community Relations ] [ to be lighthearted and intelligent. the
> > Red Hat ] [ machine easily masters the grim and the
> > ] [ dumb. --mcluhan
> >
> > --
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