Hello everyone,
I've been following the recent developments in the organization of the MiniDebConf, via the discussions on the ML[1]. I'll try to address those issues in this mail and at the same time, try to keep things short.
From what I can infer, the main issue being raised here is that ,
if the event is being called a "MiniDebConf", the content of the event should be strictly Debian-centric
I personally think the event is still very much a Debian centric one. Let's not forget that we are yet to publish the CFP and I'm hoping that we'll get a strong response to the same. However, I really do doubt if we'll have enough number of Debian-centric talks, that will stretch the worth of a two day event. I say this after taking into account various factors like the location of the event, the popularity of the community in the region(lot of people use Debian alright, but not many contributors) and perhaps the most important of all - the proximity of the event with Diwali(The biggest festival in India, probably) - which will affect any prospective speaker, regardless of the content of his talk. That is my major concern. I don't think the university has any problems with changing the name of the event or indeed squashing away all talks that are not Debian-centric and call the event an out and out MiniDebConf. Either way works fine, but keep in mind that once the CFP is published and it so happens that we do not have enough Debian-centric talks that'd span two days, that'd hurt both the university and the reputation of the community and obviously, there's no way back from there on-wards. Of course, you could stretch what you have for two days, but that's largely undesirable.
I'll get permissions to setup the speaker registration form on the campus/university server and I hope Balasankar can help me in publishing the CFP at the earliest. But before that, we'll need to decide on how we proceed with this event. Like I'd mentioned earlier, as far as the college is concerned, it's okay to call the event by whatever name, as long as the event takes place and the students are benefited from the event. But of course, if the event has to proceed under the tag of a "minidebconf", the talks will need to be Debian-centric, meaning all other talks being squashed, which also works perfectly fine from the college's POV. However, in such a scenario, the university would expect a larger number of seasoned Debian contributors/maintainers to come forward for talks and workshops, the probability of which, on the basis of some of our previous off-list invites, looks very bleak. That said, if all the talks are Debian-centric and by Debian community members, the college would also expect the Debian community to fill in for their travel and accommodation expenses.
So finally, I know that the CFP is due very soon and we're running tight on the dates, but can I have a quick show of hands of sort(by replying to this thread) of all the interested speakers from within the Debian community ?
I'm hoping we'll have a healthy response in a (very) short time span. Otherwise, I'd recommend making the event a generic one and if that means operating under a different name/tag, so be it. Debian could still be the partners of the event in that case. What needs to be done has to be done.
Warm Regards.
Thanking You,