Finally: a Linuxtag report
Hi all,
sorry for taking so long with my LinuxTag[1] report but after coming back I
fully dived into exam season, which is now almost completed so I finally got
some time to sum things up and get back to work.
I arrived in Karlsruhe on Wednesday afternoon and went right to the
"Kongresszentrum" where Linuxtag took place. There I met up with the other
debian guys who turned out to be a *very* nice crowd and made me feel very
welcome. (Thanks again for that! :)) So any initial anxiety was gone within
minutes and I felt very comfortable right away. There wasn't much else
happening this day. I walked around with youam, got a first overview on
stuff and then went to dinner and to the AKK where we'd sleep.
The next day was DebianDay, which also featured my debian-women talk. It was
quite successful. I had roughly 60 people there[2] and things went quite
smooth. Unfortunately I made the talk quite quick to allow for a proper
discussion afterwards, but apparently there wasn't much to be said. So we
finished well before time. That'll be one thing I'll do differently next
time. I however had a lot of individual discussions on the topic within the
next days, so I take it that there really was interest but somehow people
felt more comfortable approaching me personally than voicing their
opinions/questions in public.
Most feedback I got on the talk was rather good. There were feedback forms
that could be filled out and the "marks" I got were rather good. (In fact I
was only topped by enrico, whose excellent talks simply cannot be beaten.
Mental note: Get a funny accent!)
The rest of Linuxtag was spent at the booth (Yes, I had a "Can I help you,
Sir?" "Ah I don't think so, I actually got a technical question" but only
one.), hacking, meeting people, talking to people and seeing people's talks.
*Things that came up concerning debian-women*:
- Overall reception was very good. Most people agree with our aims and many
offered help. I think we are on the right way :) (Actually the only
unfriendly feedback I got was from a woman!)
- The Debian-Women Dictionaries are a big success. A lot of people asked me
about them. There were several who proposed to add them to debian.org and
maybe even package them. (Not clear though, whether they meant the scripts
that generate them or the dictionaries themselves. I'd guess the latter.)
I've shortly talked to Jutta about this and it seems packaging might get a
bit difficult since she's concerned with a lot of other things, so someone
else might have to do it. However, adding them to debian.org should be
easier and I would very much recommend doing so!! They are a benefit that
should be available for everyone. (As far as I know Jutta tried this before
but didn't get the right reception. I however believe this is worth a second
try.)
- There was also high interest in debian-women T-shirts. However I think
this was partially because they were debian girlies and they looked good.
Adding one or two nice girlies to the "general debian collection" might
solve that need. (I still like to think that a d-w shirt doesn't only say "I
am a female loosely affiliated to debian" "But I am a person who supports
debian-women's aims" but thats my personal opinion)
So much for now. If there's anything else you'd like to know just ask.
Cheers,
Meike
PS: I also filed this report in the wiki. It can be found here[3].
[1] http://www.linuxtag.org/2005/
[2] http://lists.debian.org/debian-events-eu/2005/06/msg00123.html
[3] http://women.alioth.debian.org/wiki/index.php/English/LinuxTag2005
--
Meike Reichle - University of Hildesheim
mail: mrei0999@uni-hildesheim.de
web: www.uni-hildesheim.de/~mrei0999
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