Re: GNOME ASIA 2009 Update

[Stormy Peters <stormy gnome org>]

Hi Alolita,

I think this should go to the GNOME Asia mailing list - I've cc'ed them here.

That said, I think we should stick with the branding we've already created (GNOME Asia) but I'll let others weigh in. The idea is to grow the GNOME community and we can work the theme to try to accomplish that.

Stormy

On Tue, Apr 14, 2009 at 10:54 AM, Alolita Sharma <alolita sharma gmail com> wrote:

Dear Stormy,

Hope things are going well with you!

As you know, for the past month Sankarshan, Bob and I have been
evaluating options and brainstorming about how GNOME Asia can be
executed in India successfully. Here are our observations so far.

The GNOME project has a very small community in Asia compared to
Europe and the US. Therefore, we have concluded that the GNOME desktop
as the primary theme is unlikely to provide as much buzz as we would
like in order to maximize value to an Asian audience. In order to pull
together a larger and more diverse participation which will perceived
as valuable to potential sponsors, we plan to host GNOME ASIA under
the auspices of a more broadly themed ASIA DESKTOP SUMMIT. This is
like the GranCanaria Desktop Summit where similar messaging is being
promoted to pull in larger and more diverse participation.

In the Asia Desktop Summit, we plan to have three themes - Desktop,
Web and Mobile. The desktop theme will highlight the GNOME desktop.
GNOME ASIA will represent the desktop component of the Asia Desktop
Summit. The other themes of web and mobile will help reinforce the
GNOME desktop but may have non GNOME content also.

On the logistics front, we have finalized the venue for October 29-30,
2009. Symbiosis University in Pune has agreed to be the host for the
conference. We are also in the process of setting up a local
organization that can handle taxation and paperwork for the conference
since it is subject to India taxes as it is being held in India. Next
steps include soliciting sponsorship, establishing the advisory
committee and getting the community involved.

We believe that your participation is essential as ED of the GNOME
Foundation and also as an open source leader who can help enable
change in Asia.

Please let us know what your thoughts are. I look forward to your
comments and talking with you soon.
With best wishes,
Alolita

--
Alolita Sharma
Secretary and Board Member
Open Source Initiative (OSI)