[Fwd: Re: GNOME.Asia]

[Emily chen <Emily Chen Sun COM>]

Hi all,

Sankarshan from India is planning the 2nd GNOME.Asia Summit now. Welcome him to join our committee!

Let's do what we can do, share what we have with him to make the 2nd Summit happen in India.

Please see more discussion below.

-Emily

-------- Original Message --------

Subject:	Re: GNOME.Asia
Date:	Fri, 09 Jan 2009 01:17:33 +0800
From:	Emily chen <emily chen sun com>
To:	"Sankarshan (সঙ্কর্ষণ)" <sankarshan randomink org>
CC:	Stormy Peters <stormy gnome org>, Will LaShell <will lashell net>, Alfred Peng <Alfred Peng Sun COM>
References:	<7ceb3e960812291632n5156ed04n9c585370a73526f3 mail gmail com> <dbe64b370812300128qa436e40uea4edf352e0fbdbf mail gmail com> <7ceb3e960812300932r76aaf14aw49633dd785e7f340 mail gmail com> <49638ECF 40204 sun com> <dbe64b370901061621t1ddf9d09rb0309f5746f50ae0 mail gmail com>

Sankarshan (সঙ্কর্ষণ) wrote:

A big hello to everyone on this mail,

I just subscribed to the mailing list, so I guess the talks will happen there.
  

Hi Sankarshan,

Yes, I see you have been joined this list successfully. Welcome to the GNOME.Asia committee.

Thanks for the list URL and blog link Emily - they helped :)

So, here's a quick update on what I have done in the days since Stormy
had sent in the initial mail.

- posed the potential of hosting the GNOME.Asia summit to 2 academic
institutions with a track record of holding regular events and having
an in-place events committee or the like

- as of now very informal dialogue with the following expectations:
  * they have the capacity to handle logistics
  * they have the competence to manage travel arrangements
  * they have the ability to take in around 1000 guests
  * projecting around 30 talks over 2 days (L10n, GNOME mobile,
Desktop Components, A11y etc)
  * Wireless and wired network for all
  * small bit of sightseeing stuff included
  * all targeted around Sept/Oct
  

That's really great that you have already think about those things in detail.
One article about organizing GUADEC is really useful for us during the first GNOME.Asia Summit. So you might be interested in reading this:
http://live.gnome.org/GuadecPlanningHowTo

That's about it. I'll keep the group informed about how stuff
progresses. I would like to know about the following:

- expectations from the GNOME.Asia summit team
  * what aspects are the responsibility + accountability of the team
  

First of all, I want to say you are already one member of the Summit committee.
- Work with GNOME Foundation, ask for support when necessary and report status
- provide website and mail list infrastructure
- Help to looking for sponsors
- Help to invite speakers and participants all over the world
- Transfer all the necessary documents to local organizer, like Sponsors' brochure, Proposal of the Summit, call for participants, Brochures for participants, T-shirts, and logos etc
- Others ...

- expectations from the GNOME.Asia summit hosts
  * what aspects are the responsibility + accountability of the team
  

- looking for local sponsors in India
- research and establish a venue,prepare information about the venue and surrounding area
- work with local vendors and distributors for promotional materials
- primary source of labor for people working at the summit for registration, as guides,  etc.
- Update the website for the new years conference
- Promote Summit in local open source community in India
- Invite both local, and global speakers
- Modify all the necessary documents based on the culture of Indian, like Sponsors' brochure, Proposal of the Summit, call for participants, Brochures for participants, T-shirts, and logos etc.
- Others...

I realize that I am asking for a strictly formal definition here, but
it will help getting the potential hosts interested if the scope of
responsibility is defined. Additionally, if we are looking at a
Sept/Oct date, it would be really nice to have a set dates/milestones
handy to keep track - can I have some help in that ?
  

It is good to think about milestones at the very beginning. I have talked with Will. He will draft a milestones and we will send to u later.

We are looking forward to working with you in the future.
Thanks,
Emily

Regards,
Sankarshan

On Tue, Jan 6, 2009 at 10:33 PM, Emily chen <Emily Chen sun com> wrote:
  

Hi Sankarshan and Stormy,

First of all, thank you very much, Stormy to introduce Sankarshan to us. The
GNOME.Asia Summit are looking for the local organizer of the next Summit
now.

We will be very happy to share all of our experience, documents and
materials with you. The first thing you (or we) can do is to include you in
our GNOME.Asia Summit committee mail list.

You can subscribe from here and introduce yourself to all committee members:
http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/asia-summit-list

You might also interested in knowing more about the first GNOME.Asia Summit
2008, you can get more information from the report here:
http://blogs.sun.com/emily/entry/gnome_asia_summit_2008_report

See you soon in our mail list,
Emily

Stormy Peters wrote:

Hi Sankarshan,

Thanks for your quick reply! I've cc'ed a few other folks that helped plan
this year's GNOME.Asia and I'll forward you another thread of emails too.

On Tue, Dec 30, 2008 at 2:28 AM, Sankarshan (সঙ্কর্ষণ)
<sankarshan randomink org> wrote:
    

Hi Stormy,

Season's Greetings.

It would be a wonderful moment to have GNOME.Asia in India. Doing it
around the FOSS.IN time-frame is a pragmatic approach as it will be a
force-multiplier for both events.

I would like to ask a question though. Would it be a good idea if I
start a set of informal talks with Universities or Institutes of
Technology (IITs as they are called) broaching the subject of
GNOME.Asia ? The reasons these folks come to mind are:

- well placed/located (Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai etc)
- have an event logistics committee who are used to handling big events
- excellent hostel facilities
- nearby hotel facilities
- wired+wireless access
- well funded
- name recognition with potential sponsors (Nokia, Intel, Sun etc..)
      

That sounds like a great idea. In China we had it at a university which
worked out really well. We also got a lot of students to come that way.
    

FOSS.IN is generally around Thanksgiving time - would it be nice to
try for an event just before that ?
      

That'd be perfect. If we expect many US people or want US speakers, we
should make sure they could get home by Thanksgiving Day as it is a very
family oriented holiday.
    

I would say that it would be a good start to pin down local contacts
from some of the traditional GNOME event sponsors and conclude a quick
round of expectation setting. Or, get down in writing what is expected
out of the event, the extent and variety of support expected via the
GNOME Foundation and then on moving on towards fixing a location and a
time-frame.
      

I think getting it down in writing is definitely a good first step. We can
leverage what Emily put together for GNOME.Asia this year and add to it from
people's reports. I think the location/host is more important (or at least
as important) as the sponsors.
    

Does that sound good as a step-wise approach ?

To sum up, we would perhaps be looking at the following:

[0] List of local contacts of the traditional sponsors
[1] Expectation setting
[2] Identification of 3 candidate hosts
[3] Initiation of a conversation with the host contacts
      

I think you've identified the right steps, but I would probably prioritize
finding a host over contacting sponsors. (I think we can expect most if not
all of this year's sponsors to return next year. And on the timeframe side,
we approach GUADEC sponsors in Dec/Jan for July - now it never hurts to ask
earlier though!)

I'm looking forward to it!

Stormy

    

... moving on to the great game of logistics, sponsorship and CfP

Regards,
Sankarshan

On Tue, Dec 30, 2008 at 6:02 AM, Stormy Peters <stormy gnome org> wrote:
      

Sankarshan,

We are looking for a location for next year's GNOME.Asia. I thought of
you
because of your blog posts about FOSS.IN and GNOME.

This year was the first GNOME.Asia. We held it in Beijing and it was by
all
accounts a success. It was well attended, well funded and kicked off a
local
GNOME users group. This year's organizers are interested in helping make
sure next year's event is a success as well and their first order of
business is identifying a place and a host.

Do you think holding GNOME.Asia in India would be a good idea? We could
do
it around the FOSS.IN timeframe so that people could travel once and
attend
both events.

If you do think it's a good idea, can you identify some people to be
involved in a discussion about where, when and by whom it could be
hosted?

Thanks!

Stormy

--
Stormy Peters
Executive Director
GNOME Foundation
970-481-2076

        

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