Re: Dates for the MiniDebConf '14 finalized !

["Haris Ibrahim K. V." <blucalvin@gmail.com>]

Folks,

I have no intention of starting a debate, but having organized more
than a few large and small scale events, I need to speak up on the
event organizers behalf.

Their ambition of doing an event targeting an audience of 300 is in
itself quite commendable. The amount of preparation and organizational
activities that goes into an event of that scale is going to give them
restless nights for the coming two months.

Where things can be made simple, they should keep it simple. Case in
point, if Google forms work fine, use it. Don't take up extra
headache. If the CGI script works, all is well.

Now please, as I said, I am not starting a debate. The concern of
privacy is important and I am well aware of it. I am only saying that
whoever raises that concern should try as much as possible *not* to
make it the event organizers problem. In this case that would be
Harish, Pooja, Roopak and Darshana if I understand correctly. They
will have their hands full. If they don't have someone to take it up,
then don't force them to do it. Forgive them for the time being and
try to get the thing implemented for future events. There should not
be any discouragement at a stage like this. I believe they are doing
an event and related activities for the first time as well.

Especially, registration is quite a big headache. Even having used a
dedicated software like doattend for this, the amount of manual house
keeping I've had to do is painful.

To the 4 of you, delegate your duties to *reliable* people *as much
as* possible. Don't let everything be just your problem. In the
excitement, that tends to happen.

I meant no offense or disrespect. Just speaking from the little
experience I have having organized events.

Cheers,

On 4 August 2014 08:39, shirish शिरीष <shirishag75@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi all,
> Google is known to have privacy issues since its inception.
>
> For instance look at the terms and conditions it has "you give Google
> a worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce,
> adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display
> and distribute any Content which you submit, post or display on or
> through the Service for the sole purpose of enabling Google to provide
> you with the Service in accordance with its Privacy Policy"
>
> While the above wordings in its terms and conditions is worrying
> enough, google historically has been lax of privacy concerns. Few
> links :-
>
> http://www.privacysurgeon.org/blog/incision/googles-commitment-to-student-privacy-unearths-some-worrying-questions/
>
> http://mashable.com/2013/09/26/gmail-keyword-scan-wiretap/
>
> http://www.law360.com/articles/518787/google-wants-email-scanning-info-nixed-from-transcript
>
> http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-03-14/google-wants-e-mail-scanning-information-blocked.html
>
> http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/220151/news-orgs-oppose-attempt-to-seal-records-in-gmail.html
>
> The issue is actually about conveniences and lack of education of
> privacy. While the majority of web users in India are not aware as
> well as not educated about privacy issues, even from those who are
> aware only a small percentage chose to buy a domain and maintain an
> e-mail service. You would less than a handful debian.org DD's who
> would have gmail account as their primary mail service.
>
> @Pooja , hope this explains some of the legimate concerns that jonas has.
> --
>           Regards,
>           Shirish Agarwal  शिरीष अग्रवाल
>   My quotes in this email licensed under CC 3.0
> http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/
> http://flossexperiences.wordpress.com
> EB80 462B 08E1 A0DE A73A  2C2F 9F3D C7A4 E1C4 D2D8



-- 
Haris Ibrahim K. V.
http://sosaysharis.wordpress.com
@harisibrahimkv