On Monday 11 August 2014 11:42 PM, shirish शिरीष wrote: > in-line :- > > On 8/11/14, R.Harish Navnit <harishnavnit@gmail.com> wrote: >> Hello everyone, >> >> As the date for the MiniDebConf draws nearer and nearer, I think it's about >> time that we made swift progress and considering how/where we started, >> we've made considerable progress I believe. Indeed, we've made nice progress and I'm so happy the whole community chipped in. >> We at Amritapuri are currently working on attracting sponsors for the event >> while at the same time preparing a rough budget and agenda for the event. >> These things, as you'd know, with any event are of utmost importance. In >> order to get an idea on the rough estimate and prepare agenda etc, I'd like >> to ask for clarification on a few things. They are as follows : It is always good to ask rather than remain unclear. >> >> 1. Will the MiniDebConf have a registration fees ? If yes, how much ? It >> would be nice if we could add options for participants to register as >> early bird tickets etc in the website. That's something that I'd personally >> like to see, but let me know what you think of the same. > > The way I see it, if the budget is out in the open and if there is > some shortfall which we make up by some registration fees, I don't see > any issues as the idea for such events is to be self-sustainable. The > registration fees should not be so much that an average person is > unable to pay. We can decide if we are going to charge registration fee. My suggestion is we should charge a registration fee to cover expense for food and promotional materials. How do we plan accommodation? Do we plan to charge for it? > > That said, if a part of registration proceeds towards creation of a > diaspora pod either in kerala somewhere. or is donated for the pod in > Pune (yes, we are planning in some-time to have one) I don't think > that would be an issue. A similar pod exists now with vision of > Praveen called poddery.com (please check it out if not done before.) > If we get some funds for the Pune pod, then whenever we are able to > set it, we would credit the University of Amritapuri for the same. This is an excellent idea. We should theme the whole event around private communications and we should charge some amount towards hosting a diaspora pod (plus xmpp chat) and optionally allow those who are interested to donate more. We should have a hacknight on setting up diapsora pod and create a team who will maintain the pod. >> 2. Will the Debian community come up with T-shirts for the event, or >> will they have to be given for printing ? > > I think everybody should be free to little commercial activity around > the event. I would love to see more t-shirts, hoodies etc. with some > wit about free software etc. Sharing some merchandising that Pavi saw > at a free software booth. We just need to be aware we aren't carried > away with the commercial side of the event. We should design and print the t shirts. We can give one part of the price towards the diaspora pod expense. >> 3. Does Debian have certificate template for such events ? > > We haven't experimented with that, if needed the University management > could give certificates for attending the minidebconf. We obviously > can't certify that anybody will become 'expert' in any particular > technology by attending the event, the most that can be said is they > will become aware of the technology per se. It would be better if the college certify attendance of the event. We can design and print the certificates. >> 4. Should we consider conducting night-long hackathons in a MiniDebConf >> ? Is anyone(someone with prior experience in conducting one, if >> possible) willing to volunteer ? > > We have done that, /me points the finger at Praveen. The only > requirements, lots of chai and coffee and some mid-night snacks or > something. Power, wi-fi and a room with casual atmosphere are > essentials as well. We should. and I can volunteer. a. diaspora/ruby packaging b. diaspora pod/xmpp service c. bug squashing party d. roundcude improvements e. textsecure/xmpp otr on all platforms. >> 5. I know the DebConf is a technical event and hence I'm asking this. >> Would it be fine to host some cultural events(music and dance perhaps) ? >> It >> might however, be a better idea to host a dinner party IMHO. Let me know >> your take on the same. > > Depends on people. I have been to both kind of conferences, ones > where there is music, dance and dinner and ones which just have > dinner. The idea of both is to have the hair down post-event. I am > comfortable in either a scenario. At any rate, dinner is must :) I think dinner would be better as people get to interact. >> Other than these, I'd like to stress that we're in need of sponsors, be it >> Debian or someone else. We could do with some help from one in all in this >> regard(help in finding sponsors). > > I am willing to help and so is Praveen. You need to prepare the > sponsorship document with some figures and all and we would try from > our end. > > We might also be able to share names of companies who might be > interested in Delhi, mumbai or Bangalore but might need somebody whose > boots are on ground therein to go and talk to those people and > convince as well. I have a happy news. Lucas Nussbaum, Debian Project Leader, has allocated 4500 EUR, or 6000 USD, to this event, for participation in funding of travel Debian contributors to/from the event. So this takes away a big amount of our financial worry and guarantees we can run the event smoothly. We should still find more sponsors so we can make the event even more better. Like reaching out to large number of students, discount food expense, raise money for diaspora pod etc. Also we need one volunteer to be treasurer for the event, all expense has to go through that person. We can have a team to help out as well. >> That's all I can think of for the moment. I'll add to this thread if I >> require clarifications on anything in the future. > > All of the above is just my opinion. I am sure other worthies on the > mailing list would be in much better shape to give a better shape > perhaps :) Everyone has their worth and people asking questions has more worth, because we can clarify things.
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